Recent orders
The future of independent food retailers in the United Kingdom
The future of independent food retailers in the United Kingdom
Introduction
Future trends in the operations of retail business in the United Kingdom is a little bit hard to tell owing to the fact that it is the state of the economy that dictates how consumers spend their monies. Taking for instance the argument of Berdegué (2001), the recent economic crisis of 2008, it has never been easy to precisely predict the course of destiny that a particular line of businesses is going to adapt. Only about two years ago, people could stay loyal to particular brand of commodities but at present the same people are being forced into buying own brand products and this practice is prevalent especially in the food retail sector. Trends in the modern world of business have it that to remain competitive, business organizations have to device innovative strategies that can enable them drive their competitors out of the competitive edge (Berdegué, 2001).
Burt & Sparks (2003) have also documented that, the retail businesses especially those engaged in food products have to be competent enough so as to marginally increase their market shares as well as their sales volumes. Independent food retailers are fast diminishing from major United Kingdom market. The retail industry in this country is fast changing and if the current trend maintains its pace, independent retail food stores will be a thing of the past in the near future (Burt & Sparks, 2003). Most of these stores which in just less than three decades ago dominated the market have quickly paved way for large stores such as supermarkets and hypermarkets. Unfavourable government policies have been cited to be responsible for this countrywide transformation of the retail food industry. Another reason to account for this is the influence from other countries and in particular the USA where the need to keep self-service retail stores is the order of the day (Ponte, 2001).
Cox, Ireland, Lonsdale, Sanderson & Watson, (2002) indicate that there were less than three scores supermarkets in the whole of the United Kingdom in the few decades following the end of the Second World War. Incidentally, it is around this time, the growth of personal consumption reached its peak. In less than half a century, this number, this number has skyrocketed and as of now, (2010) there are well over eight thousand supermarkets and hypermarkets in Britain (Cox, Ireland, Lonsdale, Sanderson & Watson,2002). This figure is amazing considering the fact that the dominance of supermarkets takes its toll on retail, businesses which in spite of their small size contribute a lot to the general welfare of the local communities and by extension the growth of the country’s economy. The lucrative independent retail market that was once filled with bookshops, food stores, pubs, bakers, groceries and such like other businesses has in just in a matter of time been replaced with new forms of business enterprises, that is the large retail stores.
Morisset, (1997) argues that, the future of independent retail food stores in the United Kingdom is hanging on a balance. A typical supermarket or any other large store is capable of influencing the local community in a number of ways and in the process offer several benefits and incentives which have the potential to attract loyalty from them. Some of these benefits and incentives like employment, development of infrastructural facilities and availability of fresh products are far beyond the reach of independent retail stores. These benefits have the potentiality to dispel the supremacy of independent retail stores from the places where they have taken roots (Morisset, 1997).
Speculations by Gereffi (1994) indicates that if the growth rate in respect of establishment of new large retail stores continues as it is currently, then there is going to be a crisis in the independent retail business industry in a little while. The food sector seems to be worst hit by such an eventuality, whose advent is major cause of concern not only for independent retail entrepreneurs but also relevant government agencies as well. One independent research conducted way back in 2000 revealed that the number of independent retail food stores in the United Kingdom had fallen by over 80 per cent in just fifty years spanning from 1960 (Gereffi, 1994). More amazing is the fact that the number of independent retail food stores that have been closing down each year has been on the increase ever since that research was conducted.
According to McCulloch & Ota, (2002), on the optimism side, the independent retail food industry is likely to maintain its marginal position and will thus continue to be a crucial aspect of the retail industry. But the wider retail industry is bracing for serious transformations some of which will spell demise to some of the retail businesses as has been witnessed in the recent past (McCulloch & Ota, 2002).
That notwithstanding independent retail food stores shall continue to play a significant role in the retail food market in the United Kingdom even with the advent of super stores and hypermarkets. Food production is increasing not only in the United Kingdom but generally in the whole world and in most of these countries; the process is controlled by a small number of multinational corporations.
