What’s the most challenging aspect of managing this store? Our busyness. We’re quite a small unit, under 32,000 sq ft. Our aisles are narrow, so it can be an intense shopping environment. It’s a fine balancing act to keep it congestion-free, protect ease of shopping trip and stay on top of replenishment. Our mantra is to make sure we’re ‘best at our busiest’. We’ve also been trying out some new narrower replenishment trolleys.
And what’s the best thing about managing Grove Green? The same thing. We’re constantly on the move. It’s great to have so many people in the store, many of whom have been shopping with us for 30 years. I love meeting them every day.
How is this store different to others you’ve managed? I’ve worked for Tesco for 21 years. Most of my career has been in London, but I’ve been here for the past 14 months. The biggest difference is trade patterns: we have fewer customers, but basket size is larger. We’re a traditional family weekend shop, but we’re not far from Maidstone TV studios so get a lot of top-up trade throughout the day.
What’s selling well for you at the moment? Maidstone has vast amounts of green space, and a lot of people have gardens, so we’ve got a good range of garden stuff ready to help them prep for summer. Barbecue is also on the up. Then obviously looking forward, we’ve got the World Cup.
Are you preparing for a busier summer than usual due to the football? You always notice a pick-up and a feelgood factor if England stay in a long time. A lot of the kick-offs are late in the evening, which means trade will be slightly different versus a usual June and July, so we’re doing some work about how that will impact the store.
Grove Green has a history as the site of a major fire. Is it still remembered in the town? There are still colleagues here who remember when it happened in the 1990s. It was shortly after the store first opened and the damage was extensive. The whole building burned down and had to be rebuilt. Luckily no one was hurt.
It was an extended Grocer 33 this week, with Iceland as a guest retailer. Do you make a habit of visiting rival stores? I’ve been known to pop in. We have an M&S nearby as well, which I also visit quite regularly. Our range is our point of difference, but also the service we provide. We work really hard on ensuring that every customer gets a helpful, friendly and welcoming shopping trip. That mentality needs to be embedded throughout our 216 colleagues. They are engaged and well trained.
How will you stay on top form? I tell my team all the time that we are the best store in Maidstone, so now it’s official, right? We’ll keep doing what we’re doing great. Every aisle, every day. Full clean. Price. We’ll keep on giving the customers what they need every time they come in.
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