GROCERIES PUTS STRAIN ON AUSSIES HOUSEHOLD BUDGETS By Katie Davis
SIMONS A PART OF CANADIAN RETAIL HISTORY SINCE 1840 By Barry Cox When I was first given this story, I thought that I was doing a story about a bed manufacturer, boy was I wrong. So I started my research in Simons Stores. So the story begins in 1812 when Peter Simons arrived from Scotland and settled on a small farm near Quebec City to raise his family of five. In 1840 Peter’s son, John, moved into the city to open a small shop, where he sold dry goods and various imported wares. To make sure John’s business received the latest in goods from Europe, John personally made over 70 Atlantic crossings by sailing ship. John understood early that attention to detail, quality merchandising and attentive service for his customers would set the stage for the future success of La Maison Simons. John’s passion is still very much alive as more than 176 years after his first store opened in Quebec City. Simons faces fresh competition from U.S. luxury retailer, Saks Fifth Avenue as a new entrant into the Canadian market and Seattle-based retailer, Nordstrom continues its expansion push with its first location in Ontario with the new Missis- sauga store to gain additional Canadian market share. After the successful launch of its Vancouver location last fall, the family-owned company stated that it would open in Mississauga. Plans were put into place for a sprawling two-storey, 110,000-square-foot store which opened in March of this year at Square One Shopping Centre inMississauga. “I always see competition as being beneficial,” Simons CEO Peter Simons said in an interview. “It’s a very aggressive time in retailing where you have to be very focused on what you’re doing, what you bring that’s different. “I think we bring a completely different mid to high range experience that relates to really how customers are shopping. They’re crossing over these lines from luxury to mid-range, and I think we’re creating value with unique product.” Still, Peter admitted that the Simons still had “a lot of work to do in explaining our story,” acknowledging that despite the company’s lon- gevity and cross-Canada growth, it still remains an unknown to many in the country. “I told the buyers last week 150 years, five generations of our family worked in Quebec to build our reputation. ... We’re going to spend a bit of time working on it in Toronto and Vancouver and try to spend a bit of time explaining why we’re important and why we’re worth coming to visit.” Something tells me that Peter and his Simons stores are on the right track, knowing their customers and their market, keeping them well ahead of the luxury to mid-range retailer pack.
Food prices are up regardless of where you live these days, but it seems the cost of food is squeezing the most out of Australian household budgets than any other costs. A recent The Spend Sacrifice Report compiled by financial compari- son website www.comparethemarket.com.au found grocery bills put households under the most pressure, with 88 percent of Australian’s concerned and anxious about the impact these costs have on their household budgets. A close second was fluctuating gas prices, which accounted for 83 percent concern and third was energy bills at 78 percent for the biggest expenses causing concern for those that took part in the report.
The site’s spokeswoman Abigail Koch said, “Providing families with healthy food seemed to put the biggest pressure on budgets,’’
“The weekly pressures of buying groceries hurts their budgets the most as opposed to utility bills which are usually only paid every quarter.”
“Petrol prices have come down in recent months but this still creates a lot of cost anxiety and people are shopping around for their petrol.”
But Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows in the past five years average annual rates of household price changes have slowed and some Australian watch dog groups have even recorded negative price change.
However the category of food and non-alcoholic beverage costs has increased on average by about 2.5 per cent between 2010 and 2014.
To minimize the cost pressures more half of the people in the report are taking leftovers to work for lunch rather than going out for lunch and one in five people reported cutting out coffees and tea purchases to save money. Koch said more Australians need to be proactive in scoring better deals to cut household costs on expenses including utility bills and insur- ance costs by comparing products and switching to companies that are offering the best rates.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • MAY 2016
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