Supermarket Wars
Global Strategies for Food Retailers
By Andrew Seth and Geoffrey Randall
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-1910-6

If one ever wondered what goes on within the global food retailing industry, then The Supermarket Wars would provide an incisive snapshot of this, plus much more. It explains the histories, current activities, and strategies of major international food retailers and analyses the factors underlying their successes and failures.

The Royal Ahold story, which many would only be aware of its story from this book, was an example of the book’s incisive review of international food retailers. The book touches on issues such as why it takes a long time to become international and most importantly, why go international when it is difficult and not that profitable. It also reminds retailers not to be complacent; to keep up with the changing of tastes, investing in new technologies, finding new market sites, and coping with regulations, legislations as well as competitors, which would easily stretch the limits of most managers.

Hence, The Supermarket Wars is a good book that gives a SWOT analysis on how to tap into the global food retailing industry. It gives insights on the successes of Wal-Mart in the US and also its struggle in Germany but still maintains that Wal-Mart as the Colossus (a whole chapter on this in Chapter 2). Apart from that, the book also studied, reviewed and analysed Carrefour, Tesco and all the other global retailing contenders.

The authors, leading industry commentators Andrew Seth and Geoffrey Randall, identified the essential characteristics of a global strategy in food retailing and they included many compelling examples. In the later chapters of the book, they both focused on the future, potential and opportunities for retailers both local and international.

All in all, this book tells us the who, what, when, why and how on the strategic scenario undertaken by global food retailers. For those in the retailing industry keen on branching out internationally, this book will be a useful guide to learn from the mistake of others, which also reinforced the words of Sir Isaac Newton, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Review by Hariz Kamal

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