Fighting back against supermarkets

With bulk buying power, supermarkets are in an ideal position to undercut local businesses on price. The misconception that they are cheap is one that they play to in their advertising at every opportunity.

So how can local businesses beat a supermarket in their area, on price?

When a supermarket first opens in an area, it's prices are lowered to counter any competition. The local business does not stand much of a chance as the supermarket etsablishes itself in the area.
Once a customer base is established and local businesses are hit or closed permanently, then it is time for the supermarket to bring in profits!

Those local shops/stores that survive the supermarket opening phase, can now step back into the arena and be more than competitive, often beating a supermarket price by 10p or more. Of course the damage to their business is already done, people continue to use the supermarket, under the false impression that prices are cheaper there. Without the marketing clout of the supermarket, the local business finds this almost impossible.
It is up to the individual customer to make the change away from the supermarket and find local shops/stores that are beating supermarket prices hands down.

Local businesses are cheaper than the supermarket on several fronts:

• Price marked packs - Rarely will you see a special price marked pack in a supermarket, that is a product where the manufacturer is offering it to the customer via a price on their packaging.
  Supermarket's do not like this at all. The manufacturer and local retailers are slowly catching on to this, the customer (you and me) is still lagging behind.
  A good example of this is with Andrex toilet rolls - every visit to the cash & carry, there are always price marked reductions on Andrex toilet rolls (various sizes and quantity) from "one roll free" to a fixed price on the packaging. I have yet to see a single one of these turning up on a supermarket shelf in our area.
  As the price of a four pack of Andrex slowly increased in the supermarket, the price locally began to stabilise and even fall with marked price reductions by the manufacturer - at a time of so called "higher costs" local shops/stores were out pricing the supermarket, who saw their four pack sales dropping off.
  As a result, the supermarket price slowly started to come back down again. At least now, the supermarket price of a four pack is at the very least, equal to the price marked packs that were available in local shops/stores - all down to the customer shopping locally for the product.
  Another example of how shopping locally can reign in even supermarket prices and benefit local businesses. Imagine the power of the customer if instead of this happening for just one product, it happened with hundreds of products!
• Demographic pricing - Another benefit of shopping locally is that pricing is based on cost (as it always used to be) - the cost to the shop/store is reflected in the price. Shopping at a supermarket depends on the area where their store is.
  Contrary to the supermarket's marketing machines claims, loyalty cards do not "save you money" - they cost you and everybody else more money!
  How can this be? For double clubcard points or visiting the new Asda online price checker to compare your shop, surely these save the individual customer money?
  Not so!
  The loyalty card scheme/price checker provides the supermarket with information about individual shopping habits in the area where they live. Not only do the supermarket make profits from selling summaries of this information on (a fact they mislead you and me on, by stating they "don't sell on your information" - they do however sell on their "findings" of how we shop via our information!) the supermarkets also increase profits by demographic pricing.
  An example:
  Lurpak butter has just been increased in price to £1.50 at our Asda store. The exact same day as our Tesco store also increased the price to £1.50 a pack.
  Now Tesco nationally are showing their price as £1 per pack - three visits to our local Tesco store reveal that the price remains at £1.50 a pack, a full 50p MORE than they are advertising nationally via their own price checker. This is down to the amount of stock of that product they are selling and what other businesses are selling it for in our demographic area.
  Redevelopments in your area? Amazing how supermarket's show no interest at all in opening in areas where employment is low, or static, yet as soon as redevelopment occurs, up they spring from nowhere!
  We live at the end of a motorway, which links our area to a major city some 35 minutes away (in non rush hour traffic). As redevelopment stretched out along the motorway exits to the various small towns along the motorway route, up sprang the supermarkets.
  At first view this appeared just logical business sense, but on further inspection of demographic data, this shows that supermarkets are pricing based on average incomes, employment, weekly spends, spending habits (via loyalty schemes), etc. If pricing were on actual cost to put the product on the shelf, then we would really have a competitive market and prices would be considerably lower than they are today.
  Local businesses do not price on demographics, they price on actual cost to them, units sold, with manufacturer's special price marked packs, etc.
  Everytime you use a loyalty scheme you are inadvertantly increasing the prices of the goods that you buy!

One other popular misconception, is the time taken to do the weekly shop.
The "all under one roof" or "one stop shop for everything" being quick and easy and "more convenient for the customer" is utter rubbish!
I can shop at my local butchers and local market, in less than 30 minutes.
The fruit, veg, fish and meat is not only cheaper with freebies thrown in and negotiated price discounts, but it also lasts considerably longer and creates less food waste and packaging waste.

An apple bought at my local market is often less than a month old, the supermarket apple can be anything up to a year old!
There is no need to freeze pack locally bought meat, as it is mostly less than two weeks old and fresh, freeze packed meat offered in supermarkets is considerably older!

The next time you hear about "record profits" for a supermarket think on!
There is a good reason why in a major recession, the only companies opening huge new premises, that can afford to pay people thousands of pounds per year to hold a stick with a green hand on it saying "free checkout" or are taking on staff when every other company are laying their staff off are supermarkets.
Every other advert on the television is for a supermarket, tv advertising is expensive, every other business has cut back on it, supermarkets are increasing their tv adverts, why do you think that is?