The power of the United Kingdom supermarkets
Over the last forty years, McDonald, (1999) have indicated that, food sales in the United Kingdom have shifted from small independent stores to large supermarket chain stores. Supermarkets in the United Kingdom began to gain popularity and eventual acceptance in the 1960s and this was aided by abolition of retail price maintenance and also increased post war affluence and need for increased consumption. In the recent past changing lifestyles have also contributed to the success of supermarkets all at the expense of independent retail stores. Researches indicate that by 1960, independent retail businesses had about 60 per cent share of the of the entire retail food market (McDonald, 1999). This share has since then dropped to only 6 per cent currently and the worst is that it is expected to reduce even further. A report by the New Economist Foundation says that Britain is currently witnessing the death of its small and independent retailers as a new form of retail feudalism emerges with just a handful of brands taking over the shopping.
According to Grievink, (2003), recent announcements of Morrisons Supermarket’s take over of Safeway supermarket has dealt a deadly blow to the small food retail businesses as the takeover will no doubt result in a concentration of grocery markets in the United Kingdom. Already, the entire retail food industry is dominated by only four supermarkets namely, Tesco 25%, Sainsbury 17 %, Asda-Walmart 16 % and Morrisons 16 % (Grievink, 2003). This makes about 75 per cent dominance. The continuing concentration of huge retail outlets in the United Kingdom has created a situation where a very small number of supermarket chains ruthlessly exploit their monopoly of the buying power to lock out small and independent retail food stores. Food suppliers, especially farmers are finding themselves in extremely very weak negotiating positions and as such are getting less than the actual costs of production.
Success of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and failure of independent retail food stores
According to Clay, (2004), the reason why supermarkets are so successful not only in the United Kingdom but also in other countries is a rather simple one, convenience. Just like customers in other countries, British customers just want to be in and out; no time to linger about for hours on end looking for their favourite brands. The general idea behind the setup of most United Kingdom grocery stores is to allow customers to easily walk around and select the items that they want to buy (Clay, 2004). All items appear to be enticing and unless one comes with a premade list of items, chances are they may leave with more than they thought possible. This privilege as provided by large food stores lacks in the United Kingdom independent food stores, an attribute which is responsible for their self destruction.
Dries, & Swinnen, (2004) found that, only multinational food retailing corporations and companies with reputable brands have the leverage to engage big food retailers in the United Kingdom. British supermarkets have brought their buying powers and monopoly to bear on producers not only with respect to prices of commodities but also through supply chain management (Dries, & Swinnen, 2004). This is enhanced through their systematic control of the of the whole food supply chain. Their use of highly sophisticated systems of contracts and specifications coupled with tighter managerial control to monitor the supply chain is the simple logic behind their success and dominance of the retail food market. Their mode of operations is what the United Kingdom consumers like (Oxfam, 2004). Using favoured slaughter houses, popular packing and processing companies and the development of the retailer’s own brands for different food products by supermarkets have worked marvellously to drive independent retail food stores out of the market (Hu, Reardon, Rozelle, Timmer & Wang, (in press)..
According to the findings of Farina & Monteiro, (2004), Tesco supermarket was the first one eve in the history of United Kingdom food retail market to bypass live auction markets and buy cattle directly from farmers. As of now all major supermarkets in the United Kingdom directly buy cattle from selected framers. The thing here is that these supermarkets avoid high auction costs and therefore their products are sold at cheaper prices compared to independent food retailers who have to pass on the auction costs to the consumers (Farina & Monteiro, 2004). Hildred & Pinto, (2002) also argues that naturally these independent food retailers stand no chance of competing with the giant retailers. The closed contact production system has become has become an essential part of the livestock and produce industry in the United Kingdom such that the traditional methods of selling farm produce through wholesalers and middlemen is in a very serious decline. This is partly due to the increased retail food competition and also rising hygienic standards following Britain’s entry into the European Union (Hildred & Pinto, 2002). This has also been the case because the big market chains have been successful in forcing farmers into directly supplying their products through popular supplying agents.
