THE new Minister for Economic Development says he will ‘need to be persuaded’ about the arguments for a third large supermarket in Jersey.
Senator Alan Maclean was commenting on a survey commissioned by the Economic Development department at the end of last year.
According to the survey findings nearly two-thirds of the respondents think the range of supermarkets in Jersey is poor or very poor and 84% are in favour of a new supermarket operator. Over 70% were ‘not concerned’ that supermarkets might close and only 21% said they were happy with the current range of operators.
Senator Maclean’s predecessor, Senator Philip Ozouf, has always said that he is strongly in favour of introducing a rival to the current operators, CI Co-op and Sandpiper CI, which runs the Checkers, Marks & Spencer, Safeway and Iceland outlets. Senator Ozouf particularly favours discount retailers such as Aldi and Lidl and it is known that discussions have taken place with at least one French supermarket.
