‘Islanders want competition’
Wednesday 26th May 2010, 3:00PM BST.
Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean.
ECONOMIC Development Minister Alan Maclean has dismissed a damning review of his report calling for a new supermarket as ‘naive’.
He has said that Jersey is ‘open for business’ and any interest from potential supermarkets would be treated equally and fairly.
Senator Maclean added that he would not stand in the way of competition in the supermarket sector because it was what the majority of Islanders wanted.
His comments came following a criticism of his retail framework report by an expert in retail competition.
Professor Paul Dobson branded the report as biased and flimsy and said that he would mark it as a fail if it had been submitted by one of his students at Loughborough University, where he teaches competition economics.
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Phew – only a supermarket!!
Glad it’s not a chain of cheap Estate Agents!!
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‘Open for business’, I love it when States members spout these wooden cliches in interviews, shame they are not even remotely true!
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yes please let them all in get these rip off prices down and give us all better choice and better service
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Please can we have competition Alan … particularly in the decision making system that affects all of us (except you).
JCRA look at COM and do your worst PLEEZE!
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Forget supermarkets. What we need is competition to bring the price of ring binders down
(Seriously: there are already cheaper alternatives to the supermarkets for veg, fish and meat. They are called farm shops and the Markets.)
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Bring it on, competition is good for the economy.
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There is a chance that the new supermarket would come in and see that they can charge the same prices as all the other supermarkets for huge profits.
Then all the supermarkets will see the limited number of shoppers living in this island being spread thinner between all of them and choose to increase their prices to keep their profit margins stable.
And suddenly the cost of living in jersey has been raised yet again making it harder for low income and pensioners to live in the island…..
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scott (7)
How on earth did the existing 2 manage when we had 6 other outlets?
Truth is they opened more outlets around the island hoping to stop any outside
competition coming in.
If they lose out they only have themselves to blame.
Don,t forget greed is the core of human nature!
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So a supermarket is going to come to Jersey and charge 25p for a tin of beans when they can have a quid?
Get real people, after an initial bedding in period prices would rise until it was one of the highest margin outlets in the chain
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When it comes to competition: Indian bankers and lawyers work twice as hard for less than a tenth of the wage of a Jersey banker or lawyer.
If we want to compete then real eighteen hour days eg the end of the three hour lunch break during the day plus real seven day weeks eg time in the office working on a Sunday as opposed to sitting on the gin palace socialising and putting it down to chargeable time may be coming to the island!
It will be a shock
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Bring it on please, have watched the prices keep creeping up tenfold over the past year shipping costs my ring.. being greedy and overpricing food is a disgrace.
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Ann street brewery-The perfect place for both housing and new supermarket.
Has any-one seen just how big this space stretches to?
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Of course he dismissed it! It’s HIS report…apparently…
a more suspicious soul than I may be forced to wonder if the ‘inspiration’ for this gentleman’s report has been provided by one or two supermarkets in particular, who have been gagging to ‘invade’ the CI’s for years.
Supermarket’s may well bring competition and better prices, but the ‘whoopee! cheaper food’ response also brings, unfortunately, the demise of small local businesses that have formed part of the community for many years, and in some UK cases, have essentially destroyed that community.
No one wants to be ripped off, certainly not I, but we – Mr Maclean – should think long and hard about the impact of his proposition, and if there may not be a better solution, that is, some sort of pricing policy put in place for the retailers we already have here.
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7. Scott
Totally agree.
The supermarkets in the UK aren’t cheap out of the goodness of their hearts – they have to be!
There is a lot more competition in the UK.
However, if you think we can recreate the same conditions here, you are mistaken. Cost of living here is higher, but so are the wages. Therefore staff will cost more, and add to that the shipping (which does cost money despite what some poeple think), and you already have price increase to cover the costs. And at the end of the day, you will NEVER get the same level of competition here as you do in the UK, so the prices will NEVER be as “competitive”
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I think you’ll find that supermarkets in the UK benefit from a little thing called “Economies of Scale”
Even a small supermarket in the UK (and i’m not talking tesco express) is getting some 200,000 + visits every single week, there overheads are then spread across each of these visits.
The only way Jersey is ever going to achieve these reduced prices is to close the vast majority of the existing stores and build 2 or 3 large stores in suitable locations.
Strangely enough i dont think jersey residents are going to be willing to travel upto 10 miles to go shopping, even though that would be a normal experience for UK based residents.
Extra competition will have some effect but no supermarket is ever going to run a shop at an operating loss, they will always cover staff costs, building running costs and a certain level of profit.
Rather than building more supermarkets, close all the existing stores and build three large units to cover, east central and west of the island, then you’ll see saving. If you want competition then have three sperate companies running each store.
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