Metropol

Whataday wrote: Sat 28 Apr, 2018 13.40 I reckon it would be a better strategy to regionalise both brands - Sainsburys down south and Asda up north. Or Sainsburys in more affluent areas and Asda elsewhere.

Don't be daft, in my local Town Sainsburys was here in 2 areas well before both Asda's came around.

Let's home the mistakes made with Safeway and Morrisons aren't repeated.

james2001 wrote: Sat 28 Apr, 2018 19.47 Let's home the mistakes made with Safeway and Morrisons aren't repeated.

Apparently both brands will be kept. But there would be a consolidation of stores in areas where there are both.

I'd debate about the target demos for both supermarkets, Sainsbury's is the wannabe Waitrose which attracts in my area at least a largely affluent customer, while Asda is definitely C2DE.

The Asda customer is more price conscious, which their marketing has been highly based on for years, while Sainsbury's is on quality.

Keeping both brands ensures the new group can cater to a broad demographic.

Didn't see this coming.

If it happens, surely there will be a massive chunk of stores that'll have to be sold off, but who's going to take? Expansion isn't the name of the game any more, so I can't see Morrisons or Tesco buying more than a scattering.

In places like Arnold, just outside Nottingham - there are both an Asda and a Sainsbury's. The clientele for each couldn't be more different, and I very much doubt the Asda shoppers would all go to the Sainsbury's shop if Asda closed, and vice versa - but surely the CMA wouldn't let them keep both? Are we going to see both brands trying to awkwardly exist under one roof?

It’s not unheard of in cases like this to keep 2 stores in close proximity. Near me there is an Asda superstore, with an Asda “supermarket” (ex-Netto) literally round the corner less than half a mile away. They’ve co-existed for a good few years now.

If this goes ahead, I won't be surprised if Nectar is accepted in Asda stores now that Sainsbury's own it outright. I'd speculate that Asda would also move to Sainsbury's POS system, but otherwise it'd be business as usual for Joe Public shopping in either store.

Not gonna lie - my first thought was “I hope they use the Sainsbury’s SELs in Asda”.

WillPS wrote: Sun 29 Apr, 2018 09.37 Didn't see this coming.

If it happens, surely there will be a massive chunk of stores that'll have to be sold off, but who's going to take? Expansion isn't the name of the game any more, so I can't see Morrisons or Tesco buying more than a scattering.

In places like Arnold, just outside Nottingham - there are both an Asda and a Sainsbury's. The clientele for each couldn't be more different, and I very much doubt the Asda shoppers would all go to the Sainsbury's shop if Asda closed, and vice versa

This is exactly why both brands need to remain.

Sainsburys is perceived to be the most upmarket of the big 4, and Asda the most downmarket. In my experience the latter is at least true, all my local Asda's are all on the edge of a downmarket area. Sainsburys tend to be in middle of the road areas (this is all up north)

A typical Sainsburys customer wouldn't go to Asda, they'd probably switch to Tesco

A typical Asda customer woudn't go to Sainsburys, they'd probably switch to Aldi or Lidi, or possibly Tesco/Morrisons

Having to sell off stores can't be good for the 'big 4' overall, as surely Aldi and Lidi will buy most of them.

They can easily operate both brands, and rationalise the products where an own brand item at Sainsburys is in actual fact the same item but in Asda packaging at Asda.

I wonder about the head office though, as Asda are a big employer in Leeds.

Analysis from Natalie Berg on Sky earlier. Note how she things it's a good match due to ex Sainsbury's management at Asda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3zQLEZi0Uw

I'm not quite sure of the logic of this tbh. Yes at first glance the idea of merging two of the big 4 together so that they can be a stronger competitor to the other 2 makes sense, but the store count of Tesco is already so far ahead that a merged Sainsburys and Asda still wouldn't come close. And Sainsburys and Asda both independently have higher store counts than Morrisons (Aldi and Lidl are also larger too). Although the middle two will have merged (seems to be more of an acquisition by Sainsburys though), the order of things won't change.

Assuming there are sell offs required, these I would imagine are most likely to go Morrisons (assuming they want them) so depending on how many stores are involved and how they are split between Sainsburys and Asda, you could very well end up with more Morrisons stores than Asdas as a result of this.

Glad they are keeping both brands though. They are perceived to be different (although where I live you can turn right and drive a mile up the road to a big Sainsburys, or turn left and drive a mile the other way up the road to a big Asda, there is no difference in the affluence of the area) and there is value in both brands.

Will be interesting to see what ideas they import from both formats - for one thing I wonder if Sainsburys will be more willing to embrace 24 hour opening considering that Asda are quite big on it but AFAIK Sainsburys have only ever done it on a very small scale and ended most (all?) of it last year.

cwathen wrote: Sun 29 Apr, 2018 18.05

Will be interesting to see what ideas they import from both formats - for one thing I wonder if Sainsburys will be more willing to embrace 24 hour opening considering that Asda are quite big on it but AFAIK Sainsburys have only ever done it on a very small scale and ended most (all?) of it last year.

Sainsbury's tried it locally and is now open from 6am-midnight.