UNIT 32 – P5, M2, D3 FOOD RETAILING
Unit 32 (P5) – Explain how food retailers are meeting their
social, ethical, environmental and corporate responsibilities.
In this task, I will be explaining how Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s are meeting their
social, ethical, environmental and corporate responsibilities.
SOCIAL
Sainsbury’s operate around the UK with more than 1,400 stores including 820 local
convenience stores. In the UK there is a high rise of immigration and people from
different countries migrating to the UK for better life which includes freedom, jobs
and good life for themselves and kids. Sainsbury’s adapt to the changes of the
immigrations by offering a wide range of ethnic cuisines in their retail. This is
important for Sainsbury’s because if they don’t offer ethnic cuisine to meet the
immigration needs, then they are losing out people in the market and this will
decrease their share and sales of Sainsbury’s. Therefore, Sainsbury’s responds to
the social changes and started to offer a wide range of ethnic cuisines, for example
from different ethnicity, furthermore, there is a different section for Asian cuisine.
This is beneficial for the whole market of consumers, even the white British people
can try out different cuisines and this will be a good experience for them.
There is a different social change on work/life balance which means that the working
people finishes work at late and don’t have time to spend on cooking food.
Sainsbury’s have responded to these changes by offering readymade meals and it is
a huge demand especially people who work late at nights. Another way Sainsbury’s
responded to the changes is by opening their hours much longer for the customers
who like to shop late, or the customers who finishes work at night. Sainsbury’s
responded to this by opening more local convenience stores which are opened for
long hours. Right now, Sainsbury’s have over 820 local convenience stores across
the UK and this is good factor for the customers as it will meet their needs. This is
important for Sainsbury’s to acquire these changes because it will meet the
customers needs, furthermore it is beneficial for the customers as they can shop late
and it is helpful for Sainsbury’s as they can keep some of their stores open much
longer in order to gain sales and profit.
People now days in the UK have a good amount of money to be spent on grocery
and shopping. This leads to a greater spending power; in actual facts, people spend
over £100 weekly on shopping, or people spend money on shopping every day and
this is all due to the shopping power. Retailers like Sainsbury’s respond to that by
offering a wide range of products and services, more gourmet food and new branded
food. The more products are available the more customers will purchase. This social
change is important for Sainsbury’s because the spending power is very crucial for
the national retailer, if Sainsbury’s doesn’t react to the people who have money and
want to spend it, customers will spend it elsewhere where there are more varieties
and supply of products. this is the reason why Sainsbury’s creates a wide variety of
products in bulk and this is beneficial for the mass customers who have great
spending power.
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ETHICAL
The main ethical issue which arises are the farmers which aren’t being treated fairly
or being paid the right wages. Big corporation companies abuse their power and pay
less to the farmers who produces crops for their businesses, and this makes the
farmers to work for more hours to get paid more. There are many customers who are
against the unequal treatment against farmers and there are protest about increasing
the pay of the farmers and give them equal treatment. Sainsbury’s have responded
to this by creating their own ethical trading policy for their suppliers. The main
suppliers are the farmers ranging from the UK and international countries such as
South Africa, Africa and Asia. There is a lot of child labour used in the production of
the food for the big businesses, however Sainsbury’s and it’s mentioned in the
policy. Furthermore, Sainsbury’s have also put the fair-trading stamp on their
produce, and this will ensure that the customers who purchase the product will know
that the farmers r suppliers are being fairly treated. Sainsbury’s also pay farmers
bonus pay and also improve the infrastructure of the farmers who produces crops for
Sainsbury’s. this is important for Sainsbury’s because the farmers are the main
stakeholders for the big business, without them Sainsbury’s wouldn’t offer, therefore
Sainsbury’s treats farmers equally with goods right.
Another ethical problem which is harmful for the environment is buying products from
international suppliers. There are many businesses especially retailers who
purchase international product to be added in their supply chain for the customers.
