They're up against it when I walk into their 'Superconmarkets'.
I started my sales career at the age of 16 and graduated into the cut and thrust of the FMCG field at the age of 20 (Sales Representative), just as the cosy 60s was morphing into the cut and thrust of 'American-style' marketing from the early 70s and beyond.
At that time ASDA (Associated Dairies) had only 4 stores, and all them were on my call list.
The original Morrisons on John Street in Bradford was also a customer of mine.
Tesco had a lot of stores, but they were still in the 60s at the that point....about the size of your average modern Tesco Express, and still high street based.
I've watched with great interest the development of the 'Hypermarket' over these past 40 years and all the hyper everything else that goes with them.
Everything is hard-nosed about these places and their management teams, the corporate culture within, and the manipulative marketing without.
That's how they have succeeded in gobbling up the market and all the family businesses that used to give variety to our high streets and the general shopping experience. Whether that is a good or bad thing is another subject of course.
Anyway, back to today; I enjoy the challenge of 'reading between the writing' as I stroll around Tesco, every prospective purchase being a challenge, a process of weighing (often literally) cost against benefit and need.
The result is VALUE....the magic word of the sales and marketing world, and my little pot of gold as I emerge from the exit.
The worst thing that can happen is getting home and realising that I missed that pack of expensive re-chargeable batteries that slid down and hid under those spare bags on the till chute.
