Asda comes to Deptford

The march of the supermarket convenience stores through south east London continues, with the news that Asda is applying to convert a 99p store on Deptford High Street into one of their small stores.

Deptford Dame reports that it will be going head-to-head with Tesco on the high street soon. Up to a point, BC's view is that the spread of supermarket convenience stores is good news. It helps reduce car use, brings people to shop on their high street instead of retail parks and gives the people what they want (reflecting a shift from weekly shops to impulse purchases). The supermarkets are mostly cannibalising their own trade or fighting off threats from deep discounters like Aldi and Lidl or online retailers like Ocado and the units are too small to compete with the specialist independents like those that grace Deptford High Street.

However, moderation in all things. Deptford's already been swamped by bookies. It would be nice if any shops following Asda's lead did so at their expense.