The blog has been a bit quiet over the last couple of weeks – I have started a new job and it takes a bit of time to settle. It feels like a breath of fresh air with a new start though – I am now at the National School of Government, working for their EU team.
There are two quick examples of consumer power that have caught my eye today. Sainsbury’s supermarkets have been criticised for a long time for poor availability of goods in their stores, and for exorbitant prices. The last couple of months – after major consumer pressure – things really seem to have improved. The availability in the Clapham High Street store has improved a lot, and they have now started to cut prices – I saved ??1 on breakfast cereal alone.
More major than that – the iPod nano has now become such a big thing that it was on the 6 o’clock news on BBC. Apparently some iPod nanos have had problems with the screens. It’s a marvel that Apple has even managed to supply so many of these iPods so quickly anyway, and finally Apple has acknowledged there is a problem with some of them. Consumer pressure has apparently pushed them into this. Now, I wonder if and when the news will ever cover the launch of a new product by Apple, rather than just reporting on customer pressure? But this strikes me as a case of all publicity is good publicity.
