Hot profit in cool customers: Ascot rain followed by a sweltering weekend means enormous fluctuations in retail demand As fireside teas give way to barbecues, Roger Cowe and Celia Weston ask how firms cope with changing weather

WHEN the sun finally broke through yesterday, after one of the dullest early Junes on record, John Rowe was mightily relieved. On Wednesday, sitting in Sainsbury's central London head office as the rain poured down outside, he had given the go-ahead for the supermarket chain to gear up for a ho...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Guardian (London)
Main Author ROGER COWE AND CELIA WESTON
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 20.06.1998
Subjects
Business forecasts
Retail stores
Weather
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:WHEN the sun finally broke through yesterday, after one of the dullest early Junes on record, John Rowe was mightily relieved. On Wednesday, sitting in Sainsbury's central London head office as the rain poured down outside, he had given the go-ahead for the supermarket chain to gear up for a hot weekend. Mr Rowe is logistics director, responsible for getting groceries to the stores at the right time and in the right quantities. The 80F temperatures promised for today and tomorrow mean he needs to organise another million cases of soft drinks, additional lorry-loads of salad and other fast-selling products if the shelves are not to be bare by lunchtime. "At the end of last weekend, we started to get some forecasts saying we were heading for a hot weekend," Mr Rowe explained. "Then on Monday or Tuesday it became clear this weekend was going to be very hot.
ISSN:0261-3077