The best store managers see their shop through the eyes of the customer. It’s a mantra that has helped Ben Jones through his 15-year career with Sainsbury’s, as well as the first 15 months of his current role at Sainsbury’s St John’s store in Worcester.
Having secured the win in The Grocer’s Worcester mystery shop, he shared his advice on how to walk in the customer’s shoes, World Cup trade and why he thinks frozen is Sainsbury’s new point of difference.
How does your location influence trade? The store opened in 2009, on the site of a former sports complex, so we’re surrounded by houses and a real prime retail spot. There is a secondary school right on the corner of our entrance, which quite significantly influences trade. Every day we have a massive influx of school kids at 8am and 3.30pm. So, our crisps, confectionary and soft drinks do well. Luckily, our carpark is quite big, so it’s not something that impacts our regular customer.
Sainsbury’s talks about winning big trolley shops, who is your regular shopper? It’s a real mix, from pop-in basket shops to the regulars who come in every week. Likewise between affluence and those on a budget. Our average spend is well over £100, so we get a lot of the big trolley shops that Sainsbury’s talks about winning.
You joined this store just over a year ago, what’s been your priority since joining? It was my 15-year anniversary with Sainsbury’s on 4 January, and this is my 12th store now. Getting to know the team is always my starting point, as getting everyone on side is massive to our success. We’re a very friendly, local store. A lot of our 115 team live locally and know the customers well.
Then it’s been about prioritising the customer. The good leaders in our industry are the ones that look at the store through a customer’s eyes. That’s generally cleanliness, availability and then a speedy exit.
That’s good advice, what’s the secret to putting yourself in the customer’s shoes? Make sure it’s the first thing you do every day. It’s good discipline. If you wait or start doing things like emails you tend to get sidetracked. I don’t want to know about anything that’s going on in the warehouse or elsewhere in the store until I’ve walked the floor with my management team. My customer journey starts when I’m driving into the car park.
What’s your biggest challenge as a store team? There’s always moving parts. That’s probably why I enjoy it so much: no two days are same.
Sainsbury’s has introduced new fibre labelling, what’s the response been? It’s early days. The message is bold, we’ve got green and yellow PoS highlighting that it’s high fibre. We have a mix of customers, so some will jump on that, others will continue to shop as they already do.
Worcester has a reputation as a rugby town, what has World Cup trade looked like so far? Wednesday, when England play their first game, is going to be the test. We’re anticipating the biggest spike in our on-demand channels that we’ve probably ever seen. Luckily, about 90% of our colleagues are multiskilled, so we should be able to fulfil all of the extra demand.
How are you working to drive trade in store rather than just online? As a business, we’re helping customers gear up for the football, from lots of offers in the right areas like soft drinks, multibuys on beers, crisps, etc. We’ve got a load of TU clothing that’s football related, too. Nectar has never been so big, so we’ve got lots of Nectar offers on top of all that.
The store is decorated with World Cup PoS throughout, but for me it’s also important that my colleagues can enjoy it too, because it can be a tough job. We’ve got bunting in the staff areas and have a store sweepstake running. I was on holiday unfortunately so missed getting involved!
You’ve secured the G33, but is there anything you are working to improve? We’re focused on a few areas but particularly making sure our fruit, veg and frozen offer is as good as it can be. Customer shopping habits have shifted and they’re increasingly shopping into frozen more than they have done in the past. Our offer in those areas already sets us apart from our competitors. Now it’s about going after great availability to really make the most of that extra frozen spend.
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