You’re in charge while the GSM is on holiday - and the store returned the highest mystery shopper score since 2010. Coincidence? We have all been making a special effort in his absence, so when he comes back from holiday he can see the results! But also we have been running a number of big pushes this week, so it’s good to see they are paying off.
What have those initiatives been? We had a big regional sales challenge so we have all been looking for extra opportunities to sell - making sure the round pound-price points are clearly visible, chasing availability really hard and keeping the key promo lines on sale. We have made sure someone is owning that - and keeping right on top of it.
You mentioned round pound price points. How popular are they with shoppers? Really popular. Our focus for Q3 sales is on Chosen By You, so we currently have a sales challenge on that and some key lines have gone down to £1. Other lines have also gone to a round pound: bags of sweets, chocolate, crisps sharing bags in the style of Doritos. So we are really driving sales of those.
What do you think of the TV ads Asda is currently running stressing the quality of its fresh meat and vegetables? When those ads are run they filter down to the stores, in the sense that we need to make sure that what is being promoted on TV is being reflected on the shop floor. Whether it is the display or availability, we need to make sure shoppers are seeing what they see on the TV in the store.
There is a Morrisons close by and the retailer is famously proud of its fresh produce. How do you think Asda compares? Morrisons put a lot of focus on fresh - and we are trying to catch up on that. We are putting lots of energy into it. Over the past 10 years - and as an Asda shopper myself - what we are getting from suppliers nowadays is superior. The cuts are a lot better and the packaging also looks very appealing.
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