Product Description

Recent times have seen ferocious battles for supremacy among the supermarket chains in Britain. US giant WalMart took over ASDA, and northern upstart Morrisons acquired Safeway. Meanwhile Tesco has gone from strength to strength while Sainsbury's has slid further and further down the greasy pole. "Trolley Wars" tells not only the gripping business story behind these changes but also the social changes that have accompanied and underpinned it. It reveals the truth behind supermarkets' relationships with their suppliers and customers, and the ruthless world behind the checkout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131739 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-29
• Released on: 2006-03-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

About the Author
Judi Bevan is a freelance business journalist, who has worked extensively for The Sunday Times and Telegraph. She is the author of the much-acclaimed, bestselling 'The Rise and Fall of Marks and Spencer', which won the WHSmith Business Book Award in 2002.

Customer Reviews

Turf wars of a different kind!
Bevan's engaging writing style does make it sound like one fascinating drama. But fictitious it is not. This is a very real and a very visible turf war between supermarkets which has been going-on for over a decade. Currently Tesco and Asda are the main protagonists in the unfolding corporate drama; Sainsbury's too have come back into the fight. So if you want an insight into why bargain deals and all those mega offers from the major supermarkets are vying for your trolley space - this book should be on your reading list. Having said so, I completely agree with the previous reviewer; it's very much an account of the big players and a very British account too. The Goliaths Vs Goliaths get a comprehensive mention - but the Davids Vs Goliaths - the smaller players vying for a slice of our spending budget only get a sort of cursory treatment. It's not quite in the league of Bevan's previous book - The Rise and Fall of Marks & Spencer in my opinion. Yet it's a very-very enjoyable one!

Readable
A very readable account of the "Big Four" British supermarket chains - Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons, along with the former Safeway. It reviews their individual histories, their battles along the way and the current balance of power between them.

A couple of minor criticisms: the book seems to just fade away at the end rather than coming to any definite conclusion - perhaps some speculation on where the British supermarket business goes from here would round the book off nicely. There is also little mention of the discounters - Aldi, Netto and Lidl - and their threat (or otherwise) to the Big Four. And perhaps some discussion of troubled Kwik Save could feature in a future revision. There could also be more mention of what happens overseas: how does the British experience compare with the supermarket story in (say) France, Germany, the USA and Australia?