What is it for?
I make no secret of the fact that I shop at Waitrose and John Lewis a lot. I love their quality and their business model. But I have to admit they have real problems.
My local Waitrose is tired and drab with a poor range of products and obvious distribution problems. Department stores may not have a future at all and now the group has seen losses soar to £88 million.
Much of that is down to restructuring costs, but they have a lot more of that to do, if my experience is anything to go by.
M&S’s new food halls are a revelation, clean and bright, with new signage and a massively improved product range. Waitrose has seen its sales improve but it is now facing pressure from two directions.
The discount German shops win on price every time, if M&S can do the same with quality, what is Waitrose for?
Supermarket wars are hotting up and that means being nimble, quick and innovative, just to survive.
John Lewis need to move faster, its one great advantage is that it is not owned by a hedge fund, or even shareholders. It needs to use that advantage, now.
From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
Be thankful that there is a choice of those and many more not forgetting your local stores of which there should be more