Sainsbury’s food-to-go ranges are reported to have disappeared from WH Smith travel stores nine months after the trial partnership began.
Last July, Sainsbury’s began supplying 10 WH Smith outlets in airports, railways stations and hospitals with a limited range of sandwiches, snacks and light meals. Sainsbury’s Director for Business Development, Michael Luck, said at the time that the initiative was part of the supermarket group’s strategy to work with “new partners to grow our business and respond to rapidly changing shopping habits”.
However, a report by trade magazine The Grocer revealed at the end of last week that Sainsbury’s-branded products were no longer stocked in the trial stores. In some cases, the supermarket’s food-to-go lines had been replaced by the Greencore’s ‘Munch’ range.
Spokespersons for both retailers stated that they were currently reviewing results from the trial.
NAM Implications:
- A good quality in retail is the ability to fail fast.
- Trying different initiatives also helps…
- …with the added benefit for retailers that footfall determines success/failure, ‘instantly’…
- NAMs that take this all on board, and propose initiatives accordingly…
- Cannot go far wrong.
