Product Description

An in-depth examination of the rise of the supermarkets. It features access to the top decision-makers in leading companies, with discussion of how they have led the way in the areas of competencies, competitive strategies, marketing, internationalization, and world best practice customer service levels. This edition includes extra coverage on e-tailing and updated coverage of the fortunes of UK, European and US supermarkets, including Wal-Mart's take-over of Asda.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161719 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
It must be one of life's ironies that one of the most dynamic industry sectors of the last 20 years is founded on one of the most humdrum activities of the last seven days: the weekly shop. Next time you're crashing your trolley around overcrowded aisles and up-ending pyramids of Honduran ugli fruit, remember, you're part of a great tradition of innovation and progress.

Supermarkets are headline news: takeovers, price wars, destroyers of town centres and communities--it's easy to forget that they also supply us with goods and, increasingly, services, designed to make our lives fuller and easier. One estimate states that "an astonishing two per cent of an average adult life will be spent inside a supermarket." The big players, in fact, possess such power that they are able to "partly reflect and partly drive significant shifts in social patterns." In The Grocers, Seth and Randall look at the characters and stories behind each of the UK's major household names, Asda, M & S, Sainsbury's, Safeway, Tesco, broadening their gaze to include European and US retailing. The modest beginnings contrast sharply with today's total experience. It's hard to imagine, but impossible not to admire Jack Cohen, the founder of Tesco, wheeler-dealing his way to profits, buying "a consignment of 'Flying Bird' Danish cream from a half-sunk ship and sending it off to his shops with the instruction--'Takeoff the labels, get a tin of Duraglit from the shelves to clean off the rust and sell these for 2d a tin'."

Serving up a man-size slab of retail therapy, The Grocers is a fascinating account of how the corner shop came to corner shopping. --Iain Campbell

Review
"- "The Grocers is a terrific story compellingly told; the growth of the world retailers is well portrayed. Written with authority by two consummate business professionals, the analysis of brands and retailing rang a whole lot of bells." Niall Fitzgerald, Chairman, Unilever plc, London - "...full of vivid insights on the rise of leading British supermarkets." The Daily Telegraph"

About the Author
Andrew Seth is a leading marketing practitioner and Board Chairman of the Added Value agency. He was Marketing Director and then Chairman of Lever Brothers plc. Geoffrey Randall is a leading marketing consultant and author of several books, including Branding (2nd edition, Kogan Page, 2000).