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Supermarket Prices in Shetland


faerie queen
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i think that people up here need the same treatment as people south in thee stores. we might be on a remote island in the north sea but we still are only getting the same money a person south gets. (unless you work for the sic....)

 

the shop association needs to stop putting 100% markup on there good and people like us would be willing to shop here and not feel we have to go south.

 

bread for instance in the coop is 35p cheapest in summerfield now is 54p come on they are just in different packets not got anything else differnt.

 

come on let shetland get the goods they deserve both these shops need to open there minds and stop thinking about the cost of getting it here. they use 100's of trucks souths to get to there stores. so what is a truck on a boat getting to its public.... fuel costs come into it again i think.

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i think that people up here need the same treatment as people south in thee stores. we might be on a remote island in the north sea but we still are only getting the same money a person south gets

 

Exactly, and we also have to pay (a hefty fee ESPECIALLY if you've got a car) to LEAVE the island so we are probably spending more than we should.

 

I love shopping at the cheap supermarkets down here, the cheap stuff is, to me anyway, identical to the expensive stuff,

 

Fancier tomato pasta sause: £2

Sainsburys stuff: £0.17

 

I actually much prefer the Sainsbury stuff and would still buy it even is the fancier stuff was cheaper, as the fancy stuff has bits in it :x

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now we have to start telling the town association to move with the times and stop thinking about themselves and think about shetland as a whole.

 

they keep on knocking on the sic door to come in but the association just shuts the door and keeps them out.

 

WHY WE WONDER?????

too much compatition.......

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Both our little supermarkets have extra costs getting goods to remote branches such as those in Shetland and because of the extra time involved in getting goods to the stores and the weather related delays they also have relatively high wastage. This is reflected in the prices charged compared with branches in the more populated areas and unless they were prepared to make a loss to get market share the same thing would apply to any new supermarket opening here.

 

The Town Centre Association has no control over the prices its members charge and anyway not all town centre shops are in the association. Neither can the association prevent new traders opening branches in the town. They can make an objection to any planning application for a new store but most of the major retail chains have great expertise at getting planning refusals overturned.

 

As for the prices charged in local shops you should remember that shops need to make a profit to stay in business. If you are the size of ASDA it is quite possible to make just £1 profit on each pair of jeans they sell because of the vast number of potential customers they have. Compare this with a Lerwick shop which has a limited number of customers who are not going to buy many pairs of jeans over their needs no matter how cheap they are. Same logic is true for just about any product.

 

How high that profit needs to be obviously depends on costs but those costs include rent, business rates, heat and light, water and sewerage charges, insurance, shop equipment, stationery, advertising and other odds and ends and, of course, staff wages. Those costs have to be met every single week before any income can be considered to be profit and I would not be surprised if some of the shops with a lower turnover had to add a 100% mark up to their stock in order to survive.

 

Sure only adding 50% might increase sales but with the restricted customer base we have in Shetland those sales might well not increase by enough for the shop to reach break even point which is why a lot of things in our shops are relatively dear. Of course we do have the convenience of being able to get the goods when we want them and even a 100% mark up can still be competitive compared with getting things shipped from south.

 

And yes I do speak from experience.

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now we have to start telling the town association to move with the times and stop thinking about themselves and think about shetland as a whole.

 

they keep on knocking on the sic door to come in but the association just shuts the door and keeps them out.

 

WHY WE WONDER?????

too much compatition.......

 

 

You're crediting the Town Centre Association with way more power than they actually have.

 

Furthermore, nobody is "kept out". If it were so we wouldn't have Co-op, Somerfields, MacKays, Boots etc etc.

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Competition is good for the consumer to drive down prices. At the other end of the scale it is terrible for businesses. The way things are at the moment it makes it very difficult for any Shetland small business to compete without adding a huge markup. Add a huge markup and your customers will go elsewhere What do you do?

 

I looked at leasing premises in Lerwick a few years ago. It wasn't a central location. It was far from it. It wasn't a huge building. It wasn't a self-occupied building. It was shared. What it was...it was the old toilets at Islesburgh. :roll: The rates that I would have had to pay made it infeasible.

 

Once I included the other costs that I would have incurred as a business, I had no reason to consider it any further. For a competitive business, there was no way I could have competed with any other business in the UK, never mind Shetland.

 

Back on topic...

 

It is a difficult life in the business world and my hat is off to those that manage it in Shetland. Constant pressure from the Shetland populace (including myself) is something that has to be commended. Bitching about the current situation of the supermarkets is one thing. Consider all the Shetland businesses that have had to close because of the two supermarkets that we have at the moment.

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now we have to start telling the town association to move with the times and stop thinking about themselves and think about shetland as a whole.

 

they keep on knocking on the sic door to come in but the association just shuts the door and keeps them out.

 

WHY WE WONDER?????

too much compatition.......

 

 

You're crediting the Town Centre Association with way more power than they actually have.

 

Furthermore, nobody is "kept out". If it were so we wouldn't have Co-op, Somerfields, MacKays, Boots etc etc.

 

Maybe not just all that clean cut, the Co-op, and Somerfields predecessor (Lipton) were in Lerwick long before any Accociation was a twinkle in it's founder's eyes, and dare I say it, before the widespread paranoia of "sooth eens takin wir trade" hit the Lerwick shopkeeping fraternity in general with it's full force, and Boots bought out a pre-existing business in the same field to get a foothold. MacKay's would seem to be something of an exception though, that much I will grant.

 

It is worth speculating though that *if* the Co-op and Somerfield's predecessor (Presto, was it that built at the marts?) had been coming in the sooth mooth with such plans instead of being long established traders simply flittin across da toon, if the establishment of the two existing supermarkets we have would have been so simple and slick as it was.

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I don't think it's just Shetland. My little sister lives on the Isle of Wight, only 3 miles off the south coast but they still whack 50% extra on the prices. What's really needed isn't a Tesco, but an Aldi or Lidl, where stuff really is quite a lot cheaper than the main UK supermarts - e.g. a bottle of vodka at my local Aldi is only £6.99.

 

:( -> :) -> :D -> :lol: -> :mrgreen: ... all for only £6.99.

 

A "Pound Shop" would be cool, too. Forget all your qualms about "dumping", it's unbelievable what you can get for £1. If it's cr*p, go out and buy a proper one. If not, it only cost you £1!

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