Giving economic circumstances over the last five years of how Tesco, Literature review - 1

Giving economic circumstances over the last five years of how Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons have coped - Literature review Example I will analyze those data along with the theoretical aspects of that. This part will contain the consumer behaviour towards the retail chains for the last five years, brand loyalty of them. The companies’ strategy for maintain the loyal base of customer will also be analyzed as well as analyzing the impact of the strategies on the customers. The recession witnessed from the year 2008 to 2011 had a greater impact on the UK chain and retail market in general. Consequently, leading players in the retail market such as Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison’s were equally affected. The general impact was occasioned by public (consumer) response to the imminent financial and economical changes. The global recession was characterized by increased prices due to inflation, higher oil prices from exporting countries in Asia and North Africa. Due to the overall changes, the consumers have become value based in terms of key commodities they value with view to the available disposable income (Gbadamosi and Nwankwo 2010). The implication of this change in behavior is that consumers are willing to pay higher prices for valuable commodities if they meet the required standards of quality. Further, the consumers seek to find alternative products which are affordable where quality is not their main concern. The chain stores have been forced to respond to this change in consumer behavior which is actively evident in their promotional strategies. Retail companies carry promotion with the view of convincing the consumer of the intended quality at low cost. Such is the need that Tesco announced an investment of  £500m to facilitate price cuts, Sainsbury has been forced to change from their long term slogan of trying something new to living well at low cost with the view of maintaining customer loyalty. There is low consumer confidence in the UK economy which is expected to fall further. This offers a great challenge to retail stores especially, Tesco,