Unit 15 Assignment 1 Rachel Timmis 20237142
Investigating Retail Business
Introduction
This report will begin by exploring the retail provision within my local area and
will include the current nature and structure in which it operates. It will then
explain how both the retail environment and social trends are affecting Asda and
Decathlon. Thirdly, this report will then evaluate how trends and changes in the
UK consumer market have affected Decathlon and Asda. Following this, this
report will investigate the different ranges of job roles which these two
companies offer and will investigate the different entry points and progression
opportunities that are offered by these jobs and the businesses. Then, the
structure of these local retail businesses will be analysed, including how these
businesses satisfy their customers’ varying needs. Finally, this report will end by
assessing how Decathlon and Asda’s abilities to respond to changes within the
market improves their competitiveness within their separate markets.
Asda is located in the town centre location in Farnborough. It is a supermarket
but also sells clothing, electrical items, and homeware. It has 342 stores in
England and is one of the ‘Big Five’ supermarkets.
Decathlon is a sportswear and equipment shop, which also occupies Farnborough
town centre, and is located right next to Asda. Currently, it has 47 stores in the
UK and has plans to build more. It sells equipment from tents to bikes and
kayaks to clothing and bags.
Task 1
P1 – Current nature and structure of a local retail provision
(Farnborough town centre and Farnborough Gate).
Farnborough as a town has several retail provisions. Whilst it does not have a
traditional high street, it does have a traditional ‘town centre’ with both
undercover and open-air retail outlets. This is in the heart of the town close to
the main train station, large local centres of employment (such as the council
offices), and the two further education establishments. On the outskirts of the
town, but close to the main dual carriageways and motorways linking
Farnborough to other towns is Farnborough Gate, which is an out-of-town retail
park.
Farnborough town centre has a few large chain supermarkets, such as Asda and
Sainsbury’s, but it also consists of smaller shops that vary from bakeries to
clothing stores, and it also has a small food court in the middle. The stores
available are mostly owned by national retailers and are chain stores, including
Poundland and Wilko. There are a couple of independent privately owned stores
such as The Triangle Christian Bookshop, and independent stores that are part of
a smaller chain such as the Good Taste Bakery. There are also sources of
entertainment such as Vue Cinemas which is a large national chain conveniently
located next to restaurants such as Prezzo (a national restaurant chain).
Farnborough Gate, on the other hand, only has a couple of quick service chain
,Unit 15 Assignment 1 Rachel Timmis 20237142
eateries and entirely consists of much larger stores such as Curry’s, TK Maxx,
and HomeSense, which are large national retailers.
In Farnborough town centre there are quite a few empty units available for
businesses to purchase or rent, and this could be due to the declining number of
people who visit the town centre, as online shopping has become more
favourable and convenient for people. The focus for Farnborough’s town centre
would be the large supermarkets like Asda, as these types of shops sell
everything from food to clothes to homeware, so these shops are the focus for
this retail area. The town centre’s structure, or format, operates indoors and
outdoors and is spread throughout two main indoor areas with the rest being
outside. This means that there is more room for shops and that it is more
appealing for customers and can hold a wide variety of shops. For example,
there are a lot of cafes and restaurants in the outside area of Farnborough town
centre, which makes these places popular places to visit in the summer and eat
outside.
The nature of this area is to provide a sense of community among the locals and
the businesses, as well as to be a convenient place for people to shop. The town
centre was made to be a place where customers can easily purchase many
different types of items all in one area, which is the main function of having a
convenient town centre. It provides a central hub where customers can have all
their shopping needs met in one trip. For example, consumers can do their
weekly food shopping but also browse the shops for clothing (New Look – large
national retailer), homewares (Wilko – large national retailer) and have
entertainment venues such as Vue (large cinema chain) and High Score Arcades
(independent entertainment provider with several outlets in the south).
Farnborough Gate does not have as many shops, and this is because the shops
which are present are more niche and focused: there are no supermarkets there
that sell a large range of products, instead, there are a few different stores that
have one main focus (such as homeware being sold at HomeSense and
technological devices being sold at Curry’s). Farnborough Gate is also a much
larger retail park, meaning that the shops that are there can occupy a lot more
space, and therefore offer their customers more products, which could be viewed
by some customers as better compared to the town centre with more shops that
are smaller and don’t offer as many products. Another part of the nature of this
retail park is that it offers its customers free parking, which Farnborough town
centre does not. This could make it more appealing and convenient to customers
who don’t need to specifically go to the town centre to shop.
The nature of Farnborough Gate is to serve as a place for convenience for
customers who know exactly what they’re looking for. This is because the retail
park consists of only a couple of shops that sell specific items, meaning that,
unlike the town centre, the nature of Farnborough Gate is to attract customers
who know what they’re looking for and to be able to provide this to them. The
format of Farnborough Gate is simply lots of shops lined up next to each other,
with a big car park for customers to use. The only shop that isn’t connected is
McDonald’s which is located near the exit and primarily functions as a drive-thru.
This is also made for customer convenience along with the niche shops and free
parking. The format is like this to make it clear and simple for customers to
operate around, and as it is located near a busy main road and road links to
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other towns, so there are a lot of potential customers driving past the retail park
every day and it is easy to visit from neighbouring areas and access the stores.
Recently, two further retail parks have opened in Farnborough – Solartron Retail
Park and Horizon Retail Park. These differ slightly from Farnborough Gate in that
they are located in the town centre. They are, however, similar to Farnborough
Gate in that they offer large national retail chain stores such as Tapi Carpets and
Pets At Home – specialist retailers that generally are not frequently visited by
customers.
Within the local community, there are smaller shops such as the Co-Op and local
takeaways that serve the local community, as well as the big retail parks and
business giants. These tend to operate in local shop ‘parades’ serving the most
local customers and consist of a mixture of national retailers providing local
offerings (Tesco Extra), independent food services (such as privately owned food
takeaways), and smaller independently owned shops that take advantage of the
comparatively lower rentals provided in these areas. These tend to be niche
offerings, such as The Supplement King in the Fernhill area, and ‘That’s The One’
which is a bridal dress shop in the same area.
P3 – How the retail environment and social trends are affecting
two local retail businesses.
One of the largest changes in the retail sector has been the increase in online
shopping. During the pandemic, online sales rose more rapidly than they may
otherwise have done, accounting for 28% of all sales
(https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06186/). This has not
decreased following the end of the pandemic, and it remains a large, strong
focus that the retail sector must adapt to.
In the case of Asda, online shopping became an essential part of their business
during the pandemic, with their food delivery capacity requiring a 65% increase
to keep up with demand, and their click-and-collect quadrupling in size during
the same period (https://corporate.asda.com/newsroom/2020/08/18/asda-
achieves-record-online-sales-in-q2-and-sets-sights-on-offering-up-to-one-million-
slots-per-week). Whilst this increase has been positive for Asda in terms of sales
and growth, it would have led to changes in the organisation to be able to meet
the demands of this new way of shopping. Not only would they have needed to
increase their website bandwidth to accommodate the increase in online traffic,
but there would also have been investment required in terms of delivery vehicles
and increased staff to pick and deliver these orders. This may also have been
achieved within the stores by repositioning the staff around in their store roles:
for example, if a member of staff is trained on the tills, they may have had to be
trained to pick orders as well to keep up with the demand.
Decathlon also positively benefitted from the increase in online shopping retail
trends during the pandemic. Even though its sales went down by 4.5%, its online
sales revenue rose by 122.4% in 2020
(https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2022/01/decathlon-online-revenue-rises-
