Coles has opened a smaller format store in Melbourne’s Surry Hills. Click here to see the report in The Age from yesterday.
I am sure we will see more smaller format models emerge from supermarkets. It makes sense, especially in the ready to cook and ready to heat and eat space, where there is terrific growth. This follows similar models in the US and Europe.
What is interesting to me is that we are not seeing in Australia the UK model of local c-store formats from supermarkets. In towns across the UK you have, often, several supermarkets represented in small format retail focussed on ready to cook and ready to heat and eat as well as newsagency lines like lotteries, magazines, newspapers and a category I will call easy (last minute) gifts.
If we did see this UK model emerge here, the challenge to traditional newsagency businesses would be more considerable than the new Coles opening in Surry Hills.
Of course, what Coles has just launched is not a destination for the company. It is another step in their exploration of new format ‘supermarkets’. I am sure we will see more change, in this store and allied formats from the company.
Small format is important as more retailers explore cash-less counter-less retail, like the Amazon Go model in the US. The nature of that advance in retail is such that small format is important given the cost of tech and the nature of the products being sold.