Two Anecdotal Tales Of British Retail Today....And For The Future

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday I was in Penarth Tesco. Yes again. For reasons I won't bore you with I find myself in a place which I would normally avoid for the local Lidl.

Anyway there was I looking at I think fruit when I heard an elderly lady ask a young female shop assistant where the Dettol was.

Her response?

"What is Dettol?"

Now this is not a criticism of the shop assistant. When advised it was a disinfectant she personally led the customer to where all such products were held. I assume that was where the Dettol was as I didn't hear any elderly rantings subsequently.

No the point is this. The customer was of a generation where "brand" was important. Hence Bisto or Heinz baked beans for example. I am probably the transitional generation where though some brands were stuck to rigidly as long as there was no difference in taste were prepared to switch to the cheaper own brand/Lidl/Aldi option.

The shop assistant however is from a generation unaware of the history of a particular product and probably not bothered by it if she knew anyway. This will be the dominant shopper as time passes by. Meaning that whilst "brands" will still be there their power will reduce with the years to a point when they'll be superseded by own brands (incl Aldi/Lidl). Probably indeed this decline will be even at a greater speed because of Brexit.

And speaking of Brexit.

You may remember I'd decided to gradually stock up on food/drink/medicines to be ready for Brexit. I had to put that to one side soon afterwards for various personal reasons but now am ready to begin properly.

And I started with this:

Lavazza Coffee

Now I picked it for three reasons. It was offered at half price. It has a long life (2020).

But mostly because it was Lavazza. When I was a child before Britain joined the then Common Market such products were offered at specialised delis and they were expensive. Now they are sold in supermarkets. Because of Brexit this expensive deli world is likely to come back. Unless anything dramatic happens Britain will go back to the future. That future being the seventies.

The future does look dark. Welsh Independence really is the first step out of it.

Until the next time.
.