Though the Guardian’s news that supermarket chain Asda will open 300 new homeware stores in the UK as part of a push by chief executive Andy Bond to beat Sainsbury’s in the battle for sales may not have direct correlation to the publishing world, want to bet that the expansion means that Asda – already one of the biggest players in bookselling – expands that clout yet more?
Over the past 18 months he has steered Britain’s second biggest supermarket chain out of a four-year sales slump and is now focused on growing sales by expanding its homewares arm. “We will open significantly more than 30 supermarkets over the next three years. I will be massively disappointed if we don’t,” said Bond. “We have other avenues of growth such as Asda Living which we will expand very rapidly now. There are probably 300 locations where you could have an Asda Living store.” And that means more places to sell books, compete with the chains and make a bigger dent in the publishing pie.