Contents 1 Introduction............................................................................1 2 Industry overview...................................................................2 3 Remote Environment Analysis..............................................

3
3.1 Political..............................................................................................................3 3.1.1 Relative rules on equal competition............................................................4 3.1.2 Requirements on Environment Protection..................................................4 3.1.3 Regulations on Product Safety....................................................................5 3.2 Economic...........................................................................................................5 3.2.1 Food Price Movement....................................................................6 3.2.2 Disposable Income Level..............................................................7 3.2.3 Unemployment Rate.....................................................................7 3.3 Social..................................................................................................................8 3.3.1 Life and Work Style.......................................................................8 3.3.2 Demographics...............................................................................8 3.4 Technological.....................................................................................................9 3.4.1 IT Technology.............................................................................................10 3.4.2 New Technological Products......................................................................11 3.5 PEST analysis summary..................................................................................11

4 Operating Environment Analysis........................................12

4.1 Threat of entry................................................................................................13 4.1.1 Government Policy.....................................................................................13 4.1.2 Product Differentiation..............................................................................14 4.2 Intensity of rivalry...........................................................................................15 4.2.1 Product Differentiation & Switching Cost.................................................15 4.2.2 Growth rate & Exist Barriers......................................................................16 4.2.3 Three supermarkets' competitive strategies................................................17 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers........................................................................18 4.4 Bargaining power of buyers............................................................................19 4.5 Threats of substitutes.......................................................................................20 4.6 Porter's 5 forces analysis summary................................................................21

5 Conclusion.............................................................................22 Appendix A:Evaluation of techniques used..........................23 Appendix B: References..........................................................24

Appendix C: Bibliography......................................................26
1 Introduction

British supermarket industry took long times to established. It same as other supermarket defined the attributes of a supermarket as self-service, separate product departments, discount pricing, marketing and volume selling during the past nearly 200 years. There is no doubt that the British supermarket is one of the pillar industries with high annual revenues. But the British supermarket also face intense competition from discount retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco. So the British supermarket industry has adapted to meet other markets need. Many factors will influence the British supermarket become success, such as the support of the government policy, the special economic environment, the developed technology used in the industry and so on.

In the following part, the PEST and Porter's Five Forces will be an important analysis tools to evaluate the remote environment and competitive arena of British supermarket industry. After that, based on the analysis before, look at how they affect on the future performance of British supermarket industry. In this report, it will try to achieve the following objectives: To look at the history of the British supermarket industry. To find out the key factors that influences the industry in the remote environment. To critically evaluate the five forces in the operating environment. To identify the key points of external factors that should be analyzed in depth, and illustrate how the remote and operating environment affect on the players. To look forward the future of the industry.

2 The History of Industry

British supermarket is a powerful industry that always maintains creating high sales and profits. It is offering a wide variety of food and non-food items, such as
2

household cleaners and pharmacy products. In 1950, Sainsburys opened its first self-service shop that makes the supermarket get more recent notion in the UK. The British supermarket industry developed vastly for the growth and expansion, especially after the Second World War and 1960s respectively.
[1]

In the first

prosperous time, government provided the favorable policy to stimulate the retail market to develop rapidly, and it also provided a suitable environment for the growth of the supermarket industry at that time. The second time, supermarket industry expanded quickly with its sales and profits, and it becomes a powerful national industry with its dramatic changes.

According to the boom in supermarket sales and profits over recent years, the British supermarket industry and the grocery market is always based on the top four supermarkets that are Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrison, which can be showed from the following chart. The four top supermarkets occupy over 60% of the grocery market in 1998, and the percentage has increased to 76.2% in ten years' in Tesco, also Tesco become the first British retailer in its increasing interest.

From the report of outcome on supermarket analysis, which is shows that nearly 90% is man shopping at Tesco after 2000, and one quarter of their cost on general

merchandise is spent at Tesco.

[2]

The above data shows that the rapid development

in the supermarket industry, and the effectively operating of the four supermarket giants. With the recent movement increases of British supermarket industry, more and more pressure placed on managers and companies, so this trend could be leading the competition more fierce among all the existing supermarkets especial this top four powerful giants. In the following two parts, further analysis on the supermarket environment, which mainly focuses on this top four supermarket giants.

