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BRITISH TYCOON STELIOS Haji-Ioannou, founder of no-frills airline easyJet, opened a pilot budget supermarket today in London in an attempt to crack the country’s booming discount grocery sector.
The neighbourhood-sized store in Park Royal, northwest London, will offer around 80 low-priced products, with all items costing only 25p (33c) throughout February as an introductory offer.
“This is another way the easy brand can serve the less well-off,” said Haji-Ioannou.
“Given my experience in distributing food for free in Greece and Cyprus, this is a more commercial attempt to sell basic food.”
Inside the store, whose motto boasts “No expensive brands, just food honestly priced”, shoppers will be able to browse essentials such as tea, pasta, potatoes and tinned food, but only a very limited selection of fresh vegetables and no fresh meat.
Haji-Ioannou launched easyJet in 1995, and its distinctive orange and white logo, which also adorns the easyFoodstore supermarket, is now seen on 221 aircraft, serving 134 destinations in 32 countries.
Other brands in the “easy” range include buses, hotels, gyms and estate agents, helping the founder amass a fortune of around $1.5 billion, according to Forbes.
Budget supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi have gained market share in Britain since the financial crisis, and now account for 10% of grocery sales, double their share three years ago.
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Mattress amnesty- they’re taking the Mick.
@John Jones:
He’ll be OK. His compadres will spring him.
Would make more sense if it was a collection service for those who have no way of transporting bulky items like mattresses .
only clean mattresses. ..the problem is it’s old &dirty mattresses people want to get rid of
This kind of innovative thinking makes me proud to be Irish. I couldn’t even imagine a better way to blow €200,000. Unless of course we spent it providing everyone with a little of the same drugs Naughton is taking. The whole thing might make a bit more sense then to everyone else who might have thought it was a brain fart of an idea that should never have made it past the underpants naughton should be wearing on his head.
Mattress amnesty I’m really confused.
Mick is turning himself in – for crimes against advertising.
Any locations in Cork?
I forked out €90 for 3 single mattresses at my local amenity centre, no wonder there being illegally dumped on a regular basis
@Noel Martin: you think they’re cheap for the council to get rid of? They’d half fill a skip. Not an excuse to illegally dump.
@Noel Martin: the more people are charged the more they will dump, when will this get through to the thick FG mind?
@Noel Martin: I can see a mattress levy been introduced on all new mattresses, there putting it on everything else.
Oh give it a rest and put this issue to bed
@Shoot Thepiano: very true. Important to sleep on it when making decisions like this
I’m sure the people who manage to find a way to transport mattresses to dump them in remote rural locations can find a way to transport them to an amenity centre.
In Australia they have a kerb collection once a year where you can put out what you normally can’t get rid off and the council picks it up works quiet well
Mattresses being dumped illegally are done so for a reason. Accepting only clean dry mattresses won’t solve dumping. All mattresses no matter what condition should be accepted.
Reactionary decision, should’ve slept on it.
They are probably collecting the mattress for their homeless hubs!
I don’t get it. One can break down a mattress in about 15 minutes with a stanley blade and cutters. Once the springs are cut apart, the mattress doesn’t take up much space.
Standard mattress of course, one of those memory foam ones would be a very different story.
Where, apart from Tuam, are the Galway collections? I could do N.Tipp too…
@Jane Alford: bummer. It was on Saturday. Journal on the spot as usual…
Why do it during the Summer? They should wait until Spring comes.
What sort of people dump mattresses? A joke. What about a dog crap amnesty while they are at it.
the going rate is 50 euro to remove a mattress , this is the reason they are dumped and cause litter problems across the country they should have a markup to recycle , http://www.mattressmonkey.ie
I hear they would make good flower beds lol
have your say