Uni Summer School Work So Far

Session 1:

How has retail been impacted by Covid 19?

Many retailers have been impacted by Covid in many ways but for now I am focusing on Aldi and Tesco's for questions 2 and 3.

How has sector been impacted by COVID-19? What has changed?

For the retail sector there is a lot of changes due to covid 19. One of the main changes to the retail industry is social distancing and what it has forced shops to adapt to. For example, most shops now have: one in one out, 2m distances, and less people in shops. This impacts the way that they must operate as there's one ways systems and less staff on duty as less people have been paying in store. Because of this some stores have had to shut down which have made highstreets empty because of the lack of shops so people would also not feel like they should do their shopping there.

What has the impact on employees, costs, and profits been?

For Aldi they have invested £1.3b in the Uk, which opened 100 new stores and over 4000 new jobs. This has made 10% more profit in the year 2020, especially in the non-food and wine section (up to 70% in 2020 from 40% in 2019). This is overwhelmingly positive for Aldi as they have adapted right to the pandemic and seem to be going healthy still. From my research for Tesco's, I haven't found so many figures, but I have found some here. In August 2020 they made 1600 new jobs, 50000 temporary jobs in the first wave, and 11000 more during Christmas to help with the demands during those timings. This is good because they have been able to keep afloat and adapt to what they needed in that time. In terms of money: “The pandemic has also led to significant additional costs, particuly in payroll.” so they have been putting money on staff which helped to keep the store open and them making money.

How has the sector adapted over the past 12 months (June 2020 - June 2021)?

Aldi has opened more shops which in turn created more jobs. They have adapted like this probably because they realised that people are out of jobs and can't travel far, so make jobs and deliver shops to them. On top of this, they have used Deliveroo to get groceries to people who are vulnerable to make sure that they can eat and get shopping. For Tesco’s they have made jobs where possible and introduced more times for deliveries to make sure they run smoothly and get people what they need. Session 2: 1.Using the sector ideas that you researched from Session 1, think about how that sector might need to further adapt moving forward. Are there any differences between what's happening in different countries? If so, why do you think this might be?

I think that the sector might have to adapt to be able to use more technology moving forward. This is because we rely on people to help us pay, but for Amazon Go this might not always work but as we move on in the future the tech will get better. The Amazon Go is in America, and I think that America will be doing things differently as many businesses have a main hub in America so they can develop tech in America.

2.Think about the impact on consumers/customers i.e., YOU, and how consumers might need to learn to do things differently in order to be able to continue to access products or services

If I carry on with the tech idea, then we would have to learn to adapt to that change to continue to use them. Also, if you have always done shopping in store and you decide to start shopping online then you would have a learning curve then. This isn't entirely bad as businesses could be getting more customers in from online so they can make money and grow even more.

3.How do you think the sector will continue to be constrained by Government legislation?

If we keep on coming in and out of all these lockdowns, then retail would take more of a hit because more businesses would not have any money to sustain themselves. This is bad because the highstreets is the most impacted, and they could be impacted much more easily now. Small businesses might not be able to go online either so they will be forced to be bankrupt and completely close which is no good.

Bibliography:

Tesco 1:

Covid-19 - Tesco PLC

tescos. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.tescoplc.com/covid-19/> [Accessed 22 July 2021].

Tesco 2:

Tescos. 2020. Adapting to Covid19. [Online]. [22 July 2021]. Available from: https://www.icaew.com/insights/interviews-and-profiles/2020/July-2020/Adapting-to-COVID19-the-Tesco-story

Aldi 1:

The guardian. 2020. Aldi to create 4,000 more UK jobs as sales surge in Covid crisis. [Online]. [22 July 2021]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/28/aldi-uk-jobs-sales-covid-crisis-supermarket-stores

Aldi 2:

Aldi. 2020. Adapting to Covid19. [Online]. [22 July 2021]. Available from: https://www.aldi.co.uk/covid19