3 Remote Environment Analyses

As we know every industry has to concerns its environments, which can directly impact of UK supermarkets on customers, suppliers, employees, local communities. According to Finlay (2000), the industry environment could be divided into remote and operating environment, and for the total competing players in this industry the remote environment seems to be similar.
[19]

The factors in the remote environment

consist of many aspects, such as level of disposable income, inflation rates and propensity of people to spend. In the following part political, economical, social and technological elements will be the main points to analyze respectively. The purpose of it is to use the PEST analysis to modify an existing product to better meet an existing need or want, and also develop a new product or new services.

3.1 Political

Political factor plays an important role in an industry operation and impact on the British supermarkets marketing activities. All organizations need to recognize that their success of failure could depend on how they make the political decisions. It includes elements such as different legal systems and regulations, these elements always restrict and affect the company's performance, especially influence the company's long-term investment activities.

3.1.1 Relative Rules on Equal Competition

The company's competition comes from many aspects, but almost the competitive is correlation with the supplier and buyer. For the British supermarket industry, the competition between retailers and food suppliers are critical. So for keeping a fair competition environment for the British supermarket, the Competition Commission has recommended several suggestions to control the supermarket giants' balance. The suggestions of Competition Commission include the market share of its nearest rivals, which will require the local government to be allowing on giving land.
[3]

These

rule will going to have a major impact in dealing with the strong supermarket giant and the weak ones. And also reduce the pressure during the competition.

After a two-year investigation on the British supermarket industry, a stronger supermarket code of practice (SCOP) will uphold. SCOP could provide more protection for the retailers or farmers to create a relatively fair competition environment. [4] Just Like Luke Herbert said, Real competition comes from promoting a range of choices from large supermarkets to smaller shops not just by encouraging the big chains to face off against each other.

3.1.2 Requirements on Environment Protection

Environment issues become more and more important in the human society and the future development of national economy. Nowadays, lots of countries pay more attention on environment protection including Britain as well. In 2005 Britain formulates the third sustainable development strategy which special emphasis on the food is an important element for environment evaluation.
[5]

Product packaging

problem of the British supermarket is very clearly to see, and Local Government Association (LGA) is arguing that the supermarket need to pay for the extra recycling cost when over packaging.
[6]

This government chose Tesco to testing a new policy

that aims to reduce packaging in many products. Its also can preserve environment. Reducing packaging not only protect the environment, but also to reduce the cost of supermarkets in the future. 3.1.3 Regulations on Product Safety Food safety is extremely strict in Britain, and very serious punishment would to be carried out if the rules are broken. Food Standard Agency performs new food regulations to restriction on half-baked meat products in 2006, and also announces some healthy suggestions on keeping fit, such as consuming less salt and sugar on some food, more fresh fruits, and etc.
[7]

The above factors shows the new food

supply chains on supermarkets new product strategies.

3.2 Economic

National and even the global economic factors influence all businesses. The successful industries will respond to economic conditions refers to the national economic development, national and global economic trends, the industry competitive environment. The British supermarket is also very sensitive to changes interest rates that include lots of reasons, such as inflation, price movement and etc. This part will be analyzing the remote environment of an industry of supermarket in UK.

3.2.1 Food Price Movement

Price movement is very flexible in the industry. In fact, the price behaviour can emphasise the economic activity in an industry. Its fluctuation can bring opportunities to affect the competitors strategy formulation, and also provide implications for the future economic trend.

The above illustration shows the British food price movement in 2008 and in the last ten years. It obviously shows the price of food increase in 2008 and another shows the past ten years. These two tables can analysis the British supermarket how to keep the customers' visit frequency and how to achieve the same profits level as before at different period time. As we know the discounted-format can help supermarket to raise sales and make profits. It also provides the way to find out the methods to deifying the British supermarket industry in future.

3.2.2 Disposable Income Level

According to a report published on Times on-line, the UK disposable income in 2008 has reached to the lowest level in the past decade, and the average family has spend 1,210 monthly after paying bills, but there is the little different of the average family in 2007 and it was 1,425.
[8]

From the research, customers

salary spends growing too slow, and cant catch up with the speed of inflation.

So thats the reason of why the disposable income level gets lower compare with in 2007.And the tax and insurances might be the reason as well. Therefore, based on the data above, it can be summarized that the disposable income becomes lower because of the increasing commodity prices, taxes, insurances, and so on. This will affect the British supermarket industry keep stable condition or increase profits.

3.2.3 Unemployment Rate

The labour statistics indicate that the unemployment rate stands at 8.2%, even its down 0.2% over the quarter but still up 0.5% over the year. And the number of unemployed people can in work from January to March in 2012 because of the labour force survey (LFS).
[9]

It seems that the employment situation is get

worse during the price inflation which appears at least the past two decades.

