Supermarkets an increasingly popular place to get Mobiles…
By Ben Robinson on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 3:32 PM PST In UK Retail
A few times recently I’ve been stood in the queue with my food items (some nappies, a few nappies, and a couple more nappies!), and I’ve noticed people holding just the empty box that is these days put out on shelves for you to grab if you want a Mobile - apparently this is an increasingly common thing in Supermarkets!
There has been a 40% increase in the numbers of custoemrs buying “non-food” items, such as Mobile handsets, in the last 5 years - if you mutiply that number out with the volume of people passing through the big name stores, that’s 40% of a VERY big number….
Research agency Verdict’s data shows that “28 million shoppers are regularly buying clothes, mobile phones and furniture from grocery retailers”
Not only are the stores selling Mobiles, some have their own offerings too - notably Tesco Mobile in the UK - however whippersnapper Asda is hot on it’s heels, according to recent data.
As I mentioned before in a post here, supermarkets already have mapped out their Christmas strategy, likely to be centred around the 5MP camera-phones.
But what we do make of all this? Is the commoditisation of what was once a luxury item a good thing? Or is it just another case of another channel for another market segment? I still have a mental block about buying a chicken, some celery, and an LG handset all in the same basket 
[Via: Mobile Today.co.uk]
I’ve recently started seeing prepaid handsets being offered at the Ralph’s (local grocery store) near my house. I think it’s just another revenue channel for the supermarket - afterall, I can already buy my patio furniture and some polo shirts along with my Blue Sapphire Gin and cold cuts.
Tesco is actually one of my readers’ favourite tags.
I recently saw a very interesting non-food item there.
http://theworldofm.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/tesco-new-world-order/
Yeah juggernaut is the perfect word. It used to be estimated that for every pound we spend, one goes to them. Now the ratio has become smaller 1 in 4. That’s pretty crazy stats. They aint doing so well in America though. Imagine: Tesco vs Wal Mart. Two juggernauts bringing down one another. That’s going to be fun