There will be more on B&M for our subscribers this week and next week too as we assess their trading at the moment and what the new CEO faces as he takes charge too.

Our subscribers benefit from a fuller report with analysis and further examples from our store visits.

Here are a couple of observations that I picked up when touring a store recently.

It's clear that Ambient Grocery is important for B&M; the entire layout is geared up for this, it's the first things customers see.

However, increasingly, the operation is becoming overly complex due to what feels like relatively primitive systems and gap filling processes ends up with the store messing around for presentation purposes.

Therefore they merchandise to the levels of stock they have, which is time consuming, expensive and drives significant variation across the estate (each store has different stock levels and individual views on what good looks like).

For a business that openly talks about scores out of 10 for each visit, it feels like the corporate direction is actually driving the wrong behaviour.

Attempts at vanity over sanity (such as here) means that the central offices and supply chain don't have to fix basic supply issues because the stores just cover the gaps over.

This means that the customer availability is so varied, when by now, B&M should be a serious player, offering a solid range of Ambient Groceries alongside their specials and spot buys, also.

Mint Sauce overload here too. Lines don't sell at the same rate so that is largely a waste of space, putting the product all the way across the fixture.

Not aligned with seasonality (IE warm weather) and ends up looking lopsided versus what the customer expects to find.

Core planograms and gap preservation, whilst ugly, would fix this.

I noted with interest that Poundland are to remove their Chilled and Frozen offer (all but meal deal, at least) as part of their turnaround plan. For B&M; I just wonder, is there any point with this sparse offering of Chilled? It adds complexity and doesn't look or feel credible.

Sort of half in, half out. Either do it properly, or it's just adding complexity (and waste!)

Again, the process in store to merchandise to the stock levels means that the (seemingly) popular Nescafe variants are low, so end up being 1 jar wide and looking near bizarre. Whilst the larger jar has many more facings, this will change as the trading day progresses too.

It's wasted labour. If it's in the range, leave the gap!

£7.25 is also a challenging price point too. 190g (shelf label says 200g but it could have been old) is £6.75 in Tesco, and Amazon. B&M are verging on comparable lines being directly comparable elsewhere, and that's bad news when they're found wanting on price.

The whole point of a B&M is that the stores offers "bargains" and surprisingly good value across the piece. Customers expect a price gap, whether marginal or clear, they certainly don't expect supermarket pricing.

Recently Asda have dropped Pringles to £1.88 (Asda Price) which takes that brand out of the promotional hi/lo. B&M were at £1.95 / £2 which just isn't good enough frankly, they did have a deal (2 for £3.50) but that meant the customer had to spend £3.50 to access the deal.

The above example is another that shows how they've lost their way, bloated ranges and offering all the pack sizes a supplier has to offer.

The price isn't strong, and the deal is poor value. Spend £4 to save 20p.

Would you?
Would a B&M customer?

Unlikely.

The market is as competitive as ever and B&M have to carve out their niche again in this area, because Asda are strengthening on brands and Aldi/Lidl are trading more brands than ever from the middle aisles....

Enjoy this email? Our subscribers receive more of this insight with a wider consideration for B&M and its competitors, what else are B&M getting wrong and what do they need to do, to get it right again?

You can join our service on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis by clicking the link below.

£1,997.00 / year Retail by Email Insight Service Find out what's going on in the world of retail from me, Steve Dresser, of the foremost authorities in Retail. Subscribe... Read more Get it now!

​

If you'd like to join as a corporate subscriber (IE a press office, or similar) or would just prefer to pay by PO.

Please get in touch with your requirements.