The situation implicates that the UK market is get uncertainty, and it is in the big recession. The figure of unemployment rate provides the low disposable income level that means the very weak economy in UK industry as well as the supermarket industry. So based on the current economic strategy, some appropriate suggestions will required on supermarkets future development strategies.

3.3 Social

It is very important for industries to know consumers behaviours, habits, and lifestyle in order to understand their need, wants, and expectations. Based on those factors, the industry can provide better products and services to satisfy their customers.

3.3.1 Life and Work Style

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In the modern society, people's life and work style changed rapidly with high development speed. This situation offers the opportunities for supermarket industry to understand consumers' demands as soon as possible, and satisfy them effectively. Nowadays, during the pressure of competition, there are lots of other work formats, such as a lot of people work at any time during day and night. So thats the opportunities for supermarkets to increase the profit and sales during the special time. Especially focus on the young people, whose are trying to live a convenient life style, and shop online to save the time. This will allowing the supermarkets have the great online service, and occupy the Internet market share as soon as possible.

3.3.2 Demographics

The age structure in UK has changed clearly from 1971 to 2003 that can be shows in the following chart. The percentage of old people (aged 65 and over) has a slight increase in 2003 comparing with the figure in 1971. Then the percentage in 2031 is predicted to increase obviously. This figure exactly indicates the general trend of the British future population structure. For supermarket industry, this aging trend reminds the managers to form and implement the relative business strategies. Supermarkets can provides more special facilities that are service for old people, commodities that are suitable for aged people, and some healthy food that is good for their health. Above all that to attract the more and more old people to shopping.

Source: www.statistics.gov.uk[10]

3.4 Technological

Technology has affected every field of our society and it also helped develop more advanced for global economy. Technology to be used in British supermarket, it can help feature on a wide range of food and non-food products in stock. The tags help the staff of industries can easily found the products go out of date, and also provide more innovative services and information to customers.

3.4.1 IT Technology

Comparing with the traditionally cashier-staffed checkout method, the new selfservice innovation provides a new level of competitions. Since 2003 the automatic self-checkout machines has been widely implemented in big scale stores. And the self-checkout system reaches to 128bn US dollars during daily food shopping.
[11]

The

self-checkout system reduces the cost of labor compare with the traditionally cashierstaffed checkout method. Otherwise, the self-checkout system can attracts young people's attention, because its more convenient than waiting in the queue. At that time supermarket industry are greatly influenced by this technology. The implement

10

of self-checkout system provides more convenient space for customers especially in busy periods, and also ensure staff of cashier-staffed checkout are not that busy.

Since the supermarket industry realizes how significant of the self-checkout system, the British supermarket industry start to pay more attention and money on developing it. After the above system, new technology which is called RFID (radio frequency identification) that can transfer data from tag attached to the product in supermarket industry. By this situation, the individual supermarkets are trying their best to develop their technology. The individual supermarkets based on analyzing the intelligent systems which already been and are going to be implemented to develop its technology. At present, information technology is adopted gradually be the source of supermarket industry. Nowadays the infrared system are popular used in supermarket as well, and the infrared detector could indicate the real time queue information and calculate how many checkouts are needed in a certain time.
[12]

This

can also provide information for managers to prepare in advance during the busy times.

3.4.2 New Technological Products

In recent years, the great technological development in food products appears. In the past the healthy food mainly focuses on the nutrition during the healthy elements, but now in the modern time the healthy food is get different, which is called "Mood Food" largely focuses on adjusting mood.
[13]

According the research, that kind of food

contains several chemistry phenomenons. That kind of food can help reducing pressure and making people calm down. Right now more and more high technologies have been used into the mood food in order to keep favorable taste. More and more people interested in mood food, so there will have the big market share about mood food. And low price with good quality will make it easy to be accepted by existing and potential customers.

11

Actually the British supermarket industry has already got the mood food several years ago, and tries to sell it. And the previous price of mood food is expensive, but people still going to buy it for the healthy lifestyle. Now the price of the mood food will be reduced with the new technology comes out. According to the report, new function will be added into the mood food such as strengthening memories, and this kind of hi-tech food will appear in the common products market, created it as the normal bread because common people could easily accept it.
[13]

It shows that this hi-tech

food would like to create a large potential market in supermarket industry.

