There isn't a huge choice of supermarkets in Britain: Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Safeway and Waitrose pretty much sums it up. The big five jockey for market share amongst themselves, and their target markets also shift up and down the demographic scale over time (Tesco, for example, was once seen as the least upmarket brand, now it is one of the better brands. It has a well-thought of home delivery service).

The current battle for the soul of Safeway is interesting for several reasons. Firstly, for a chain with such a large market share, Safeway loiters fairly squarely at the lower end of the market. Our local branch is a sizeable replica of one of the earlier stages of the circles of hell, although this descent is accelerated during the school holidays. Thus far, the bidding looks set to be between budget giant Walmart and Sainsbury's. The hideous American company already owns low-priced chain Asda, and obviously has the financial clout to take over Safeway as well. The other contender is incredibly smart in comparison.

As the tide gradually starts to turn against out of town development in the UK, supermarkets are looking for new sites, so cannibalising smaller chains is a neat way of snaring some new real estate. But as we know all too well, Walmart sucks. There are therefore no prizes for guessing which outcome we favour.

Elsewhere. No sense of place tells an interesting anecdote about Koolhaas and JJP Oud. The correspondence referred to is in this book, Mart Stam’s Trousers (scroll down). More info on Stam: I, II. Plink, plink, fizz: canny marketing from Alka-Seltzer (fizzy homepage). Sex, rhymes, and videotape: an analysis of the music videos of Duran Duran. Dumptruck History (related: stuck trucks).posted by things at 09:05 / 0 comments