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Ok time for a non-fictional rant.
There’s been a lot of debate about the expansion of big supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s into the convenience store arena, which is putting a lot of pressure on the traditional corner shops.
Those to the left of the political spectrum will argue that sheer size of these supermarket chains means that competition is unfair, as small corner shops lack the purchasing power to compete on price.
Others believe that Tesco et al are successful with their local neighbourhood stores because they are giving something consumers want.
I tend to agree with the latter viewpoint.
After having lived in the UK for almost five years now, I’ve noticed that perhaps as much as 99% of corner shops sell goods that are close to or actually over the use-by-date.
Perhaps they’ve managed to secure these on the cheap, but in any case they are taking the piss out of their customers. It means that whenever I do make an occasional purchase I always check the date on products!
Another example. Went to buy some stamps the other day during my lunch break. Corner shop dude charges me nearly £4 for 4 international postcard stamps.
I think nothing of it, but on my way to the office I do the math and it just doesn’t seem to make sense – not least because the amount I was charged can’t be divided by 4 (you’d assume each stamp was the same value).
Infuriated I return to my desk, where I check the price online and decide I will not stand for this aggression. Returning to the shop, the owner plays dumb but does eventually give me back the money I’m due.
A similar incident happened to me at a corner shop close to my home, where I was actually short-changed. When confronting the store clerk, he laughs and mutters “it was worth a try”.
In short, it’s really no wonder that consumers are opting to chose to shop at places they can actually trust in regards to the service and products and where staff do not have apparent attitude problems.
Ok, rant over!
