Why It Matters Nearest Supermarkets
Summary
We have determined how far away your nearest 5 general “Supermarket Grocers” that residents of a neighbourhood visit or buy from with some frequency.
Definition
The term supermarket grocer is taken in this context to mean a chain of retail shops that primarily sells food for consumption by the purchaser. In addition, supermarket grocers often also sell a significant amounts of non-food products to significant amounts of non-food products. This is measured as the straight line distance between a given postcode and the first- to fifth-nearest supermarkets that fit into the above categories, presented as a value in metres (m).
Supermarket Grocer
| Aldi | Farmfoods | Sainsburys |
|---|---|---|
| As Nature | Iceland | Tesco |
| Asda | Lidl | Co-Operative Group |
| Budgens | Makro | Waitrose |
| Costco | Marks & Spencer | Whole Foods |
| Morrisons |
| Dataset | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Closest Supermarket Grocer | This tells you which of the 16 Supermarket Grocers we have identified as being proximate to your neighbourhood. |
| Supermarket Grocers (Store Identifier) | This tells you what “sub-brand” of grocery store this is, i.e. local, metro, superstore, fuelling station etc. |
| Closest Supermarket Grocer Distance | This tells you the average distance in metres the identified supermarket grocer is from residents of this neighbourhood. |
| Second Closest Supermarket Grocer | This tells you which of the 16 Supermarket Grocers we have identified as being second closest to your neighbourhood. |
| Supermarket Grocers (Store Identifier) | This tells you what “sub-brand” of grocery store this is, i.e. local, metro, superstore, fuelling station etc. |
| Second Closest Supermarket Grocer Distance | This tells you the average distance in metres the identified second closest supermarket grocer is from residents of this neighbourhood. |
| Third Closest Supermarket Grocer | This tells you which of the 16 Supermarket Grocers we have identified as being second closest to your neighbourhood. |
| Supermarket Grocers (Store Identifier) | This tells you what “sub-brand” of grocery store this is, i.e. local, metro, superstore, fuelling station etc. |
| Third Closest Supermarket Grocer Distance | This tells you the average distance in metres the identified third closest supermarket grocer is from residents of this neighbourhood. |
| Fourth Closest Supermarket Grocer | This tells you which of the 16 Supermarket Grocers we have identified as being fourth closest to your neighbourhood. |
| Supermarket Grocers (Store Identifier) | This tells you what “sub-brand” of grocery store this is, i.e. local, metro, superstore, fuelling station etc. |
| Fourth Closest Supermarket Grocer Distance | This tells you the average distance in metres the identified fourth closest supermarket grocer is from residents of this neighbourhood. |
| Fifth Closest Supermarket Grocer | This tells you which of the 16 Supermarket Grocers we have identified as being fifth closest to your neighbourhood. |
| Supermarket Grocers (Store Identifier) | This tells you what “sub-brand” of grocery store this is, i.e. local, metro, superstore, fuelling station etc. |
| Closest Supermarket Grocer Distance | This tells you the average distance in metres the identified fifth closest supermarket grocer is from residents of this neighbourhood. |
Why the metric matters from a commercial inhabitant’s perspective?
Local customers have started abandoning predictable patterns of consumption. The diversity of customer needs and buying behaviour, influenced by lifestyle, income levels and/or age, has made the historically easy, geographically led customer segmentation process, that supermarket grocers used to favour, less effective.
Resultantly, contemporary segmentation efforts are now often based on customer behaviour inferred from transaction records or surveys. The knock-on effect of this has been that neighbourhoods in which customers’ needs aren’t predictable are often overlooked. Consequentially, some have noticed that London is developing supermarket grocery deserts, where potential customers are unable to meet their supermarket grocery needs locally.
This has created, and leaves for the taking, an opportunity for those who have correctly identified, a previously underserved locale or community, based on the supermarket grocery “brands” presently accessible to a population.
(Photograph: J Taylor, Wikimedia Commons)
Why the metric matters from a residential inhabitant’s perspective?
A wide array of supermarkets in your locale creates an amenity value by widening your choices as a consumer. London’s supermarket grocers usually offer a specific range of goods across their multiple branches and tend to select those locations that best fit their goods to a local clientele.
This not only conditions the products on offer in a particular area, but also reveals the taste preferences of a local population. Consequentially, this, allows the type of supermarket grocers present in an area to be used as a proxy to predict the type retail/social/economic demographic groups that reside locally to a neighbourhood.
General Commentary
Since the 1950s, supermarket grocers have played an essential role in shaping the social, economic, and cultural fabric of London by providing a wide array of goods conveniently to most residents. Nevertheless, the importance of supermarkets expands beyond retail into societal practices. Supermarkets compete for clients with high-streets and offer particular advantages such as parking facilities and a wide array of goods in the same location.
Shopping behaviours and social stratification have an impact on types of supermarkets available in a given area. As a result, Central London is peppered with small supermarkets that cater largely to workers and transient residents such as tourists, while the inverse is the experience evident in outer London.
Supermarket grocers are also closely tied to the local economies of where they are situated. Tesco alone employs 300,000 staff nationwide and is one of the largest private sector employers. However, as supermarket grocers have turned to address the competition faced from online shopping recently, many smaller supermarket grocers and specialist independent shops have found success in serving a more niche clientele.
Trivia
The first supermarket in the UK opened in January of 1948, in Manor Park East London and was owned by the London Co-Operative Society. Nowadays however, when it comes to the largest food retail space in Central London the winner is the Kensington Branch of Whole foods with an impressive total of 80,00 square feet of supermarket grocery floorspace.
History
Local Supermarket Grocers as much as iconic retailers like Whiteleys and Selfridges have become landmarks of London’s commercial history that bear witness to the culture of luxury and sophistication of the 19th century. These department stores are the predecessors to our current, more pedestrian, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Whole Foods. The first modern supermarket grocers were developed in the US in the early 20th century. They did not become common in Britain until the 1950s. This was due to the late withdrawing of the rationing which only took place in 1954.
Tesco and Sainsburys first introduced self-service, one of the most prominent features of the modern supermarket. These two brands already had 35 successful stores in 1951. This number would increase to 572 in 1961 and 3,400 by 1969. Currently, there are about 2,000 supermarkets in London alone. In two decades, the supermarket grocer has come to occupy a very prominent role in the daily life of most Londoners.
There are several styles of supermarkets and retail strategies. One of the most revolutionary ones was Aldi. In 1990 this new brand changed the traditional approach of offering a wide array of goods by curtailing their offering to only one brand. Although this strategy has taken a couple of decades to come into fruition, in the last decade, supermarket grocers following this strategy, like Lidl, have increased their market share.