Corner shops make a comeback as consumers change their habits

After years spent losing business to the relentless spread of out-of-town supermarkets, corner shops are enjoying an unexpected revival, a survey published on Friday shows.

After years spent losing business to the relentless spread of out-of-town supermarkets, corner shops are enjoying an unexpected revival, a survey published on Friday shows.

Consumers with little time to go on long shopping sprees are increasingly turning to these independent neighbourhood shops, the retail analysts Mintel say.

Small food retailers saw stronger growth during 1999 and 2000 than supermarkets, with sales up by 7.7 per cent compared to the 7.4 per cent managed by their larger rivals. The key to their popularity is said to be their proximity to residential areas and later opening hours.

Small shops have typically broadened their range of merchandise from food and lottery tickets to include stamps and emergency items and now offer a variety of other services such as photocopying and film processing. They have also begun to provide more fresh food which caters better for the taste of a more health-conscious clientele.

Richard Caines, a Mintel retail consultant, also put their comeback down to the changing habits of shoppers, who are now more likely to supplement one big fortnightly shop from a large supermarket with regular visits to their local convenience stores for "top-up" and "distress" or emergency visits.

Mr Caines said: "These smaller stores are living up to their names and repositioning themselves as neighbourhood stores with a useful role to play for top-up shopping ... They are recreating themselves ... and operating much more in keeping with market demands."

The survey on the shopping habits of 1,000 people also revealed that despite the continued rise in popularity of Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, – which are the subject of 59 per cent of all shopping trips – the loyalty card, established by major stores to secure the devotion of customers, is not keeping shoppers faithful to just one store chain.

Only 15 per cent of shoppers display complete fidelity to their one, favourite grocery store. Three out of 10 shoppers use one other store and more than a fifth use two others. Women tend to show less loyalty than men, visiting four or more stores in addition to their main supermarket.