Fenton Research Weblog

The rise and rise of the supermarkets

First the pubs, now the banks.

FT 30/03/09 - "(Tesco) will open 30 branches of what is likely to be branded Tesco Bank within existing supermarkets before the end of this year."

What is Britain coming to?

According to a study by the IGD (Telegraph 21/03/09), there are now more supermarkets (55,854) in Britain than pubs (54,818 end 2008).  This could be a result of:

• supermarkets selling cheap drink e.g. beer and cider
• above inflation increases in beer duty

and perhaps the smoking ban, although this isn't cited in the Telegraph article.

As well as an example of a failing industry/institution, the article touches on the decline of community and neighbourhood services within British society, the pub being one of them.  And the local newspaper being another.

The impact of research

Interesting article in the March 14th edition of The Economist, discussing effective web collaboration among scientists, of their research, to aid development.

Apparently scientists are reluctant to publish their research on the web, instead preferring to track citations and paper acceptances, particularly as "these numbers can readily be put in a curriculum vitae to impress others".

The article goes on to say, "No one yet knows how to measure the impact of a blog post or the sharing of a good idea with another researcher in some collaborative web-based workspace."

Ring any bells re: measuring the value/KPI's of (in-house corporate or otherwise) research?

What women want

Apparently, women make more than 80% of discretionary purchases, in the US anyway, and as male dominated industries continue to make redundancies (manufacturing and construction for example), the share of household income and buying power that women have may increase further in the coming months.

To encourage more 'purse opening', The Economist reports that Frito-Lay, OfficeMax and McDonalds are all directly targeting the female market, with 'woman only campaigns', redesigned notebooks and file-holders (with flowers on?) and 'a new line of hot drinks (for) trendsetting women'.

The shame of Thain

An enlightening profile of John Thain, the ex chief executive of Merrill Lynch, in the March 14/15 edition of FT Weekend, asks the question "Was Thain the man in the bubble - brilliant at understanding the complex technical issues surrounding turn-of-the-century banking but deaf to the world beyond Wall Street, or even to dissenting voices in his own ranks?  And if so, was he really so different from his peers?"

So different from his peers?  How many other investment banking CEO's offices had rugs worth $87,000, sideboards costing $68,000 and curtains for $28,000 (total redecoration of $1.2mn)?!  I'm beginning to wonder...

Royal Mail

On reading an interesting article regarding the possible part-privatisation of the Royal Mail, I came across this useful source which includes competitive market reviews and quarterly updates: Postcomm (the business regulators). 

Car market in parts

The steady decline of the global car manufacturing market has been well documented.  New car registrations in the US fell by 37.1% year-on-year* in January 2009, for example.

An article in the February 21st edition of The Economist* highlights, not only the troubles for GM, Chrysler and the like, but the plight of car parts-makers, the largest manufacturing (motor and equipment manufacturers) employers in the US.  The extreme interdependency of the car part supply chain, specialisation within it and decline in new vehicle demand means financial trumoil is far further reaching than just the big Detroit Three.

Fourbucks

Did you know that, according to The Economist 21st February 2009, "blended and frozen frappuccino's earn Starbucks $2bn a year..", perhaps helping them to earn the nickname "Fourbucks"?