Richard Hyman, an independent retail consultant, said the retreat from fresh food counters by big supermarkets represented “a raising of the white flag”. A number of factors helped boost pork spend, according to AHDB retail analyst Zoe Avison, including the fact pork has been “the cheapest cut per kilo in quite a price-led market”. The support of a generic marketing push over the past two years to promote pulled pork has also contributed, she suggests. Morrisons, the UK’s fifth-biggest supermarket chain since being overtaken by Aldi in September, continues to offer deli counters at many stores, as do Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. Some counters still do a great job and will continue to do so, says Roberts, but retailers will increasingly look to rent out their space in other stores. “We’ve seen both Tesco and Asda turn over space to halal operators such as Halal Food Centres and Haji Baba, which perform well in regions such as Yorkshire and London,” says Roberts, while Polish delis also play well where the local demographics are supportive. But you need to believe in your offer and put investment behind it. Tesco is never going to outprice Aldi and Lidl, so you need to give customers a reason to shop with you.”

Fresh Fish Serve Over Display Counters - FFD

Along with Tesco, that has prompted most of the major supermarkets to scrap deli counters in the past few years. You can always be confident that quality and satisfaction is guaranteed with every fish serveover in this section as we only supply units that have been tried and tested in real working environments and have proven to be up to the task. To ensure ultimate value for money, all of our prices are amongst the most competitive on the internet meaning that even though you pay less, the quality received remains high. Our strong relationships with suppliers allow us to pass discounts and special offers directly to our customers. As a result, we are proposing some changes to increase efficiencies and simplify ways of working across administration, compliance and cash office. But if you are going to do something in retail, you need to do it well - and doing it in a mediocre fashion, simply as an excuse to charge higher prices, will just result in the sort of reaction from shoppers that we have seen.Data on just how many counters are left across the mults is thin on the ground. “But they were pretty much part of the standard kit for most stores throughout the 1990s and until the end of the space race in the early 2010s,” Roberts points out. So are we seeing a slow death of the meat and fish counter in the UK’s largest supermarkets? What’s driving this change and can the counter be reinvented for the 21st century? Younger shoppers also tend to swerve the fixture as they seek convenient solutions, and “expect the preparation of their meal components to be done for them”, he adds. Fish counters can be divided into three principal types: resistive counters, optical counters, and hydroacoustic counters. It’s very much a nuanced picture, says Roberts. “I remember talking to someone senior from Tesco who said counters weren’t a sales driver but what they do is create better relationships with some shoppers.”

Counter - Vaki Bioscanner Counter - Vaki

Hydroacoustic counters operate using the principles of sonar. A fish is insonified by a sound source and reflections from the fish are detected by an underwater microphone. The reflection occurs because of the sudden change in impedance to sound waves within the fish, particularly at the swimbladder (90% of the reflection). So if this report about Tesco is correct, it would be just another step in the journey that superstore grocers are taking to compete with the likes of Aldi and Lidl.

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Tarry again referred to “changing customer demands” last month, as he announced Tesco would also restructure its in-house bakeries - with a further 1,800 jobs at risk - through a plan to scrap scratch baking altogether in 58 stores and to move to the part-baking of some products in another 201 stores.

End of the supermarket butcher and fishmonger as Tesco wraps

Automatic fish counters are automatic devices for measuring the number of fish passing along a particular river in a particular period of time. Usually one particular species is of interest. In this era of stiff competition from the discounters, having a counter proposition can offer crucial differentiation, says AHDB With a full range of sizes, finishes, manufacturers and extra features it is easy to locate exactly the right display for your business’s individual needs. Whether looking for static or fan assisted cooling, extra hidden storage, ambient shelves or contoured glass our selection of fish serve overs covers it all. An optical counter is also associated with an in-river structure. However, rather than pass electrodes, in an optical counter the fish interrupt some of a number of vertically arranged beams of light. The pattern of beam-breaks can be used to determine the size, profile, and direction of motion of the fish.Tesco is poised to call time on the supermarket butcher and fishmonger as shopper interest in them wanes. Bosses are considering closing all the remaining fresh food counters as part of a new cost-cutting drive, The Sunday Times reported. It could lead to hundreds of further job losses, on top of the hundreds already axed in the last round of cuts. And it’s not just Tesco that’s been wielding the axe. Asda announced in January it would replace its 150-plus meat and fish counters with a new “food-for-now” offer this year, replacing them with food-to-go services such as Greggs and Sushi Daily and delivery services like Just Eat in a bid to reinvigorate its stores ahead of a potential sale of the retailer by Walmart. The results of automatic fish counters can be supplemented, confirmed, or replaced by a number of alternative techniques, varying in accuracy, cost, complexity, and skew effects.

Fish and seafood - Fresh meat and fish - Tesco Finest - Tesco Fish and seafood - Fresh meat and fish - Tesco Finest - Tesco

Waitrose also insists counters “remain a vitally important part of our offering”. It currently has 277 meat and fish counters, which is actually up from 240 a decade ago. However, it concedes “where appropriate, some close a little earlier than the main store closure”. Steady decline Counters have mainly become displays of commodity products such as minced beef, steaks and chops, liver, sausages, with little or no added value products to tempt the customer,” he adds. “This could be why some high street butchers and farm shops are doing well, because they are offering a service as well as added-value products and award-winning sausages, burgers and bacon.” Fish counters Sainsbury’s announced it would not reopen its fresh food counters during the pandemic, while Asda said earlier this year that it would close most while replacing some with ready meals counters and food court-style areas.And with competition growing from German discount chains Aldi and Lidl in recent years, Britain’s traditional supermarkets have been forced to find cost savings to remain competitive on price. He said: “I would view it negatively, because it is withdrawing from an area of business – service – where British supermarkets could offer true differentiation. Some systems such as the Riverwatcher use the infrared scanner to trigger a digital camera to capture between 1 and 5 photos or a short video clip of each fish. The computer then automatically links the images to other information contained in the database for that individual fish such as size, passing hour, speed, silhouette image, temperature etc.