The major supermarkets have experienced a decline in public approval over the past week as consumers bored with lockdown begin to return to old ways of taking retailers for granted, according to a new poll.
The latest results from a weekly Covid-19 tracker from research consultancy Populus Group revealed Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Iceland, Ocado and M&S all suffered a significant slump in approval ratings.
However, food retailers remained at the top of the poll for their performance in response to the pandemic compared with the government, airlines, payment companies, energy firms, telecommunications groups such as Vodafone and BT and non-food retailers such as Sports Direct.
Tesco dropped from an all-time high rating of 71% approval last week to its second-lowest figure of 64% this week; Morrisons slumped from 55% to 48%; Sainsbury’s fell from 62% to 55%; Asda slipped from 57% to 50%; Iceland dipped from 49% to 42%; M&S decreased from 35% to 34%; and Ocado fell from 25% to 18%.
“Scarcity of products is no longer a concern and, anecdotally, it seems online delivery slots are easier to get,” said Manfred Abraham, CEO of BrandCap, part of the Populus Group.
“What with the overall boredom of the limitations in everyday life, supermarkets are going back to fulfilling their key role – essential but not necessarily worthy of note on any given day.
“There is less reason for them to stand out or need to be doing something exceptional. They started from a high base, which means people were noticing and appreciating what they were doing. Now it’s closer to some kind of normal and therefore consumers are less bothered. As lockdown continues to be relaxed, supermarkets will need to reassess how they respond to the changing situation or risk further ambivalence from their customers.”
The research was carried out online from 7-10 May among a sample of 2,000 nationally representative people.
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