What it’s like to be a retailer in Plymouth? I joined Tesco 30 years ago next year and have worked across the Devon and Cornwall region, and came back here nine years ago. And to be fair, while we have our hard days like every business, it is really quite nice.
We’re a very big superstore in the middle of a housing estate, so we get a mixture of trade, a lot of it walk-in custom. Lots of elderly people will pop in for their paper in the morning, then meet their friends in our café. We also have lots of families coming in throughout the day. If people want to do a bigger shop, they will usually travel to one of the nearby bigger stores which have a larger range.
Our online operation is massive, covering around 20 miles across central Plymouth and over the Tamar Bridge into Torpoint Cornwall. We’re considered a low-affluence area, and shoppers want any little saving they can get and use it to their advantage, so our Clubcard penetration is 85%.
What’s been your biggest challenge as a store team over the past year? We had a massive refurbishment last year. Literally everything moved around the shop and we were a building site for six months. Our freezers moved to the back of the store, we installed brand-new fridges, moved our customer service desk to a completely new location, and switched all our grocery front to back.
On top of that we expanded our Home and F&F ranges, as well as installed a phone shop concession. We also added a community garden for local schoolchildren to come and use and to grow and learn about where fruit and veg comes from.
Did it disrupt trade? We’re a twilight store, so close at 10pm. All the work happened overnight. Obviously because it was such a big move, customers had lots of questions and needed help finding items in store. Each day we’d have three to four of our best people on each aisle to help customers. They’d be there from 8am until 10pm at night, so there was always someone to help the customers. It was testing, but so worth it. It’s hard to describe how different the shop is now compared to how it looked. The store is much brighter, and our customers are genuinely happy that Tesco has spent money in their local shop. It’s a very proud moment for us.
What have you made of Tesco’s Christmas range so far? Have there been any surprises? There’s a lot I haven’t tried yet, as we’ve only just started to launch our fresh food range. But the non-food element is really strong, particularly for the kids with Bluey and Peppa Pig ranges. I wouldn’t usually have expected it considering we’re a low-affluence area, but we’re struggling to keep our Finest Christmas trees on sale. It’s a great price on Clubcard and they look really beautiful.
The store turns 25 soon, do you have any plans to celebrate? It’s in April. Tesco took over the store from Plymco (Plymouth & South West Co-operative Society) and kept on a lot of people who are still here, so lots of our 310 colleagues live locally and know our shoppers.
We’re still planning how we’ll mark it, but we’ll absolutely be celebrating with both colleagues and customers. It’s a massive achievement to still be here. The guys just want to do a great job, they all want to help our customers and love doing it. At the end of the day you just want your customers and colleagues to go home happy, and we work well as a team to achieve that.
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