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THE WEEK IN RETAIL ISSUE 8
EDITOR’S COMMENT
OLD RULES GONE WHEN EVERYBODY IS DOING EVERYTHING
One of the more interesting debates of the last 12 months has been the slow but steady convergence of retail and foodservice. That convergence has been forcefully slammed into top gear thanks to coronavirus to the point that the old definitions are rapidly becoming redundant. How can we meaningfully distinguish retail from foodservice when everybody is doing everything?
We’ve got pubs selling groceries, we’ve got coffee shops delivering to homes, we’ve got restaurants doing takeaway, we’ve got suppliers selling direct to consumers and we’ve got lots and lots of convenience stores providing an ever larger range of food-to-go. Yes, Covid-19 is well on the way to ensuring that the old days of ‘we do this’ and ‘you do that’ are drawing to a close – and probably for ever.
This week’s cover story is a case in point. The Eat 17 group always set out to ‘intermingle’ retail and foodservice and have been doing it successfully since 2006. Under coronavirus, however, the owners have been quick to adapt to the new world order, knocking down a wall between one of their stores and their restaurant next door to make better use of essentially vacant space. They put in an artisan bakery to drive footfall and produce more high quality, handmade products to sell through all their four stores. They have also rounded the offer out with a delivery service.
There are lots of lessons to be learned from Eat 17 but the key one for me is that the capacity to adapt quickly in fast-moving times is what will set the ultimate winners and losers apart. Coronavirus has forced consumers to view how they shop in a completely fresh light, and that means in both retail and foodservice. Understanding how shoppers have changed and what they will want under the new normal is what will drive success for many retailers. Trying to force shoppers back into the old highly delineated retail and foodservice model is unlikely to be the way to go. There will be plenty of people like Eat 17 ready to snap up business by delivering a blended model that gives shoppers everything they want with a maximum of convenience and a minimum of fuss.
