There is talk of Asda and Sainsbury merging together.I wonder if this will be a good /bad thing for customers

It will ting the usual economies of scale, of course, but they still, as traditionally, target different markets.

Asda has traditionally been young working class families, while Sainsbury is still regarded as a bit more up-market middle c'ass.

The Monopolises Commission won't like it, and some of the distribution centres will undoubtedly close.

If I were a Sainsbury shareholder I'd be a bit wary of further expansion after Argos.

It feels like a wrong fit to me because of the different styles and different customer bases. That being said, we have a huge Asda about 5 minutes walk from here and I think it has moved a bit upmarket in the past year or two, away from the cruddy dump most Asdas turned into after the Wal-Mart buyout. The largest (in terms of floor space) Sainsbury in the country is less than two miles away so it seems obvious that the Asda will close if the merger goes through.

I don't use either chain very much and, for me, the ideal outcome would be for Waitrose to take over the Asda site but that's probably unlikely as they have problems of their own and there is a Waitrose over on the other side of the city, around 6 or 7 miles away.

Like Laurie, I'm not convinced that, if I was a shareholder, I'd vote for it. After Argos, it could be a step too far and it has a whiff of being more about doing down Tesco than a sound business development.

Won't make much difference to me. My nearest Asda is a £100 taxi ride away so of necessity I have to use a delivery service.

My default store is Sainsbury, for to reasons only - their coffee beans and their pork pies, neither of which are available elsewhere.

On such is the viability of corporate giants decided!

It will be interesting here as we have a small Asda and a small Sainsburys in the same high street not far from each other

I doubt if the Competitions Authority will be too bothered by local "metro" style stores, but the big out of towners.

They'll need to be careful they don't actually kill competition though.

In Dundee, and i'm sure there are many similar, there are four Tesco, two Asda and one Sainsbuty. If the close one of the Asdas it's Tesco that will benefit and they're alredy pretty big!

I heard earlier a spokesman for Sainsbury saying there will be no store closures and no redundancies among staff. Everything will simply carry on as before. Leaving aside the question of whether or not we believe him, I'm left asking, what, then, is the point? As I suggested earlier, it may be more about poking Tesco in the eye with a pointy stick than anything else.

I heard earlier a spokesman for Sainsbury saying there will be no store closures and no redundancies among staff.

Not their decision.

The Competitions Authority will decide.

You're right of course but I guess the spokesman was just voicing what's on the Wish List (the one for public consumption, that is).

It seems to me that it won't make any difference to the customers. Both stores will be run on the same lines they are now.
The only difference being the 'Mother Company' will have profits from both.

Look at when Edinburgh Woolen Mills took over Peacocks. Their stores haven't changed - not have they had any loss of jobs.

I don't think I've ever been in a Peacocks store and it may be completely unrelated but I do think the styles and quality on offer in EWM has declined in recent years. I used to be a fan: well made, classic clothing when you needed it in a decent range of co!ours and styles. These days, however, they're more like M&S - dreary colours and styles that appeal to nobody of any age or shape and everything skimped. Shirts just too short to tuck in properly; sizing scaled down so things only just fit and feel uncomfortably tight so you try a size larger and that's too big; a complete lack of longer length trousers; unpleasant man made fabrics, collars that sit badly.
I've given up on them but the start of the decline, in my mind, at least, was around the time of the Peacock merger.

Andere Richtingen wrote:You're right of course but I guess the spokesman was just voicing what's on the Wish List (the one for public consumption, that is).

As you say, public consumption.

As they announce the redundancies, they can blame the Competition Authority.