In the literature on trade in retailing services, it is often assumed that food retail only takes places via Mode 3 trade (commercial presence), with the occasional Mode 2 transaction (consumption abroad, e.g., when a citizen of one country crosses into another for a shopping trip). Not so. As this example attests, Mode 1 (cross-border) trade also happens in food retailing.
More generally, it is often argued that cross-border e-commerce is intended to either "seed the terrain" for a physical investment or to accompany an existing one. But Waitrose claims that its cross-border sales of food are meant, in many countries, to stand alone.
It will be interesting to see if Waitrose's example is an isolated one or a harbinger of an emerging trend.
