Grocer 33 store of the week: Tesco Callington

What has your career at Tesco looked like? I’ve been with Tesco for 25 years. I started off as a general assistant on the night operation, working part-time. After a few years, I decided to progress my career with Tesco and did a short span on the Options Program to become a team manager. I did various roles over the next six years and became a store manager 10 years ago. I was appointed into my first store in Camborne, and it was an amazing job, I loved it very much. I moved to Weybridge, which was like going home because I’d worked there before. Then I went down to Penzance, was there for the past four years, and I only moved to Callington in the past five weeks, so I’m quite new here.

How have you found the new job? It’s been very rewarding. Getting to know the team is fantastic – it’s been a really nice change for me, I’ve really enjoyed it.

What makes the Callington store unique? I think it’s lovely when you walk in here because it’s very open at the front, very welcoming. We can have really nice displays – we’ve got fresh Christmas trees down at the front, which are ready to buy. We also have lots of toy offers and all of the first main aisle of the store is about Christmas, so it’s very welcoming. It gives you a nice, happy feeling when you walk into the shop – it’s quite nice for the time of year.

What current consumer trends are you seeing in store? I think colleagues are noticing customers starting to think about prioritising what’s important to them. Many want to have a nice family Christmas. Shoppers have been purchasing a lot of Christmas lines a lot sooner than would normally be the case, and we’ve given them the opportunity to do that by launching a lot of lines into stores earlier than we normally would have. We also launched a £25 Christmas dinner for a whole family, which has been a great success. We’ve sold many of those because it’s a frozen line, so people can buy it early and keep it at home ready. They know they’ve got their turkey and their trimmings to go with it. We’ve also got some great offers on clothing – we’ve run 25% off quite recently. People have the opportunity to get their Christmas jumpers and things and save some money on the purchase of those. Shoppers are definitely spreading the cost of Christmas this year.

What plans do you have for the store over the next year? We’re just going to keep focusing on service and serving the community, ensuring our customers are happy with the shopping trip and that availability is always great for them when they come to the store. And we’ll just keep continuing to ask for feedback from them, so we can understand what it is they want from us to make their shopping trip a better experience for them.

What’s your approach to management? I think it’s important to get to know people, find out what’s important to them and always work with your team so they know that you’re there for them. We’re all in this together, so we just need to work shoulder to shoulder sometimes and share our experiences, and allow people to make mistakes and grow from them. I think we all learn from that in a great way, and it leads to a safe environment for everyone.