Remedial strategies
Gillson, Green, Pandian & Wiggins, (2004) argues that majority of the United Kingdom citizens have their favourite supermarkets from where they buy their food products. Most of them are familiar with their favourite supermarkets’ layouts and frequent them very often as need arises. No matter what their reasons for stopping by the stores are, they very well understand what their wants are and how they can be satisfied. United Kingdom supermarkets avail the comfort of the shoppers to just know where their products are. Unlike large scale food retail stores, majority of independent food retailers in the United Kingdom are faced with the greatest problem of getting enough customers to keep their businesses running (Gillson, Green, Pandian & Wiggins, 2004). Most of their retail store marketing strategies have failed to produce the required results and thus they have been forced to look for alternative strategies and resources that can help them get noticed and pull more customers into their stores.
Muñoz Cruz & Canedo, (2004) have identified that, for an average independent store, the cost of acquiring and maintaining new customers can be quite high. Most of the independent food retail stores do not have marketing budgets like the big market stores and mega chains. For these businesses to survive, they will have to adopt using smart, low cost and creative marketing strategies (Muñoz Cruz & Canedo, 2004). One thing is certain, the independent stores do not stand nay chance of attracting customers to their businesses right away but nevertheless need to make key changes in respect of their modes of operation. Continuing to use the same traditional strategies will only serve to give the same results. Without enough customers, the longer term future of independent retail food stores in the United Kingdom is doomed to fail.
Östensson, (2002). Indicates that, in spite of that there are several proven and time tested retail marketing strategies which if adopted well by the independent retail stores of the United Kingdom can result in increased number of customers and hence high business volumes. Each particular retail business will require a particular marketing strategy that best suits its operations and range of products and so choosing the right marketing and operational strategy can go a long way into increasing the level of customer flow and also building a steady stream of regular customers for a business (Östensson, 2002).
Bibliography
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Primary motor cortex serves a significant role in generation of speech by humans when they communicate to each other
Answer to the Questions
Name
Institution
Question 1: Primary motor cortex serves a significant role in generation of speech by humans when they communicate to each other. It coordinate all human movement, and when it comes to speech, primary motor cortex comprises of vital body organs that help in production of sound or vice and articulation of words in a fluent speech that other can understand. As such the primary motor cortex influences that production of sound by the lynx (which makes speech audible) and control involuntary movement of the mouth, lips, jaws, and the tongue to articulated word and influence facial expression which accompanies speech. Primary motor cortex contains a laryngeal motor cortex which coordinates over 100 muscles necessary for swallowing the generation of speech. Through these muscles, it involuntarily coordinates breathing, facilitates tonal variations such as talking and singing among other. Finally, the Primary motor cortex has nerves that relay information from the brain to the muscles involved in speech and as such can enable people to learn a language and articulate word after getting the right pronunciations.
Question 2: Humans have numerous communication disorders that make it difficult for them to communicate. However, understanding how humans communicate can facilitate the creation of therapies that can help those with communication disorders to learn how to communicate. In this regard, understanding the basic neurology of normal human communication is instrumental developing knowledge about human communication and its disorders. Knowledge about basic neurology of normal human communication helps us understand how different organs function as a system to enable people to communicate. In case of poor communication, it is possible to determine the cause of the difficulties or a disorder, and thus the specific cause can be addressed through appropriate therapy such as speech therapy. This way, communication disorder can be cured.
Primary Health Prevention Plan
Primary Health Prevention Plan
Student’s Name
Institution
Teaching Proposal for A Primary Prevention Health Plan
Introduction
In the last few years nursing education just like all other fields in the nursing sector is going through critical changes so as to meet the requirements of a society that is rapidly changing. These changes involve the adjustment of new roles for nurses and medical practitioners. This proposal seeks to teach the community how they can develop strategies to prevent basic health problems that are as a result of negligence from the government and other key stakeholders.
The road to ensure every individual’s health in a community is improved is wrought with a lot of obstacles. The community cannot let itself fail. The community has to continue working as one unit to ensure that affordable health is available to all individuals. In order to attain equity in health, national organizations, communities and states will have to take a multidisciplinary approach. This is a strategy that will involve data collection, improving health, the environment, housing, agriculture, labor, transportation and justice (Rowe, 2008).
Research documents that despite the progress that has been made
in the improvement in overall health of the nation, minorities are still experiencing
continuing disparities in the burden of illness. Racial and ethnic minorities suffer
a disproportionately high incidence of chronic disease. African Americans have an incidence of hypertension nearly 40 percent higher than that of the white population, the effects of hypertension are more frequent and severe in African Americans. This population develops hype
rtension at an earlier age than whites. Hypertension is a leading cause of stroke. In Nevada,
according to the Bureau of HealthPlanning & Statistics in 1999, the disparity in stroke incidence between African Americans and for whites, was 41.45 and 20.82 per 100,000 deaths respecti
vely.Barriers to the Attainment of Good Health in the Community
The lack of access to quality health care
Lack of regular physical activities
Lack of immunization to prevent infectious diseases
Obesity and Overweight due to lack of promotion of good nutrition and healthier weight.
Poor environmental Quality: Lack of promotion of healthy environments.
Tobacco use: Lack of preventing and reducing tobacco use
Injury and Violence::The lack of advocators to reduce violence and promote safety within communities.
Substance Abuse; there is a need to reduce and prevent substance abuse.
Mental health: There is a need to promote well being and mental health
Responsible Sexual behavior: There is an ardent need for stakeholders to start promoting responsible sexual behaviors within the community.
Strategies for Creating a Healthy Community
In order to attain the objective of improving their health standards members of the given community must be supported by the every individual within the community. The process by which a healthy community can be created is likely to take time a lot of efforts and several steps. This paper proposes the MAP –IT approach (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement and Track).
Mobilize: It is critical that members of a community should mobilize organizations and individuals that care for the community’s health status into a coalition.
Assess: Members of the community should assess areas that are of critical need in their community as well as the resources and other strengths that they can tap in to deal with these areas.
Plan their approach: The community members should start with a vision of where they want to be as a community, upon which they should add action steps and strategies that can assist them attain their vision.
Implementation of their plan should involve concrete steps of actions that should be monitored to make a difference.
Tracking of their progress should be done over time.
MOBILIZATION of Fundamental Organizations and Individuals
Being a Public health nurse in a small urban suburb I am greatly concerned with the growing number of obesity in school going children, deteriorating health standards in the community, substance abuse, tobacco consumption and sexual health and other health issues described above. Since I need guidance and action models to assist me in mobilizing the community and placing together a health educational program for the public schools and the community at large there is a need for the mobilization of the entire community to act (Perkins, 2007).
The first initiative in coming up with a healthier community is to mobilize primary organizations and individuals to form a community wide coalition. Almost every community has a governmental agency and a health department responsible for public health services for instance neighborhoods watch groups or block associations. These groups more often than not represent varied resources and interests for dealing with issues that are critical to maintaining and building the stability and health of an entire community. Apart from that, it can also assist in the mobilization of various resources to deal with health problems (Popay and Williams, 2010).
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To organize such a coalition in a community it is critical to engage likely coalition members on issues that are of critical concern to them as well as the community. A successful community coalition will then be built around critical issues of concern to the community such as: neighborhood crime, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, environmental health, child as well as maternal health (Perkins, 2007).
In the past, coalitions have been built around a wide range of issues; however, not all of them greatly concerned the community leaders. It is critical that community coalitions collect enough data to convince community leaders that the issues at hand really warrant their immediate attention.
As much as it is feasible to begin building coalitions with an overall community wide event for instance a media or town hall event it is usually very critical to target particular organizations and individuals to work with them over a certain period of time till they commit themselves to working both with you and the rest of the community.
Individuals: Most coalitions that are effective are built around a group of individuals who are committed. Such community organizations could be made up of: unions, religious institutions, community groups, businesses, clinics, schools, hospitals and social services programs. Local organizations are critical because of the respect they command, their influence, their community involvement and their vast resources (Popay and Williams, 2010).
They can support required action while mobilizing resources to assist in the implementation of such actions. It is important that community representatives talk to local religious organizations, businesses and charities for they could make up great members of their team. The biggest challenge in the creation of a healthy community is the sustenance of involved members. This challenge can be dealt with by initially agreeing on the community’s vision (Rowe, 2008).
Creation of a vision: Your group’s vision should stem from the community’s most critical goals, needs and values. It should be a romanticized description of how your group coalition perceives the community. It should mirror the coalition members goals and should be constant with their believes and attitudes.
The Challenge with this community is to employ the combined strength of political will, scientific knowledge, community support, professional skill, community support and individual commitment to enable its members to lead active and full lives. This means being in a position to guarantee that all community members attain and sustain an optimum functioning level, through prevention of disability and death, cultivating community and family support while preserving a physical environment that is able to support human life.
This vision could be generated in the initial stages as individuals members mobilize other members of the community to work with them. The early creation of this vision permits all coalition members to be committed to the long term process. However, there could arise disagreements stemming from diverse expectations and principles of different community leaders. It is critical, however, for the coalition to work towards having a consensus on its vision and move to the next stage with a common vision (Popay and Williams, 2010).
It is critical for the community to realize that the improvement of individuals’ health involves more than the treatment and diagnosis of diseases. It instead stems from the proper care of the spirit, body and mind. For this community to attain its vision it must adopt a new perception on health. It has to shift from the providers of health care to the community members for their visionary direction, they will have to change from federal and state control to local control, they will have to shift from vertical to horizontal implementation of programs, they will have to define health in relation to wellness rather than illness, the community leadership will have to shift from domineering to participative, and finally the community will have to focus on health and prevention promotion rather than acute episodic treatment (Perkins, 2007).
ASSESS Community Resources Needs and Strengths (MAP-IT)
It is critical for community members to assess the health issues that they deem critical to their community in addition to other strengths and resources that they can tap in to address their health issues. To get a better judgment of what they can do versus what they would like to do they will have to take stock of the resources, needs and strengths in their community. Since community coalitions tend to have limited resources for addressing all their problems they should make use of these limited resources wisely. When members of a coalition work together to come up with priorities and assign resources to these priorities, they are likely to continue participating in the process in order to attain measurable outcomes (Popay and Williams, 2010).
PLAN for Action
Upon setting priorities and collecting the required data it is critical that the community coalition plan their approach. This would involve the creation of an action plan with water tight steps and deadlines. With the group’s vision as its guideline the coalition should come up with an action plan that has concrete steps to assist them attain their vision. The plan of actions should entail a time line, action steps, and collection of information and assignment of responsibilities. The community coalition’s target should be a measurable outcome that they will want to attain within a specified time frame. Where feasible all the coalition’s objectives should be measurable. This is critical for the coalition to evaluate its progress (Rowe, 2008).
IMPLEMENT the Action Plan
Once a Community coalition establishes their plan they can begin implementing the actions steps strategies in their plan. Coalition members that accept responsibilities for certain tasks should complete them within a specified time frame, constant with the time plan schedule. This part of the process can be augmented by having a cooperative and diversified group of community leaders that share in the coalition’s vision. For instance having the school superintendent as a member of the coalition’s health initiative could facilitate the implementation of projected actions in schools. The plan should be implemented through real actions that make a difference (Popay and Williams, 2010).
TRACK Progress and Results
As the action plan implementation moves on, it is critical for other community members to be informed of progress being made. The group members should hold meetings to review their progress. Tracking and Evaluations are critical to the long term success of the community coalition’s strategies. If the coalition works without any documentation of its actions it could become ineffective. This is because it may not be in a position to establish if whatever it is doing is improving the health concerns of the community. Continuing support and monitoring will allow the community coalition to track all their actions. The best way of handling it is to ensure that scheduled meetings are held where all members give reports of the actions they have taken regardless of how trivial they could be (Perkins, 2007).
Conclusion
Realizing real change could take days, weeks, months or even years. The most important thing is that the coalition members should not lose sight of what they set out to do. This will ensure that they effectively deal with health issues affecting their community.
References
Perkins, L. (2007) Evidence based health promotion. Chichester, Wiley,
Popay, J. & Williams, G. (2010) Researching the people’s health. London, Routledge.
Rowe, A. (2008). Health profiling: all you need to know. Liverpool, John Moores University and Premier Health NHS Trust.