ISSUES
: Business and Trade
Chapter 2: Corporate responsibility
30
industrial hangers on out-of-town
retail parks; or alternatively stock up
in inner-city ‘metro’ or ‘extra’ shops
through the week, dashing in and
out as part of a fast-paced urban
lifestyle. Opening hours eclipsed
those of independent shops and
markets, and the chains’ staggering
powers of retail acquisition meant
they were conveniently located for
almost everybody.
Supermarkets may be able to cling
on to this notion of convenience,
but the myth that they are cheap
has been irrevocably shattered. Aldi
and Lidl’s “everyday low pricing”
has shone a torch on the Big Four’s
hefty mark-ups, and the simplicity
of the German discounters’ pricing
exposed the disingenuous smoke-
and-mirrors of the promotions,
loyalty schemes and shouty
price wars between Tesco, Asda,
Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and also
Waitrose.
With the illusion of value for money
shattered, there seems little
to redeem supermarkets other
than the convenience of having
everything under one roof. Listing
all the potentially destructive or
unethical features of this dominant
food retail model would be a lengthy
process. But in brief, supermarkets
created a food monoculture in
which most people buy and eat
the same food across Britain. With
their global, long-chain sourcing
model, they undermined the age-
old cycle of seasonal eating. They
were the midwives of the ‘no-
time-to-cook’ processed food
revolution, which now looks to be a
key driver of ill health and obesity.
The supermarket business model
works on a juggernaut of food
miles and has escalated food and
packaging wastage to previously
unthinkable levels. Supermarkets
also denuded urban landscapes,
blighted traditional high streets,
put independents out of business
all over the country and bullied
their way into communities while
creating food deserts.
Arguably the business model of the
Big Four supermarkets, as well as
the German discounters, thrives on
the exploitation of almost everybody
in its remit. In-store staff struggle
to subsist on draconian zero-hour
contracts and minimum wages,
while those in overseas factories
making clothes, toys and electronic
goods receive disturbingly low
pay and often work in conditions
that would be unacceptable in
Britain. The supermarkets’ feudal
relationship with their suppliers,
and their chokehold on agricultural
production is slowly beginning
to emerge. One Member of the
Scottish Parliament described
Tesco’s Mafioso-style treatment of
its suppliers as akin to “what you
see in films like
The Godfather
”. The
only people who have benefited
from the supermarket business
model as it stands have been CEOs
and shareholders, which explains
their current acute distress.
Despite all this, will UK shoppers
ever go completely cold turkey
on their supermarket shopping
habit, even as they wriggle out of
the shackles of the Big Four? Or
is the expectation of finding most
of what one needs under one
roof here to stay? Amy and Ruth
Anslow, founders of independent
Brighton supermarket hiSbe, think
it is, and instead of creating an
alternative they have reinvented
the supermarket model. “It is
convenient to be able to buy
everything in one place,” says Amy,
“but what would a better version
of that look like, and how would
a responsible business behave?
We looked at kind of hacking the
supermarket model and reinventing
it to do something different.” hiSbe
stands for How It Should Be, and
it sells a wide range of fresh food,
groceries and household basics
every day from 9am to 8pm. Since
opening its doors in 2013, it has
turned over its first million.
As a social enterprise, hiSbe is a
very different kind of supermarket.
It offers its customers the full
spectrum of food and groceries
with products that are as local,
seasonal, sustainable, ethically
sourced, animal and fish friendly
as possible, and with as little
packaging, pesticides and additives
as feasible. There is zero wastage
of edible food and staff are paid
above the living wage. Despite
these principles, hiSbe is no
wholefood store: it sells everyday
and familiar products for people on
regular diets – it just goes about it in
a better way. Nor is it a preachy and
pricier alternative for an affluent and
principled minority. Prices – which
dwarf all other factors as the Big
Four found out to their expense –
are kept low at hiSbe by selling fruit
and vegetables by weight, working
directly with family-run farms in
Sussex and selling packaged goods
below the suppliers’ recommended
retail prices. With the big
supermarkets typically slapping a
minimum 30% mark-up on all their
goods, customers haven’t failed to
notice that hiSbe is winning in the
all-important price wars, if only in
Brighton for the time being.
It seems unlikely that the majority of
British shoppers will emerge from
three dark decades of the Big Four’s
monopolisation as though it never
happened. However, it is worth
remembering that seismic shifts
in shopping habits do occur. Ten
years ago, even the shrewdest retail
analysts would not have predicted
that the Big Four would be in the
poor shape they are now. But for the
time being the idea of a food shop
that involves multiple stops and a
variety of retailers – the butcher,
the baker, a farmers’ market – will
remain unthinkably inconvenient
and unrealistic to many. So perhaps
what we need are reinventions of
last century’s shopping model,
like hiSbe, a prototype for a more
progressive style of supermarket
that can co-exist harmoniously
alongside Britain’s increasingly
dynamic alternative food economy.
5 June 2015
Ö
Ö
The above information is
reprinted with kind permission
from
Sustainable
Food
Trust. Please visit www.
sustainablefoodtrust.org
for
further information.
© Sustainable Food Trust 2016
