RE: Delivering long term profitable growth24 Jul 2025 10:18
Johnjo, this is absolute twaddle. You drive the lowest prices you drive out the competitors. If you can buy the same product cheaper in B&M rather than at Tesco or Asda, people won't care about loyalty, or rewards, they'll go where the same product is cheapest and convenient for them. As I have said before, there are plenty of influencers raving about B&M products, targeting the lower income households who will be looking for holiday bargains, return to school products, halloween products, and then christmas goodies. You can't beat B&M for christmas bits and pieces at great prices! So loyalty and rewards just don't come in to it. And thank heavens they don't have an online store front, because Marks is about to get sued heavily for its data breach, it's going to cost them millions and they'll be in trouble financially I suspect as a result when the payments start. I went in to Colliers Wood M&S yesterday, it was pitiful, virtually nothing in the mens section, and nothing inspiring in the womens, and the home section wasn't much better either. The food section was okay, but with a lot of reduced items, which is good the for the pocket, but not good for M&S and I asked an assistant why so many goods reduced, and she said because Marks have got the current retail climate all wrong, people just can't afford to pay top prices right now and they're not doing so, they are preferring to shop elsewhere.
B&M will do well in the run up to Christmas and particularly now so that people are worried about higher taxation. This is where the likes of stores such as B&M, The Range, etc come in to their own. When money is tight, they get a high turnover.