Bourne Comment

LIDL STARTS A SUPERMARKET REVOLUTION

The public exhibition held in Bourne to test reaction over the opening of a new Lidl supermarket was so successful that it highlights a shopping trend away from the established stores that have concentrated too much on making a profit rather than serving their customers.

Prices at Sainsbury’s in Exeter Street and Tesco in South Road appear to have risen almost weekly in recent months and the arrival of a new outlet with a more reasonable policy can only be beneficial for shoppers at a time of financial restraint which has allowed both Lidl and Aldi corner a substantial share of the market nationwide.

It was not surprising therefore to learn that over 500 people turned up to inspect plans for the new Lidl supermarket to be built off the A15 roundabout in South Road later this year with 92.4% in favour of the project, indicating that there is greater interest in making ends meet with the household budget than there is in trying to influence the future of Bourne because only a mere 40 people attended the Neighbourhood Plan consultation meeting on February 10th.

Shopping has become a necessity in the modern age and the supermarket has made it a comparatively easy exercise for the housewife who usually completes the task at least once a week. In fact, one stop shopping has become so popular that the face of our town centres has changed dramatically with services such as banks, insurance companies, estate agents and charity shops taking over the premises previously occupied by traditional retail outlets such as the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker.

The idea of one-stop shopping was totally unknown until recent times and a weekly trek to town to buy clothes, groceries and other necessities a regular occurrence for housewives, moving from shop to shop until all of their purchases had been made, often waiting in queues during busy periods before facing the long walk home carrying a heavy basket.

Shopping habits in Bourne began to change with the opening of Budgens, our first supermarket, in 1976, originally occupying cramped premises in West Street but soon to move to a larger and more modern building in the Burghley Centre, becoming the most important retail outlet in the town when it opened in 1989 with more than 160 adjoining car parking spaces.

Since then we have had Rainbow (1980), now Co-operative Food, Sainsbury's (1999) and Tesco (2011), with several other outlets operating as mini supermarkets but the arrival of Lidl will mean that all will have to make drastic changes to their marketing policy if they are to retain a reasonable customer base.

This may not seem a momentous retail event for those who are content with those grocery outlets we have but anyone who is already a customer will know that they offer quality goods at reduced prices that make Tesco and Sainsbury’s look very costly indeed and the savings have made it well worth the trek to their branches at Stamford, Spalding or Peterborough to do the weekly shopping.

It is also a misnomer to call them a discount or budget supermarket which infers cheap or second rate whereas the company merely offers goods of similar quality at lower prices and therefore takes a reduced profit, a policy that its bigger rivals may soon have to adopt if they are to compete.

Sainsbury’s, for instance, has a price comparison scheme with credit coupons for customers who have paid more for an item than elsewhere but the Bourne store chooses to compare with Asda which does not have a presence in the town and it will be interesting to see whether this exercise will be changed to embrace Lidl when they open, but don’t hold your breath.

Lidl Stiftung & Company KG is a German global discount supermarket chain based in Germany with over 10,000 stores across Europe and has grown consistently since launching in the United Kingdom in 1994 with more than 550 stores. Although still a small player in this country with a grocery market share of less than 5%, its importance along with that of continental no-frills competitor Aldi has begun a retail revolution and is growing in popularity simply because prices are competitive and quality is paramount while many housewives reckon that shopping there saves them 30% or more on their weekly bill over their more well-established rivals.

Frequenting Lidl two or three years ago was thought to be a down market habit but the economic crisis and a spell of continually rising prices by the main supermarkets has changed all that and now they are just as busy and when we made our usual call at the Stamford branch on Tuesday the store was crowded and we had difficulty in finding a parking space. Nevertheless, we left with a loaded trolley and a marked saving in expenditure and like many other Bourne customers who were there that day, we now look forward to our own branch closer to home.

The store will create 40 new jobs and the site chosen is off the A15 close to the Raymond Mays roundabout, next to the Sugar Mill public house and restaurant and the new McDonald’s drive-in takeaway. “We are extremely excited over the prospect of bringing one of our stores to Bourne and serving fresh quality produce to the local community”, said a company spokesman. “The new store will be of great benefit to the local area by bringing more choice to local residents.”

The arrival of Lidl has not been unexpected because there were hopes that the company would take over the premises in the Burghley Arcade vacated when Budgens closed in April 2008 but Co-operative Food became the new tenants in October 2010. Since then there have been repeated rumours that the company was looking for a suitable site and this has now been realised.

Once up and running, Lidl will undoubtedly have consequences for our shopping habits and existing supermarkets are certain to feel the effects, especially in view of their price creep policy over recent months when shoppers have been dismayed to find that the cost of groceries, drinks and other goods have been rising almost weekly, often coupled with confusion marketing in the aisles which leads to customers paying more for their chosen goods than expected.

Competition is essential because it always works in favour of the customer and Lidl’s track record in recent years augers well for the future because they will either force down prices elsewhere or there are certain to be casualties among those who refuse to change.

Lidl however appears to have struck a chord with the shopping public and provided they can keep up this momentum with quality goods at fair prices then they may well be here to stay. One person who should know whether or not Lidl will be a benefit to Bourne is the housewife and one lady I spoke to this week who has been shopping for the past fifty years said she was impressed with quality and price of their goods.

"The major supermarkets are often charging a third or more", she said. "But cheapness is not the main criteria because I would not go there if I had to compromise on quality. My personal favourites are their extensive range of chocolates, sweets and cakes but fruit and vegetables are also very competitively priced and of excellent quality and freshness. Those 'dead items' such as cleaning materials, toiletries and so on are all very much cheaper than similar items at the other stores and again of excellent quality. Frozen goods like Italian ice cream and pastries, especially at Christmas where they excel in ready-made party food, reduce the expense considerably again without loss of quality. They are also now winning prizes for their wines, spirits and beers.

"Lidl say that they can sell cheaply because they stock a limited range which might be a disadvantage but for me is in fact an extra bonus. Shoppers are wary of too much choice being offered by the larger supermarkets such as dozens of olive oils or pickles, sugars, household goods and cleaning materials which confuse us. It is also important for shoppers like myself that they do not offer 'special deals' which often turn out to be not very special at all or vouchers and coupons which are time consuming to use and often misleading. There is no doubt that Lidl will make their mark in Bourne with its simple no nonsense approach while at the same time delivering top quality.”

It is therefore evident that we are witnessing yet another shopping revolution similar to that when the supermarkets first began to appear which sounded the death knell for our small shops. Sympathy is not enough to ensure that retail outlets stay in business and unless they keep up with market trends then they will go under, even an international chain such as Tesco which has been in the doldrums for some months with one crisis after another and even now their future is by no means certain and the arrival of Lidl will not help.

Note: This article was published by the Bourne web site on 7th March 2015