The third store of ‘People’s Supermarket,’ the ethical supermarket born in the wake of the New York experience, opens in Barnsley, Yorkshire. The new opening, DM reports, follows those in London and Oxford, and promises to get the project off the ground in Britain, thanks in part to synergies with large British ‘retail’ groups. Marks & Spencers, Morrison and Ocado are in fact willing to offer below cost at ‘People’s Supermarket’ the products unsaleable in the conventional market. Good but unappealing-looking fruits, packaged foods with only formal errors on the label, for example.
The new ethical supermarket will initially be accessible to 500 families living in the area, selected for economic disadvantage status.
Accompanying the new opening, however, weighs the dubious fortunes of the two already established stores with accounts in the red. Good ideas are therefore in danger of foundering if not accompanied by action to optimize the various phases of logistics, procurement, warehousing and sales, perhaps based on global standards such as those offered by GS1.
