Have high street customers moved away to supermarkets?

Valentino’s Displays wanted to know your views on whether high street customers have moved away to supermarket chains. Have customers abandoned high street retail stores to get their items at their local supermarket? If so, why? Is this because of price or convenience, for example, getting the additional items when you go to a food shop?

We realise the UK economy is in a delicate state, but we are trying to understand the reasons behind customer buying patterns and why certain parts of the UK’s high streets are empty.

Grocery items such as milk and bread are key products to any supermarket such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, or Asda, but we wonder what proportion of sales these items have compared with sales from DVDs, video games, and most technological items usually found on the high street.

By competing hard on price, has this changed the way consumers shop?

Display stands are crammed with computer-related goods. This does not bode well for those on the high street, but we could say that nothing has significantly changed, as this has been the case for a number of years. Supermarkets are able to buy in bulk and offer products most retailers can’t buy!

All we are unsure of is whether supermarkets are putting more emphasis on non-food items in terms of sales and, therefore, increasing their product range. Thus, they are offering the consumer more choices under one roof and capturing greater portions of the non-food market. The answer will be to see supermarket sales figures for these types of products and see whether there has been a significant increase over a while compared to the other sectors of produce they sell.

Have our buying patterns changed?

What do you think has caused high street customers to move from the retail high street to supermarkets? Have our buying patterns changed? Do we mind? Is the view that it’s competition, and we don’t care where we buy it as long as we get the product for a good price? Have you travelled further away than needed to buy a product cheaper?

We shall see how the new Tesco superstore in Fareham town centre, on which we recently wrote a piece, competes for local business against Fareham High Street. We watch with anticipation to see whether such a supermarket was required in the area with the retail high street and large food chains in its close proximity and what impact it has on the local community.