The United Kingdoms Supermarkets Growth and Promotion of Healthy Eating - Essay Example

United Kingdom’s Supermarkets Growth and Promotion of Healthy Eating The growing interest s to serve themselves in shops has seen the tremendous growth of supermarkets. Besides, they have a wide range of advantages when compared to normal shops. Majorly, they are organized in isles and have a wider selection than a traditional grocery store (Li, 2008:2). A supermarket typically comprises of fresh produce, baked goods aisles, dairy, meat, canned products and packaged goods as well as for various non-food products such as pharmacy products, pet supplies, and household cleaners. Most supermarkets sell household products that are regularly consumed such as medicine, alcohol (where permitted), clothes and medicine and a wider range of non-food products. Supermarkets are typically supplied by distribution centers of their parent companies in the areas largest city. Supermarkets sell products at a low price by decreasing their economic margin. In early days, retail products were fetched by an assistant and pass them to the customer for payment. This process proved to be tiresome, tedious, ineffective, and unsatisfying to customer needs. With these many advantages, this essay discusses the success of UK supermarkets, emphasizing on the fact that supermarkets should promote health feeding (Cheverton, 2004:34). Currently, United Kingdom supermarkets have accomplished a milestone in growth and development. Many supermarkets have taken an interest in showcasing advances that have already been taken in growth and development. Some companies have digitalized supermarkets development in United Kingdom. The coverage ranges right from construction stage to a full operative supermarket (Henry, 2008:61). For instance, Sainsbury unveiled its website aimed at its St Johns development in Worcester. This site had detailed information about the supermarket project including, store details, new jobs opportunities offered at the supermarket, information about community benefits and coming live webcam. Supermarkets are coming under more pressure in promoting healthy eating and providing customers with information of what is bad or what is good with about their products on their shelves. Some supermarkets are taking it further by providing their own diet program programs. Some others provide some healthy eating advice in their websites. Sainsbury’s categorically tackles what a healthy diet is. They give a definition that, when it comes to healthy eating, the important thing to remember is that there are no bad and good foods. A food substance here and there is just not going to harm anyone if the entire diet is healthy (Burch & Lawrence, 2007:56). The secret of a healthy diet is to balance. Their nutritionists have divided foods into five groups hence required to eat foods from each group and often consume foods from the largest groups. The supermarket uses “Eatwell Plate”, a UK government endorsed healthy eating advice. Tesco supermarkets in United Kingdom have developed their own diet plan. They do not answer the question “what is a healthy diet but provide a wide range of diet information in general. Their dedicated website provides free downloads on several died plans such as their GI food guide. Most supermarkets focus on information on meal replacement, sports nutrition and weight loss while not making a stance on what healthy eating is. For instance, supermarkets will only state, “From nutrition bars and scales to drinks and sports nutrition, customers will find all dietary supplements they need in this supermarket. Customer dietary supplements constitute diet and weight management, nutritional drinks, scales, nutritional supplements and more.” This only encourages more shopping than advising on healthy eating to customers. However, the bottom line is that if they do advice on healthy eating the information is hidden away and cannot be easily found (Emerald Group, 2002:6). However, other supermarkets have highly advanced in providing advice on healthy eating. Most of them have their own fit and active brand, which provides information on living a healthy lifestyle. They provide fit facts on their food labels of their range of goods giving nutritional information of food for sale (Jones, Hillier, & Comfort, 2011:940). This is the diet advice; “following low cholesterol, transfer free diet is an essential to maintain health. To monitor what you put eat, simply check and every fit and active package for the extra ways of choice. Each product is written, “ better for you “, a good source of minerals and vitamins, caffeine free, transfers free or low cholesterol, a good source of fiber. It is just a way to see benefits of making smarter choice of food everyday” The above is a sample of a good diet advice by a supermarket though not mentioning everything. Some other supermarkets have websites highlighting several products dedicated to health, such as health stations to monitor health, nutritional scoring system, plus arrangements of tours to their supermarket with a registered dietician to answer customers’ nutrition question and conduct informative food tour tours in our stores. They also add nutrition-scoring system to their shelf tags to assist customers make quicker, simpler comparisons between foods (Obitz, 2009:16). This is a clever marketing strategy rather than providing healthy eating information on their website. They encourage their customers to go to the supermarket store to learn more about health as they shop. Most customers are happier listening to a professional in the store where they can ask questions about specific food products before shopping. Supermarkets also collaborate with national and local media to broadcast on health news, medical information and some recipes. Although supermarkets try to provide a solution for healthy living on their brands or food products they offer, they should strive to provide concise and clear information on how to draw a personal health diet (Li, 2008:3). Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom manages to provide the UK government Eatwell on their dedicated website, which is commendable. Supermarkets have embraced healthy living message by providing innovative commercial response to the need of providing more health advice to the public in general. For instance, Kroger supermarket chain provides dieticians (medical professionals) on site to provide advice to shoppers about health and healthy eating. Through providing more comprehensive information separated from food product placement, all supermarkets could do better in promotion of healthy eating to their customers and public in general. Bibliography Burch, D., & Lawrence, G. (2007). Supermarkets and agri-food supply chains: transformations in the production and consumption of foods. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Cheverton, P. (2004). Key marketing skills: strategies, tools & techniques for marketing success. London [u.a.]: Kogan Page. Emerald Group. 2002. The secrets of Tescos expansion success: How the UKs largest supermarket is creeping up on Carrefour and Wal-Mart. Strategic Direction, 21(11), pp. 5-7. Henry, A. (2008). Understanding strategic management. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Jones, P. Hillier, D. & Comfort, D. 2011. Shopping for tomorrow: promoting sustainable consumption within food stores. British Food Journal, 113(7), pp. 935-948. Li, E. 2008. Supermarket Chains and grocery Market in the UK. Available from: http://www.ceibs.edu/bmt/images/20100319/23714.pdf [Accessed 8 Nov. 2012] Obitz, C. 2009. Supermarket differentiation in the UK: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation. Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag. Randall, G. & Seth, A. 2011. The Grocers: The Rise and Rise of Supermarket Chains. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers. Read More