3.5 PEST analysis summary

The remote environment of British supermarket industry has the big challenges basing on the analysis on political and economic factors. According to above analysis, the government has intention to limit the development of large supermarkets. For the economic aspect, the low disposable income, high unemployment rate and serious credit crunch create the obstacles for the British supermarket to survive and expand. But the different population structure and the life style, and the technology innovation do really provide opportunities for the British supermarkets.

Except for those elements that are mentioned above, many other elements such as tax policy and inflation rate could possibly affect the industry indirectly. Some of these elements may be combined together to influence the industry such as the technology development will be changed by the several of life style. Because technology innovations could make the new life style appearance and the supermarket can consider in advance satisfying customers new need through technology

development. So that the remote environment is external, and could not be exactly controlled by the industry. Therefore the British industry could not only follow these

12

factors in the remote environment, but also try to changes the business strategies as soon as possible to improve the sales and profit.

4 Operating Environment Analyses

During this part, the operating environment will be completely analyzed through the Porter's five forces model, and that will shows in the following chart. Porters five forces model can analyzes the competitive forces in which the supermarkets operating environment operates in order to assess the potential for profitability in an industry. According to Porter, the forces consist of threats of potential entrants and substitutes, the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, and the competition among the existing players that can be picked up from the following model.

Through evaluating the five forces the operating environment will be easily understood. By analyzing the competitive environment aims to know how develop the strategic direction, and how improve the business model and how use technology solutions to enable strategic outcomes. In this part Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Morrison will be treated as three main competitors to discuss within the industry in order to analyze the competitive area.

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Potential entrants Threats of entrants Bargaining power Supplier s Rivalry among Existing companies Customers Bargaining power Threats of substitutes Potential substitute s
Source: Based on Porter's five forces (1980)

4.1 Threat of new entrants In the part of threat of new potential entrants two factors will be analyzed. Because of those two factors plays an important role in the operating environment of the Britain supermarket industry.

4.1.1 Government Policy

Government restrictions on potential entrants in the supermarket industry can consist of standards on food and health-related products, licensing requirement and etc.
[20]

Government policy really increase the capital requirement, but it is also a barrier for

14

the potential entrants.

Sometimes government policy can be treated as a difficult barrier for the new entrants; it can provide some assistance at the same time that is discussed in the policy factor of the previous part. For the existing player in the supermarket industry new strategies should be formed during the period of new entrants' product testing in order to maintain former market shares.

4.1.2 Product Differentiation

The differentiations of goods are a strategy to adapt to a moving environment and its social groups. It could be observed that the product in one supermarket is similar to it in others. The different products in supermarket may be their own label goods. According to the report, most of supermarket products are make by the same factory, and labeled differently for different stores.
[14]

This shows the product differentiation

level in British supermarket industry is relatively low in product identification. Otherwise customer loyalty is very hard to build up, so the existing supermarket does a lot of service or good quality product on building good relationships with customers. Many supermarkets start to use their own loyalty card, and sends vouchers frequently to the holders in order to make them continue shopping in the same supermarket. Therefore the customer loyalty for the product differentiation level is very high.

For the potential entrants, low product differentiation level is beneficial to enter an industry. Basing on the analysis of product identification, the potential entrants to be simple in the supermarket industry. According to the existing players create successful customer loyalty, it is still possible for new entrants to enter without lots of difficulties. That because of the supermarket industry is not a special business. And also the operating format in supermarket can be easily followed and imitated.

15

Therefore the entry barrier in the supermarket industry is not very high of product differentiation.

4.2 Intensity of rivalry

As we know, lots of organisations would like to do their business with low intensity of rivalry in an industry. However the supermarket industry in UK is mature and its growth rate seems to be low, so the fierce competition will to be face. In this part, the four factors will be analyzed, which are product differentiation, switching cost, growth rate and existing barriers.

4.2.1 Product Differentiation & Switching Cost

This factors also an important element in analysis the threat of entrants. On the product identification the product differentiation level is low, and on the customer loyalty aspect the level is still not very high. Based on that fact, the fierce rivalry is easily to use, such as price competition among players.

Consider about the switching cost, the people can purchase a whole range of products in the same supermarket. But the situation likes this some or single products in supermarket are more expensive than other supermarkets. So the supermarket managers should be think about the way to solve this problem. However for me this shows that if the customer determines to change the previous supermarket to another one to purchase all the products, the switching cost is low. As mentioned above, the products in every supermarket are similar, and the same offers them. And this factor can also result in serious competition in different supermarkets.

