Tesco’s change of heart is not all good news

If Tesco decides to change tack, you know it’s serious. The supermarket giant’s decision to back restrictions on selling cheap alcohol may be a little half-hearted, but it reflects the strength of the “something must be done about alcohol” sentiment now gathering among the public. If Tesco values one thing, it is its reputation. It will have tracked consumer attitudes, and not least the views of its own customers, on the alcohol issue. The last thing it would want to be labelled is one of the bad guys. To date, the retailer has been happy to defend its record on alcohol sales and its role as protector of customer choice. But it has seen what might be a ‘tipping point’ in public opinion on the social impact of alcohol. It has judged that the public mood has shifted, and so has changed its own policy – or at least given the impression of changing. Media pressure has helped to shape the current public concern, and credit must go to the pub industry, including bodies such as the ALMR, for keeping the issue of below cost-price alcohol on the political and press agenda. But that doesn’t mean the pub and bar industry should be celebrating. Tesco has been astute in the timing of its intervention, just pre-empting the British Medical Association’s report calling for higher prices. The BMA, of course, has itself been playing politics by getting its case out ahead of the publication of the Government’s own review of the issues. Tesco has in fact done very little. It continues to hide behind competition law and a fear of being seen to price fix and while asking the Government to legislate is a step forward it is also a delaying tactic. If it were really concerned it could be very brave and go it alone, or work with the Government on a voluntary code of conduct for food retailers, which works for the on trade. But the real issue is the reasons behind Tesco’s decision to make its announcement. It has to stay in tune with its customers, but it also knows that growing public concern over alcohol abuse could lead to tougher controls down the track, which it would not want. Suggestions that alcohol should only be sold from separate premises and banned from supermarket shelves, as happens in parts of the USA, would certainly be something Tesco and its supermarket competitors would want to resist, for example. That might sound like good news for pubs and bars, but the growing force of the anti-alcohol voice is not so discriminating. Higher prices and calls to introduce permits to allow individuals to buy alcohol, as has been proposed in some quarters, would not be so welcome. The real fear for everyone selling alcohol is of a future where alcohol consumption will be as socially unacceptable as smoking has become. Twenty years ago it would have been inconceivable that smokers would be social pariahs, but they are fast becoming so. Could it happen with drinkers? To use an old cliché, it might be time to start ‘thinking the unthinkable’. The truth is that a supermarket price increase for alcohol will actually do little to help struggling pubs. There might be a short-term fillip, but the real challenge is a changing culture that is seeing a stiffening in attitudes to alcohol, and has already witnessed eating-out become a more popular leisure pastime than going to the pub. Tesco is a wily operator and is adept at playing market and consumer trends to its benefit. That is something the pub and bar business could learn from. Peter Martin is co-creator of M&C Report and founder of the Peach Factory