The one-stop shopper comes one step closer

NIGEL COPE

The desertion of the high street in favour of out-of-town superstores accelerated yesterday when Sketchley, the dry cleaning group, said it was closing 160 town-centre shops with the loss of 500 jobs.

Instead, it has signed a deal with Sainsbury to open dry cleaning concessions within the larger stores. The group also owns the SuperSnap photoprocessing chain and it is planning to cement the trend by relocating a number of branches to superstore sites.

With superstores increasingly offering petrol stations, post offices, pharmacies and florists as well as shoe-repair and key-cutting facilities, Sketchley's announcement will fuel growing concerns that Britain's supermarket giants are snatching sales at the high-street's expense.

Mike Dennis, a retail analyst at stockbroker NatWest Securities said the exodus from the high street was likely to continue: "Customers can often get a cheaper, more convenient service by making more purchases as part of their weekly shop. You've got dry cleaners and pharmacies. Why not have estate agencies and travel agencies, or banks. If this carries on it could squeeze the life out of the high street."

Sketchley said it was taking advantage of consumers' preference for one- stop shopping locations with easier parking and longer opening hours. It said it would also be able to take advantage of established customer flows, Sunday trading and joint advertising with Sainsbury.

Sketchley currently has more than 700 outlets though some high-street shops lose money due to high rents and falling customer levels. It will keep 550 of its high-street branches while it expands its presence out of town. It already has 29 Sainsbury outlets and now has an exclusive deal to open more in new and existing branches.

Sainsbury defended the deal. "Our research shows that customers will use an out-of-town superstore for many different services. There is room in the market for large and small retailers. People are still going to go to the high street."

Dr- cleaning prices can also often be cheaper due to lower rents out of town. Safeway, which has dry-cleaning outlets in 65 of its larger branches, has a deal to clean five shirts for pounds 3.49 or two suits for pounds 8.95. Safeway also has 83 pharmacies, 127 petrol stations, 31 post offices and 38 florists.

Some branches of Sainsbury's SavaCentre offer key cutting and shoe repairs as well as travel agencies.

It is not clear how much further supermarkets might go. In the United States, shoppers can go to the hypermarket for everything from a car to a speedboat. Some have gone as far as building fake "high streets" around the perimeter of their sites - transplanting Main Street to the freeway.

In Britain, however, the Government has said it intends to limit the exodus by curbing planning permission.

In a separate development yesterday, Tesco increased the stakes in the petrol-price war when it extended its loyalty card to money off petrol in its 254 stations. Asda already runs a similar scheme.

Promising motorists that "they cannot buy a cheaper tankful of petrol", Tesco said it will match the cheapest fuel price at other filling stations within three miles of their own pumps or at any other supermarket within five miles.

The major supermarket groups, Sainsbury, Tesco, Safeway and Asda, have already grabbed over 20 per cent of the United Kingdom petrol market by undercutting prices. However, at the beginning of the year the petrol companies fought back when Esso announced that it was dropping its long- running Tiger Tokens promotion in favour of lower prices.

Esso pledged to match the lowest prices on offer within a threemile radius. Shell and BP followed and prices fell to as low as 49.9p per litre with the most severe price cuts in the North-east and Scotland.

The superstores have been making big profits from their petrol retailing operation, and the price war has had a damaging effect on profits. Tesco has been banking about pounds 70m a year, but analysts believe this could be trimmed by up to pounds 12m, with Sainsbury, Asda and Safeway together seeing a cutback of up to pounds 20m.

What the supermarkets have to offer

Sainsbury: 180 petrol stations, 36 dry cleaners, 54 pharmacies, 6 post offices, flowers sold in most stores plus interflora service.

Safeway: 127 petrol stations, 65 dry cleaners, 83 pharmacies, 31 post offices, 38 florists.

Tesco: 254 petrol stations, 20 dry cleaners, 139 pharmacies, 10 post offices, flowers sold in most branches.

Asda: 118 petrol stations, 32 dry cleaners, 72 pharmacies, 7 post offices, flowers sold in all 207 branches.