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Comment by te_chris | Hacker News Reader

This is the opposite of the trend in the UK. Reverting from the big stores and opening shit tons of sainsburys local, tesco express and metro, little waitrose etc

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As a non-UK individual that visits occasionally, I would say that is because they are really useful stores: good selection at good prices in a very convenient location. I've never seen anything remotely equivalent in Canada or the US. In North America, the smaller stores either have nothing I want to buy, high prices, or most often, both. Further, it is rare to find the equivalent convenience of a high street shop.

I live in Chicago and frequently shop at one of the Walmart Expresses that's closing on Sunday. Obviously it doesn't have the selection of a suburban supermarket many times its size, but I've never had a problem buying normal things there. And with the possible exception of Aldi, it has the best prices in the city.

I'm sure it has something to do with being in a big city.

Well, to be fair, I have never really seen a Walmart express let alone shopped at one, but that is part of my point. Near my uncle-in-law's place (greater London area), there are no less than three competing high street grocery stores each with good selection and good prices.

Aldi owns Trader Joe's, where I shop frequently. I LOVE shopping somewhere with only 4 or 5 aisles; so much more convenient than our local Safeway with 15 or 20 aisles that takes ages to walk back and forth as you keep remembering where items are. I can't imagine shopping regularly at a full-size WalMart.

>Aldi owns Trader Joe's

Not quite. They're owned by different branches of the same family.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/12/02/aldi_grocery_...

Oh, yes, it's a single thing I miss in North America. Good local stores. I live in major city downtown and need to walk 2km to the closest store. In London, I had local Tesco that had 90% of things I needed daily, and I shopped there a few times a day when passing by. Here, if I forget to buy one thing, it's either a long walk back or do without.

I generally agree. Convenience stores in the US are in a generally lower tier in terms of both quality and selection. Even in fairly dense urban environments, you basically have 7-11, full-fledged grocery stores, and maybe some local ethnic and upscale markets. But there isn't much in the way of chain mini-grocery stores.

In Minneapolis Target is experimenting with "Express" locations. Think of a Walgreens with a fully functional grocery section.

Waitrose couldn't make it pay and closed them. But yeah, it is a trend across Europe, not just the UK. The buzzword phrase in logistics is Massification to Atomisation.

It is a knock on from the daily delivery movement to larger stores.

I think the problem Morrisons had was that they do all their own logistics, whereas the others use a mix of internal and external suppliers.

> Waitrose couldn't make it pay and closed them.

Citation? I still see Little Waitrose everywhere...

Oops, I mixed it up in my head with Morrisons.

Morrisons do all their own logistics rather than outsource but their local stores did not fare well.

> The supermarket chain sold 140 shops for £25m. The stores made an operating loss of £36m last year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-34637187

With premium prices as well ?

The prices are the same, but the selection is different. The small stores typically don't stock any budget brand goods, they only stock the average and luxury version.

They've out-competed a huge number of independent stores, since the supply chain of Tesco allows them to keep the small store well-stocked at relatively small cost, and with less floor space needed for a stock room. A lorry drops off two or three pallets of goods at the small store on its way to a supermarket. An independent shop can't compete with close to free delivery and the purchasing power of Tesco.

I used to live 5 minutes walk from a Tesco Express, and did almost all my food shopping there. I'd only go to the supermarket (15 minutes cycle away) if I'd run out of something unusual.

In Belgium, the small stores versions of the big supermarket typically run premium prices.

They also store less products in premium shelves and only the expensive brands (and no bulk for things like sodas, milk, etc.).

The prices aren't much different to the full-size stores, but they (understandably) only stock the small sizes of everything. You wouldn't buy in bulk there.

For some items they actually only stock one of the larger sizes, but they do generally only stock one size of most things.

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