None of the major retailers seems content with who they are today. Loblaws offers banking services, through President’s Choice, and last month announced it was starting its own private clothing label, dubbed Joe Fresh. Meanwhile, Wal-mart is opening convenience-sized stores in Britain, through its Asda chain. “Asda Essentials” stores will be no larger than 740 square metres in floor area. Big-box stores, by comparison, are as vast as 18,000 square metres-the area of three and a half football fields.
Though Wal-mart has no plans to open convenience stores in America now, Tesco, a British grocer, will open stores on America’s West Coast next year. Its “Tesco Express” stores centre on fresh foods and are more aesthetically appealing. “They’re sort of like what you’d imagine a Starbucks [convenience] store would look like, without the attitude of the clerks,” one industry expert commented on RetailWire.com’s forum.
Traditional convenience stores can expect to suffer. There were 140,655 of them in America last year, by the National Association Convenience Stores’ count-nearly four-fifths of them, however, are attached to gas stations. (As a result, car-friendly Texas boasts the most convenience stores in America, with almost 14,000.)
But don’t count out mom-and-pop convenience stores just yet. They are piggybacking onto other franchises, such as Coffee Time, and expanding their repertoire. Ready-made meals, stationery, greeting cards, and clothing are starting to crop up in the aisles. “Value-added” vegetables, such as washed and cut salads and baby carrots, can’t be far behind.
-Mike Ghenu
Source: Retailwire.com
