It seems like only yesterday that if you hadn’t got your groceries by on Saturday, your only option was the local shop until Monday morning. But some simple arithmetic suggests that in fact it was ten years ago that the 1994 Sunday Trading Act came into force. This allowed big supermarket chains and department stores to open for up to six hours on the traditional day of rest. Nowadays, rest is about the last thing you can expect in the supermarket on a Sunday. Time pressures on Britain’s shoppers have meant that, increasingly, groceries are bought on Sunday. Indeed, the leading retailers claim that Sunday is their second busiest day of the week, second only to Saturday.
In the last ten years the retail sector has changed hugely, and not only in terms of extended trading hours. The major supermarkets are no longer simply food retailers; indeed non-food areas such as clothes and electrical goods are amongst the fastest growing sectors in-store.
So the opportunity to visit the shops and the choice of goods therein has increased. The question is this: are the products available at these crucial weekend shopping times?
Product availability uncovered
In a study by IRI across all stores in a single retailer in four weeks, availability across ambient food (99.3%), fresh food (84.9%) and non-food (86.4%) all peak on a Saturday, suggesting retailers know where their priorities lie.
By category though, availability varies hugely, both by category and by day. Canned goods were least available on a Saturday (77.8%) and 100% available on a Sunday. Bread and morning goods were recorded as 72.2% available on a Sunday which may seem low but this figure was only bettered by Friday’s availability (73.5%).
Sunday is not the day to go to the fresh fish counter with availability at a weekly low (62.2%), while Tuesday is much the better option (82.9%). Dairy goods and chilled desserts peak at the weekend, as does produce.
Within the non-food sector, newspapers and magazines have their highest availability on a Sunday, crucial for those weekend news junkies. Health and beauty products maintain an availability level of around 90% all week but is highest at the weekend, while Monday, Wednesday and Thursday provide the best opportunities to buy accessories and furniture.
This information was taken from all stores in one retail chain in a four week period across August and September 2004. This type of store specific data can be used to determine on-shelf presence and help calculate the return on investment of your field force agencies.
For more information contact:
E-mail: sales@infores.com
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