It must be one of life's ironies that one of the most dynamic industry sectors of the last 20 years is founded on one of the most humdrum activities of the...... more
It must be one of life's ironies that one of the most dynamic industry sectors of the last 20 years is founded on one of the most humdrum activities of the last seven days: the weekly shop. Next time you're crashing your trolley around overcrowded aisles and up-ending pyramids of Honduran ugli fruit, remember, you're part of a great tradition of innovation and progress. Supermarkets are headline news: takeovers, price wars, destroyers of town centres and communities--it's easy to forget that they also supply us with goods and, increasingly, services, designed to make our lives fuller and easier. One estimate states that "an astonishing two per cent of an average adult life will be spent inside a supermarket." The big players, in fact, possess such power that they are able to "partly reflect and partly drive significant shifts in social patterns." In The Grocers, Seth and Randall look at the characters and stories behind each of the UK's major household names,
Asda, M & S, Sainsbury's, Safeway, Tesco, broadening their gaze to include European and US retailing. The modest beginnings contrast sharply with today's total experience. It's hard to imagine, but impossible not to admire Jack Cohen, the founder of Tesco, wheeler-dealing his way to profits, buying "a consignment of 'Flying Bird' Danish cream from a half-sunk ship and sending it off to his shops with the instruction--'Takeoff the labels, get a tin of Duraglit from the shelves to clean off the rust and sell these for 2d a tin'." Serving up a man-size slab of retail therapy, The Grocers is a fascinating account of how the corner shop came to corner
shopping. --Iain Campbell
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