{"id":263671,"date":"2026-01-25T19:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T19:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/263671\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T19:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T19:42:21","slug":"how-dunnes-stores-went-from-better-value-to-simply-better-to-win-the-grocery-shopping-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/263671\/","title":{"rendered":"How Dunnes Stores went from \u2018Better Value\u2019 to \u2018Simply Better\u2019 to win the grocery shopping wars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">\nAgainst fierce competition, the Irish chain led by Margaret Heffernan reaffirmed its position as the supermarket leader over Christmas. We look at the success of a\u2028brand that went from bargain basement to top drawer<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Top of the podium: Dunnes Stores boss Margaret Heffernan. Illustration: Michael Gleeson\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/09cf22ff-9235-4890-9be4-6d08f543695a.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Top of the podium: Dunnes Stores boss Margaret Heffernan. Illustration: Michael Gleeson<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It was one of the best-known slogans in Irish retail history. \u201cBetter value beats them all\u201d. For Dunnes Stores, it was a mantra that ensured that price-conscious shoppers flocked through its doors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">But that was a different time, when the flamboyant yet plain-talking Ben Dunne was at the helm and in an era before the German invasion of Lidl and Aldi changed the Irish supermarket trade for good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Against fierce competition, the Irish chain led by Margaret Heffernan reaffirmed its position as the supermarket leader over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,99066,61,60,280,279],"class_list":{"0":"post-263671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dunnes-stores-ireland","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-john-meagher","13":"tag-review-magazine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}