Supermarket chain Morrisons is to shut 52 cafes and 17 convenience stores, putting hundreds of jobs at risk. The retailer will also close a number of in-store services, including some meat and fish counters, pharmacies and all its market kitchens in an attempt to redirect cash to other parts of the business. It is expected the cuts will be rolled out over the next few months.
Ugh, since the first Covid lockdown, my local Sainsbury's closed their fish meat and deli counters, closely followed by Tesco, and now Morrison's is the only one left, apart from Waitrose, of course, but that's much more of a drive.
Are there independent butchers and fishmongers locally? Yes. But the butchers are halal and the fishmongers sell fish frozen and imported from Pakistan and what's more, you can smell them from the other end of the high street...
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Morrisons was going to have to make adjustments to be able to compete in a price-sensitive market. "The supermarket chain is closing services seen as nice-to-have, but not essential, and scaling back its convenience footprint as it readies for a round of cost-cutting from rivals," she said.
They are trying to compete with Aldi and Lidl, but none of those have fresh meat, fish or deli counters, so does it make sense to get rid of the very things that make them unique?
I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone buying fish from the fish counter at a supermarket chain. Meat, definitely, but people these days just want to grab a pack and go. Sadly the nice to haves are being done away with. Back in the day, such loss-leaders were thought to be a way to improve the shopping experience. Nowadays what people want is shopping without the frills.
ReplyDeleteThe firm I work at are closing their workshop. The free fitting service they offered on car parts we sold was a loss-leader to bring people in and show them who we were. Sadly running the workshop at a loss can't be tolerated any more. The space will become productive storage space where every inch of shelving has to earn a living and make a profit.
That's just the reality of retail and an indication of how overheads have increased in the background, making profits hard-won.
The only reason I go to Morrisons is because it is the ONLY place I can buy Kippers which I love . I occassionally buy other items but only in passing. Guess I wont be going to Morrisons any more.
ReplyDeleteApart from Fish-n-chips the habit of eating fish has all but died out. And who knows what that fish is, what is in the batter and what It is fried in. It does not lend itself to being sold nicely encased in plastic and it looks too much like the creature that died. C.f. Steaks and sausages.
ReplyDeleteIt is the easiest and quickest "meat" to prepare and cook.
They are not intensively reared, full of chemicals and "roamed" free eating natural food right up to the moment they were caught in the net. It is difficult to get halal or kosher fish. And after they are dead they are not injected with anything to bulk them up, give them a "healthy" colour of preserve them.
Here we are lucky. Refrigerated vans from fishing ports travel many miles, about 50 in my case, to sell us fresh fish close to our doors. What a treat.
I know that fish can be bought on line for home delivery.
"They are not intensively reared, full of chemicals and "roamed" free eating natural food right up to the moment they were caught in the net".
DeleteNot if you buy Salmon or Trout, they are 'farmed'. Small cages, lots of fish, fed high protein food, doused with chemicals as infection is rife, etc. I worked at a Marine Laboratory for 10 years and was appalled at what I saw.
Haddock, mackerel, herring. Even whitebait, but I do not know how they gut them.
DeleteAs a Morrisons regular, I generally eat cod or haddock … I’ll not worry about the counters as such while the deliveries continue … watching this one closely.
ReplyDeleteI may be at risk of identifying a nail at which to brandish my hammer, but I wonder whether this has something to do with the dramatic increase in the number of working mothers (75% according to the latest figures), especially among those with cars and an income which allows the frequent purchase of meat and fish.
ReplyDeleteWhen the family food shop is weekly and has to be crammed into a Saturday or Sunday, it becomes a very different process from frequent visits with leisure to queue at a specialist counter and wait for the food to be cut and weighed (when you have under-5s to entertain on a daily basis, you take your amusement (and learning) opportunities wherever you can.
Bizarrely, our Sainsbury’s has removed its meat, fish and cheese counters and installed a sizeable permanent sushi counter instead - an odd choice for the Home Counties.
I remember being dragged by my mother from MacFisheries to Sainsbury's (marble counters, strong smell of cheese, sawdust on the mosaic floor), to at least one greengrocer and any number of butchers. That was when dad's wage was just about enough to get by on. There is now no specialist butcher in town, just a couple of rather expensive out of town 'farm shops'. When did MacFisheries disappear? The Saturday market fish stall does good business.
DeleteChanging times, each change causes more changes and the wealth flows upwards.