1

Tina Roberts

Just what existing retailers wanted to hear. It’s like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

The public lost Safeway/Morrisons (a store which I now avoid, what a mess it is up there) and we desperately need a third independent operator, even more so in these times of escalating prices.

Lets have some new retail space sooner rather than later.

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3

Mogit

Are DTZ a local company, do they know
the cost of foodstuffs in Jersey.
Talk to any european about Aldi/Lidl and they will tell you, ah well just one more reason to leave Jersey when I retire.
As for this report being put together for the Environment Dept to help the island plan, it’s beyond help!!!

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5

de ste croix

Read article with interest but am sure lidl and aldi are german and netto is part of the intermarche group in France – will again be difficult if jersey expect all their labels to be in english

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7

Tina Roberts

Both Checkers and M&S belong to the same stable, not sure about Spar.

We need a quality retailer Tesco or Sainsbury. Would help if local retailers closed some of their smaller stores and created larger shops to bring down their overheads. Some existing stores, such as the old Safeway are way past the sell by date.

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9

Sarah

Fred who cares? They are all ridicilously overpriced and the states have shares in them.

And Spar doesnt count. Spar is there as a local shop with longer opening hours like a paper shop not a whopping great supermarker. Try living with less money Fred and see why we want decent prices. The food isnt worth half the prices now

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11

Sid the Cynic

Forget consultants
Forget competition regulators
Forget chamber of commerce

These organisations have shown themselves to be flawed, shortsighted and at worst, pander to vested interests.

If we want a 3rd supermarket chain, especially a budget one then we need to lobby our politicians and find those who are not in the pockets of the various groups.

A politician with millions in the bank doesn’t care about those on low incomes.
A consultancy from the UK cannot understand the frustrations of only having limited or no choice in our retail, particularly in food.
A family that has incomes that dwarf normal peoples has the luxury of doing their shopping in the UK whenever they feel like returning for a few days.

It should be those people that understand ordinary families problems and struggles that make these decisions, not the old boys networks that perpetuate the problems.

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13

DC

I completely agree that prices at the moment are ridiculous. My wife and I (having just got our first mortgage and therefore in a bit of debt!!) spend around £90 on a week’s shopping – and that’s just for two of us!! It is silly.

Having said that, I am more than happy to support local farm shops and smaller retailers. I can get everything I need without being surrounded by frozen ready meals and the likes of “turkey twizzlers”. Aldi and Lidl might be cheap but the quality of the food reflects the price.

Does Jersey really want to become just another UK town with the usual shops selling the usual things? i thought Jersey was supposed to be set apart from the UK – the reason that most of the people complaining moved here in the first place. My (somewhat controversial) view is that if you want to live in an idyllic world, you have to be prepared to pay just that bit extra. Feel free to go and live in the UK – see what the tax man has to say to you!!

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15

irritated

I am increasingly annoyed at the retail sector and some members of the public who insist there is no room for a 3rd operator. These people seem to be conveniently forgetting that until very VERY recently we did actually have a third operator (Safeway) and they left the island because the company as a whole went bust, not because there was a local issue.

Any increase in choice is good for the consumer and makes for a healthy competitive market place. Jersey companies need to stick their heads above the parapets for once, and come into the real world – or at least the real business world where competition exists because that is what business is all about – for too long they have had it too good, and now they don’t like it as their hold over the market will diminish and they will not be able to justify ridiculous prices (and blame the import costs)in the face of increasing competition.

However a note of caution, if a “cut price” supermarket is brought in as the 3rd operator, don’t expect local fresh produce on the shelves – they won’t be able to afford it – I would expect the food miles of imported goods to rocket if we have that type of store – there will be sacrifices to be made, and that will be quality and origin of goods.

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17

Aimee

It just strikes me as odd to read people asking for cheaper supermarkets as if they were really poor and struggling to make ends meet. Most of my friends who complain about such things are the same ones who go shopping on the weekend and fill bags with disposable clothes bought on the sales “just because” and even the ones who eat beans on toast for a whole week to bag a pair of designer sunglasses. Because for such people, FOOD is less important than keeping up appearances and looking trendy; therefore, should be “cheap as chips”.

In the UK the tendency goes toward shunning the big, predatory shops like Tesco; but apparently we all want what we don’t have… I believe people could afford paying slightly higher prices and support, amongst other things, local FARMERS, if they were willing to accept to eat LESS, but BETTER (that means buying ingredients and cooking from scratch instead of filling the trolley with expensive, ready made junk and family bags of crisps). Who wants a cheap piece of over farmed tasteless chicken anyway? Apparently everybody, if that means paying less for it and having spare money to buy that Armani shirt.

Do you really think that Tesco would stock their shelves with local produce? Do you believe they would pay our farmers fairly or just import from far away for a fraction of the cost? I don’t really want all these beautiful fields to be turned into ugly housing states just because we couldn’t give a damn to what we put in our plates. If people really think it’s so expensive to live here, they’re entitled to move to the UK where everything is cheap and wonderful.

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19

Linda

Please give us another supermarket. I am still amazed that the Baker in the original Safeway told me they could sell a large loaf for 40p but C.I.Traders wouldn’t let them! What was going on there? There is some big price rip-off going on in this Island and now it’s Sandpiper who have got their fingers in almost every pie, what a smart move introducing the Iceland shop just to be able to say we’ve got a new cheap supermarket so don’t need another independant one. OH YES WE DO!
Let’s put the cat amongst the pigeons and just see how low their existing prices would suddenly fall if they had to compete with an outsider, I bet they won’t close down, they would suddenly find some sort of reason to explain how they were able to compete with lower prices which somehow wasn’t available to them before competition arrived. Want a bet?

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21

Ron

As a regular visitor to Jersey, I have family who have settled here from the UK, I speak with authority, beleive me , you do need an outsider like Tesco or Sainsbury to come in and compete with this cartel that exists in Jersey.

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