4.2.2 Growth rate & Exist Barriers

The supermarket industry in UK has developed for many years, and it is already a
16

mature retail market nowadays. The fierce credit crunch make the supermarket industry growth tends to be very slow comparing with the earliest of supermarkets industry. By this situation, some supermarket still keeps the high profitability, such as Tesco. From the news and research, the Tesco annual profit in 2008 is as high as 3 billion, and the situation in 2009 is continuing profitable.
[15]

Especially under the

situation of serious financial crisis to keeping profit is so difficult, and some supermarket giants' profitability growth makes other players' stay the low level. And this makes the competition fiercer.

The exit barriers can consists of following factors: cost of barrier, special assets, strategic correlations, emotional elements as well as government and social restrictions.
[20]

The supermarket industrys barrier is high in UK, that because of

following reasons. Firstly, quitting the industry is a disaster to the reputation to the firm and will influence its business in the future operation. Secondly under the financial crisis, government is not willing to see the bankruptcy of the supermarket giants because of unemployment people.

Expect for the elements above, there are some other factors such as diverse competitors, strategic stakes and etc. From the research, the British supermarket industry has high intensity of rivalry.

4.2.3 Three supermarkets' competitive strategies Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrison are the three top supermarket giants to represent the UK supermarkets current situation clearly.

Present strategies of Tesco mainly focus on bordering the scope the business such as introducing more non-food products, and continuing investing in new markets overseas.
[16]

Tesco Individual Finance and Tesco Telecoms offer more products for

customers, which seem that nearly everything could possibly be purchased in Tesco. At the same time various store formats of Tesco keep spreading in UK, and make the
17

products could be sold almost everywhere. The wide range of products from value to finest trends to attract all segments of the customers, and is sold nearly to everyone.
[16]

Sainsbury's strategy also includes non-food products development and expansion of new store estate.
[17]

However it seems that the emphasis of it is on creating and

maintaining the lead in food, which could be concluded, from its descriptions on strategies. Morrison's strategy purely focuses on food and no concerns on the new product development and future expansion
[18]

. So the Tesco rely on the non-food

products and store expansions to be more competitive and profitability. 4.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers belongs to the five factors in Porter's theory, and it should be considered when analyzing the competitive of an industry. Though in the UK supermarket industry the giant players are more powerful comparing with the suppliers, it is still useful to understand the power of the suppliers.

As the big retailers the four supermarkets could get great discounts from the suppliers, and they have strong bargaining power in negotiation. The giant supermarkets sometimes put pressure on their suppliers to transfer risk and loss. According to the news, the giant players set up a new requirement that is the payment to suppliers will be based on the sales in reality
[21]

. However if the suppliers

reject this requirement the giant supermarkets is likely to cut or even end the order forms, and it is deadly for the suppliers who mainly rely on the giant supermarkets.

Another important reason is that the supermarkets are developing more and more own-label products to weaken the partnership with their suppliers in order to maintain as much as possible profits in their own hands. So supermarkets is anticipated to take more actions to put pressure on their suppliers to transfer potential risk of loss

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and cost on competition, and develop more and more own-label products in order to be more profitable. 4.4 Bargaining power of buyers In modern society, the customers' comments and requirements are treated more and more important because of the increasing intensity of competitions in an industry. In other words, the bargaining power of buyers in the market is becoming more and stronger, and the situation is same in UK supermarket industry. It is true that the customers of the supermarket are mainly individuals and family groups, and it seems that their single cost in supermarkets is not very high. However if they keep shopping in only one supermarket, which means they have high loyalty degree to this supermarket, it means that great profits will be achieved through the long-term purchase. To achieve that aim customers' comments and requirements will be treated seriously, and sometimes supermarkets would provide superior advantages for their customers in order to build and fasten their loyalty. On another hand, the switching cost among supermarkets is relatively low which has been discussed in the part of 4.2.1. Then if the customers are not satisfied with one supermarket, it is not difficult for them to find another suitable one in the high intensity of competition in this industry. So the high quality products and service, concerns on customers' comments and requirements are also needed. And this indicates the high bargaining power of buyers. 4.5 Threats of substitutes The products sold in supermarkets are various that include daily food, commodities, and common merchandises which could also been purchased in other stores. The food price in open marketing is lower than it in supermarkets. It is common to purchase a relatively big bag of apples, bananas, grapes, ginger and garlic with only one pound in the open marketing. And at the end of day it is possible to bargain and
19

get much cheaper products. Comparing with supermarkets the open marketing has competitive advantage on price.

