Tesco Brand Guarantee

Reasons for refunds

Sir, The Grocer 33, while a reasonably fair comparison of prices between the mults, is not even close to a fair representation of real shopping.

Most people do not decide the exact SKU they want in advance - if a different size or brand is on promotion, they’re likely to switch, or if they are very loyal to a particular brand they stock up when it’s on promotion (particularly with products like wine, spirits and personal care, which so often determine the Grocer 33 winner). So it’s hardly surprising you get a lot more Brand Guarantee refunds than real shoppers do (‘Tesco defends call to bring Brand Guarantee to an end,’ 30 June, p5).

Michael Greenhalgh, via thegrocer.co.uk




Deal is a data opportunity

Sir, The alliance between Tesco and Carrefour is certainly an interesting one for grocery, particularly when it comes to data. While the core focus of the partnership is to increase purchasing power, there’s a real opportunity for both retailers to pool and act on their sales data as a way of better understanding shopper behaviour and rewarding customers with more personalised offers. Both companies should adopt a data-driven approach and offer a buying experience tailored to customers’ needs based on patterns such as seasonality, timing, mobile activity, purchase history and more.

Liran Mayost, co-founder and deputy CEO, Como




Supply chain fragility

Sir, Supply chains are only as strong as their weakest links - which it would appear are as fragile as a CO2 bubble.

It seems lackadaisical to argue that during a World Cup year and a long period of hot weather our food supply chain should depend upon a secondary function of another agricultural product, where plants have been shut down for maintenance at the same time.

There is political outrage when Russia threatens to switch off its gas supplies to Europe, but a collective shrug when cleaners go into an ammonia plant, despite the fact everything from salads to cider are dramatically hit. European supply chains need to be agile, not fragile, and industries cannot be allowed to fail for the sake of a random cleaning schedule.

Phil Storer, UK director, IPP Logipal

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