Amazon Fresh and Tesco Battling Prices and Technology in the UK

 

In a battle for grocery and convenience food customers in the United Kingdom, the undercurrent of inflation, pricing, and technology are creating a competitive platform that many legacy retailers simply will not be able to compete according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Walmart was not able to figure out how to compete and stay competitive in the United Kingdom and after many years simply threw in the towel.  Will Amazon fare any better? Does Amazon have better insights than Walmart. The team at Foodservice Solutions® does not think so, albeit they have different insights that might be more relevant in today’s reality.  That said they still may not be all of the right insights.

We say that after reading several reports last week that Amazon has put it’s plans to expand it’s Amazon Fresh self-Checkout stores in the U.K. on hold. The same article also noted that Amazon Fresh is now set to match the prices to Tesco Clubcard deals.

They did that knowing that the deteriorating cost of living in the U.K. led by utility cost have refocused consumers on price like never before. Amazon Fresh stores had also not been meeting sales and profit expectations.

At the same time Tesco is planning replace a majority of ‘staffed tills’ at its large format stores with self-checkout in a way to reduce cost and keep prices stable. That announcement has riled up the Tesco base consumer so much that an online petition on change.org urging Tesco to stop the planned employee reduction had more than, 236,047 as of this post.

The rising cost of labor and benefits is running in to the undercurrent of inflation, pricing, and technology; all are creating a competitive conundrum for the consumer, the retailer, and market researchers according to Johnson.  Here is the question; is there equal technology from the farm to the table that can edify the growing process, supply chain, and the retailer? 

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter