Alan Drake posted a thoughtful comment on the Booker Symbols private website which he labelled ‘Talking point’.
He wrote: “Premier offer book and the way forward in my humble opinion…
“Since Tesco has taken over with its buying power we have all seen the margins grow as for years we all got poor margins so for this big move forward I for one am grateful as for so many years we had poor margins.
“I don’t see the point now and the cost must be huge in sending out the offer book month after month with very little change, I think it’s time to scrap the offer book that’s become the size of a yellow pages book and just have a leaflet with say 6 mega deals on it like we used to get…ie…big soap powders, large boxes of crisps etc…just a few big offers to bring people in and drop the large book.
“Poor availability needs to be addressed big time as some weeks we’ve not had certain Carling or Stella packs, potatoes, even sugar and so many lines are N/A
I would like to see national deals done with suppliers on a few main lines as not all of us can get to the depots to pick up lines, like milk and bread.
“National deals done with insurance firms and electric firms. I know a firm advertises electric but the few times I’ve tried them in the past they haven’t been close to deals I’ve got.
“Overall the margins are 100% better than we used to get but I think under the Tesco umbrella they could still do more for us independents symbol groups as combined I would assume our buying power is huge.
“Not everyone will agree with me but this is why we have this talking site.”
Alan’s posting drew quite a few comments all of them agreeing with him.
Booker always comments that it doesn’t comment on individual cases but will pick up directly with the retailer. I hope it does so in this case.
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