According to a report by Reuters, Britain's major grocers are now opting to shift from their big supermarket strategy to local-store focus. This, said a New York Times report, is a win-win situation for major grocers in the UK - it reduces capital expenditures and can be used as an enticement to potential investors as small local stores are providing attractive gains.

Market research firm Mintel projected that the convenience sector sales of Great Britain could grow 5% to £43.3 billion this year and climbed to £54.1 billion pounds by the year 2018. Reuters said in its report that customers are now more conservative with their spending since the economic downturn and prefer making little purchases frequently in little ships as opposed to making bulk purchases out of town superstores to avoid spending too much on petrol. Because of the recent shift in consumer spending British top player Tesco and dominant players J Sainsbury, Asda of Wal-Mart Stores, Wm Morrison and Waitrose are said to be prioritizing their capital spending to capitalize on the new consumer trend.

Reuters said there is only little capital to spend in establishing both convenience and online business as compared to the development of super stores. However, a crucial point that UK grocers would need to pay attention is that the online-grocery business model's profitability has yet to be proven unlike the earnings that could be gained from convenience stores and superstores.

Shore Capital analyst Clive Black said, "As the retailers improve their capability to service small stores, those small stores become self perpetuating - which reduces the need for people to go to large stores. All of the big four players are desperately wanting a return to growth in the UK economy because ... that will ultimately drive an increase in volumes and the productivity of superstores."