Non-Food space in Grocers set to increase further

A recent survey by BCSC has indicated that the proportion of non-food space in the Grocery Supermarkets will increase to 25% by 2015, up from 21% last year. This will drive retailers demand for a dramatic increase in floor space, which simply could not be justified based on food sales alone.

The research 'How much space?' was carried out for BCSC by Experian Consulting, and is the latest in a series of reports being undertaken as part of BCSC's Future of Retail Property research programme, which looks in detail at the need for future retail space.

The report analyses the economic factors that determine how much individuals and households will spend on retail goods; the growth of alternatives to physical stores ie. internet to farmers markets; the potential for retailers to increase sales densities and changing retail practises. The most obvious of these being the increasing amount of non-food sales likely to be made through grocery supermarkets and hypermarkets.

The research estimates that in 2005 21% of Grocery floorspace was used for what they describe as 'comparison goods' which are basically non food lines such as clothing and electrical products. This space allocation increased from 12% in 1999, and they forecast that this will increase to a 25% share by 2015.

The report author Dr Neil Blake of Experian Business Strategies said "The increase in supermarket and hypermarket floorspace over the past twenty years has been entirely due to the increase in non-food sales and the trend for grocers to give over an even bigger share of their floorspace to non-food sales and this is unlikely to abate."