All these trading are generally done through aeroplane, train and ships and they all
emit pollution and that’s harmful for the environment and many different species of
the earth. Sainsbury’s responded to this by purchasing the goods from the local
farmers and promoting their local farmers and supporting them. Sainsbury’s have
consistently sought to work with the British farming industry to source as much
produce as possible from the UK farmers and growers. The vast majority of the
vegetables Sainsbury’s sell throughout the year are British. When in season we are
100% British for strawberries, carrots, broccoli, swede, cauliflower, peas, cabbage,
onions, potatoes, parsnips and sprouts. This retains the freshness and also reduces
the pollution from all the cargo ships and planes. This is helpful for Sainsbury’s and
the environment.
ENVIRONMENTAL
Forests play a key role in the world’s environmental and economic health; they
capture carbon, retain water, help cool down air temperature and host complex
biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Every year, millions of acres of nature forest
are destroyed due to illegal logging, poor forest management practices and a
growing global demand for forest and agricultural products. Sainsbury’s care about
the planet and the effect, and the global suppliers, have on the environment. So
they’re reducing their emissions, their water use and their waste.
Sainsbury’s have a long term commitment to selling own brand products that use
certified or recycled timber to ensure forests used to produce our products are
managed responsibly. Sainsbury’s has extended the scope of the policy to include all
timber derived products sold by us under our own brand.
The issue of climate change is one of the greatest challenges to the global
community. As well the clear moral case for emissions reduction, changing climate
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patterns are a material issue for our business as they are a major threat to food
security. Effective resource management relating to energy reduction is fundamental
to managing our costs as well. Millions of gas emission and other harmful
substances are being released into the earth atmosphere and this is very harmful for
the environment and the greenhouse gases. There are so many manufacturing
companies who play in the role of distributing and manufacturing for the big retailers
in the UK. Sainsbury’s reduced the operational carbon emissions in line with our
target (against a 2005 baseline) continue to be a key focus within our business.
Despite Morrison’s manufacturing expansion and growth of convenience and online,
our carbon intensity continues to reduce year on-year since 2010. Sainsbury’s
continued reduction in absolute carbon emissions was heavily supported by a
reduction in refrigerant gas emissions to 0 by the year 2040 and a 1.5% reduction in
natural gas usage.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Sainsbury’s want to be the UK’s most trusted retailer, where people love to work and
shop. Since they set up shop in 1869, they’ve always had a strong sense of social,
environmental and economic responsibility and an understanding that our success
depends on society’s success. Today, with 1 billion people living in extreme poverty;
malnutrition and obesity becoming more prevalent and our planet’s resources being
pushed to their limits, their values are helping them to drive lasting, positive change
in the UK and internationally. They support the UN Sustainable Development Goals
and want to play their part in tackling climate change, injustice and inequality and
ending poverty. These 17 Goals also offer great economic opportunity and in a
highly competitive industry like ours, they make strong commercial sense. Our
values help us strengthen relationships with all our stakeholders, build trust, reduce
operating costs, mitigate risks and attract and retain talent in a crowded marketplace.
They’re focusing their efforts where we can make the greatest difference and they
believe collective action is the only way to address these global issues at the speed
and scale required.
With the majority of customers and 75% of store colleagues from local
neighbourhoods, every store must play an active part in the local community. At
best, our stores can act as local engagement community hubs. Colleagues and
customers took part in various fundraising activities during 2014 and raised £2.2m in
the first year of the partnership. Furthermore Sainsbury’s have worked with a number
of food bank charities on a local level since 2008. Collections are decided at store
management level and managed by our in-store Community Champions.
In recent reports, there have been documentaries about farmers producing tonnes
and tonnes of parsnips in their harvest which majority of them turned out wonky and
not in good shape. Sainsbury’s did not allow accepting the wonky and bad sized
vegetables as it wasn’t up to their standard. It was mentioned in the documentary
that, 20 tonnes of parsnip have been wasted due to the wonky sizes. This has led
farmers to lose money on to their crops and time they have put in producing the
crop. However, Sainsbury’s have responded to this issue by accepting the wonky
vegetables to reduce food waste and money, now Sainsbury’s sell their wonky
vegetables at a cheaper rate.
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