But the drawbacks of open markets are also visible. Firstly, the open time is limited which is usually two days in a week, and it is impossible to trade in bad weather such as rainy days. Then the food sold in open markets has no insurance. It is not likely to exchange and get money back if customers are not satisfied with the purchased products. Thirdly the shopping environment in open markets is not as convenient as supermarkets.

Therefore the threats of substitutes in supermarket are not serious on the aspect of food. And on other products the supermarkets also have competitive advantages because of own-label products with low prices, and increasing competition among players. So the threats of substitutes are not crucial in the competitive arena. 4.6 Porter's 5 forces analysis summary Based on the analysis above on the competitive arena in UK supermarket industry, the five forces are influencing this industry and the players' performance in it. Low bargaining power of suppliers and scarce threats of substitutes are good news for the existing companies. Whereas relatively low entry barriers, high intensity of competitions and increasing bargaining power of buyers make the operation situation serious. With considering nowadays financial crisis, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrison have realized the cruel competition from all aspects, and relative competitive strategies are adopted by them in order to achieve unique situation in the market. Tesco's competitive strategy is mainly focus on expansion which is fully talked in the part of 4.2.3.
[16]

That indicates Tesco will seek opportunities to invest in a

certain new markets in order to reduce risk of loss and increase total income. Sainsbury's strategy puts stress on creating and maintaining the lead-ship in food provision, and Morrison's strategy merely put emphasis on food products. [17]
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5 Conclusions Until now remote and operating environment of Britain supermarket industry have been analyzed in the two parts above as well as the way they influence the industrial development and the operators in this market. In conclusion, the remote environment of this sector is full of challenges because of political and economic factors. At the same time social and culture characteristics and technological innovations creates opportunities for the players. On the operating environment high intensity of competition, relatively low entry barriers and high bargaining power of buyers are bad news for the UK supermarket industry. However the low bargaining power of suppliers and powerless threats of substitutes tend to provide a comfortable situation for the industry.

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Appendix A: References 1.http://www.tescopoly.org/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=657&Itemid=158 accessed on 29 April 2009

2. http://www.people.com.cn/GB/guoji/23/91/20010425/451193.html accessed on 1 May 2009

3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7245944.stm accessed on 1 May 2009

4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/7246756.stm accessed on 3 May 2009

5. http://info.yidaba.com/newscenter/4471848.shtml accessed on 3 May 2009

6. http://www.topretailinsg.com/onews-71168.html accessed on 3 May 2009

7. http://www.chaoshi168.com/hydt/shownnews.asp?newsid=3238 accessed on 3 May 2009

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8.http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article4603164.ece accessed on 4 May 2009

9. http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/jobmarket/unemployment.htm accessed on 4 May 2009

10.http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp? id=763&Pos=2&ColRank=2&Rank=672 accessed on 4 May 2009

11.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20040808/ai_n12758608/? tag=content;col1 accessed on 10 May 2009

12.http://www.cio.com/article/454219/UK_Supermarket_Uses_IT_to_Cut_Checkout_ Waits accessed on 10 May 2009

13. http://sci.ce.cn/society/social/200705/10/t20070510_11304510.shtml accessed on 10 May 2009

14.http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Revision:Oligopolies_in_Supermarkets_Ess ay accessed on 15 May 2009

15. http://bj.house.sina.com.cn/biz/hy/2009-04-22/15233017.html accessed on 15 May 2009

16. Finlay, P. N. 2000. Strategic Management: an Introduction to Business and Corporate Strategy. Financial Times: Prentice Hall.

17.Porter, M. E. 1980. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and

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Competitors. MacMillan.

18.http://business.sohu.com/20070821/n251700044.shtml accessed on 16 May 2009

19. http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_fivefoces.htm accessed on 17 May 2009

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Appendix B: Bibliography

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Humby C, Hunt, T, and Phillips, T. 2007. Scoring Points: How Tesco Continues to Win Customer Loyalty. Kogan Page Limited. http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2000/446super.htm accessed on 29 April 2009 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20063221.htm accessed on 1 May 2009 http://www.morrisons.co.uk accessed on 15 May 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco accessed on 16 May 2009

http://www.wccdaily.com.cn/new/html/hxdsb/20080428/hxdsb131342.html on 16 May 2009

accessed

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11289136 on 17 May 2009

accessed

http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=10181 accessed on 17 May 2009

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4785544.stm accessed on 18 May 2009

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/21/tesco-facts accessed on 18 May 2009

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8009718.stm accessed on 18 May 2009

http://baike.baidu.com/view/1068937.htm accessed on 18 May 2009

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