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5[阅读题,10分] Is a quiet revolution under way in the nation’s shopping habits? Are we gradually allowing an increasingly select number of large companies to take care of all our basic requirements? The supermarket chains certainly hope so. ‘People don’t have the time to shop around any more. If they’re happy with the quality of a company’s service, then they’re likely to buy other product types from them as well,’ says Jim Austin, an industry analyst. With the major supermarket brands such as Tesco, J Sainsbury and Asda already offering financial services, credit cards, own-label clothing, mobile phones, and cut-price electrical goods including computers, Austin believes that the supermarkets’ diversification is set to continue. ‘The UK retail food market is saturated, so their only real prospect of growth is either to enter foreign markets or diversify into new markets at home..’ Tesco and J Sainsbury have done both. Having already bought foreign subsidiaries, both large supermarket chains have set up their own banks in order to offer customers financial services such as personal loans, mortgages and savings accounts. Together, the two new banks took over £2bn of customer deposits within the first year of trading. ‘They are winning business by using a lower cost base to offer their customers better interest rates on savings than traditional banks,’ says Austin.
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