by Tazeen Ahmad
During my time at Sainsbury’s, the financial crisis became a full-blown recession—our first for almost two decades. Every week brought more job losses and unemployment soared. It now stands at 2.26 million with experts predicting it will hit the 3 million mark by 2010. Interest rates are still at a record low at 0.5 per cent, house-buying activity is low, new car sales continue to dip, there is reduced availability of credit and charities say their donations have fallen.
But since I left there has been talk of the first green shoots of recovery, suggesting that the worst of the recession may now be over. Others believe it is only just starting to bottom out, while many still forecast that it will continue until 2010. At the time of writing, the economy remains fragile and consumer confidence is still low, so for now we are stuck in the mud. Any recovery will be sluggish and the government and the Bank of England have their work cut out.
However, over the past several months I’ve witnessed first-hand how the supermarkets have adapted swiftly to these hard times and bucked the trend across the rest of the retail industry. From the giants to the discount stores, most have seen a boost in profits. They’ve offered promotions, played up discounts, catered for consumers trading downwards and seduced each other’s customers. Both Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer have just celebrated big anniversaries, 140 and 125 years respectively, a reminder that—despite some mixed fortunes—they have survived two world wars and several recessions. They will live to tell the tale of this one too. Morrisons and Asda have also been successful in turning economic adversity into corporate triumph, while Sainsbury’s has hung on to its customers by promoting and extending its Basics range. All have enjoyed bumper profits and they look set to continue turning this crisis to their advantage by meeting both the needs of their customers and their shareholders alike. The supermarkets are the real winners in this recession. They in turn say they will create thousands of jobs this year in a bid to help boost employment levels in the UK.
Nonetheless things aren’t looking too rosy for the ordinary families coping with the stresses of being financially stretched. Latest figures show that food-price inflation is almost four times higher in the UK in any other EU country—and this is translating on to the shop floor: the cost of a basket of twenty-four staple grocery items has reportedly increased by an average of 18 per cent over the last year, but retailers insist that the worst food-price hikes are behind us. Either way, in the few weeks before I left, I saw a sea change, a wartime mindset: the reality of the recession had set in and people were starting to acclimatise. Customers began making cuts, looking for bargains, using their points, digging around for vouchers, switching to cheaper brands, taking food off the bill when the total was too high, and some had taken to shopping around in different stores. This is what people are doing now, and if things take a turn for the worse, they will simply cut back even further. Many of my customers have already started going out less and cooking at home from scratch. Despite the tough times, both the shoppers and the supermarkets have found their feet quickly.
As for my shop-floor colleagues, they are still slogging away.
Trolley Boy continues to marvel customers with his infinite memory bank.
Michelle is still on probation but working hard to make an impression.
Adam is moving from one department to the other, hoping to be moved up to management.
Richard is earmarked for bigger things—today customer service, tomorrow the world.
Rebecca is still working around the clock and delighting colleagues and customers with her dry wit. When I confessed she said, ‘It’s like The Secret Millionaire, without the £10,000 cheque.’
As for the chairs, last I heard there was still no sign of any new ones.
And me? I’m on my best behaviour every time I stop at the supermarket checkouts.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to my wonderful literary agent Andrew Gordon for his dogged faith in this, my eagle-eyed and tactful editor Robin Harvie at Harper Collins for running with it and the legendary TV power broker Sue Ayton for her unwavering commitment.
My gratitude to:
My mother for dropping everything at a moment’s notice—for me and my children—and to my parents-in-law for picking up where she has left off. My brother for always being my first Phone-A-Friend option, my brother-in-law for being a superb sounding-board and Andrew J for his inspired input.
My fine friends: Shariq for being Open All Hours and Parmie for her ‘do or die’ advice.
My two beloved, gorgeous mini-men whose hilarious quips leave me keeling over with laughter and whose tolerance of my work is truly remarkable in people so little.
Mr Tough Love, my brilliant and beautiful husband, for believing in all my madcap ideas, inspiring me with his and for always being braver than I dare to be.
And finally to the late Professor Cyprion who would have been tickled pink by this.
Copyright
The Friday Project An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB www.thefridayproject.co.uk www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published by The Friday Project in 2009
Copyright © Tazeen Ahmad 2009
FIRST EDITION
Tazeen Ahmad asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This book is a work of non fiction. In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics and details have been changed or reconstructed.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JULY 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34243-3
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com