Greg Wallace – Christmas Supermarket Secrets

Greg Wallace revealed Christmas Supermarket Secrets in last Thursday’s programme on BBC1.

This time he covers how supermarkets do Christmas and it was all about brussel sprouts, smoked salmon, wine, trolleys and logistics. Tesco and Waitrose are the companies featured this time and Greg gets a further insight into the science of how supermarkets develop products that customers will buy and then deliver them at the right price.

Waitrose is tackling traditional love to hate Christmas dinner favourite, brussel sprouts using plant breeding to improve their taste. The traditional sprout has a bitter taste and the supermarket has been working with their growers for several years to make them sweeter.

Greg’s visit to the Wanzl shopping trolley factory in Stuttgart reveals not only why they are nearly indestructible, but also that retailers in other countries require different designs. Who would have thought that there is so much that goes into this supermarket basic.

The secret life of wine is an eye opener. Here he features how Tesco delivers wine to this country in 23,000 litre plastic bags. It is then bottled in the UK, with the glass bottle being at least a third of the weight it’s not a surprising revelation. When Gregg reveals that supermarkets sell a whopping 84% of the wine consumers in the UK buy you know that you should take note of the biggest, Tesco.

This is another programme packed with just how your big competitors do retail. For me it is a must watch as there are lessons for retailers of any size on show.

The Supermarket Top 3 Christmas sellers are

1. Potatoes
2. Chocolates
3. Mince Pies

The tip from Tesco’s head of wine is only display the products that you know you are going to sell during December. Remove your slow sellers to give you room to maximise the sales of the products that customers will want at Christmas.