The Rise on the Convenience Store

This article in the Guardian reports on the UK Labour Party's claims that the supermarket chain Tesco is "abusing its unfettered market power to dominate towns at the expense of small retailers".

The article has a lot about the battle between the big, usually out of town, supermarkets and the small, usually in town, small traders and the death of the high street.

One important that seems to be missing from all this is the issue of convenience. For many people it's really convenient to shop at a large supermarket. There are a number of things that add up to more than the sum of the parts. These spring to mind right now:

• There's reliable parking - you'll get a space and not a ticket. Many bus routes include the supermarkets too
• There's a large range of produce
• You only have to pay once
• There are loos
• The prices are OK

These days lots of families do a weekly shop and that's only practical with a car so driving is a must. Most high streets these days have controlled parking so you have pay and still worry about over staying and getting a ticket. How many high streets ever had as big a range of produce as is available in one supermarket? The queues for he check out may be a pain but you still queue in a small shop; often for service let alone paying.

Access to loos while out and about seems to have become quite a topical issue of late. The elderly being a case in point.

Oh, and the prices are OK too.