Store: Sainsbury’s, Calcot
Store manager: Rob Barnes
Opened: 1980
Size: 80,000 sq ft
Market share: 23%
Population: 200,553
Grocery spend: £5,381,472.62
Spend by household: £67
Competitors: 50
Nearest rivals: Aldi 1.7 miles, Asda 1.7 miles, Co-op 0.7 miles, Iceland 3.7 miles, Lidl 1.7 miles, M&S 1.6 miles, Morrisons 4.0 miles, Sainsbury’s 3.9 miles, Tesco 1.9 miles, Waitrose 2.5 miles
Source: CACI. For more info visit www.caci.co.uk/contact. Notes: Shopper profiling is measured using Grocery Acorn shopper segmentation. Store catchment data (market share, population, expenditure, spend by household, competition) is within a five-mile radius.
What’s your background with Sainsbury’s? I’ve worked for Sainsbury’s for 26 years and I’ve been a store manager for the past 12 years, which includes 18 months in this store.
What challenges have you faced compared to previous stores? This is the biggest shop we have in our region, so that comes with more complexities. And because we’ve got other retailers on site, that adds another level. But I definitely think it’s about trying to get consistency of performance and making sure you do the right things every day, then setting that expectation with your colleagues too.
What are the key elements to improving store standards? At all times we’ll have somebody managing the store from a customer experience point of view, whether that’s a first impression, tidiness, or the service we’re offering at checkouts. I also like leading from the front, setting a good example. It’s great to see that was recognised because that’s something we worked tremendously hard on. This is a large store and we have over 530 colleagues at work here trying to pull in that same direction.
Tell us about your Jubilee preparations. Our customers are clearly turning their attention to Jubilee celebrations – it’s all about soft drinks, alcohol, and picnic and summer-related lines. At the moment we’re making sure we increase the amount of production we’re putting through the bakery so we can control that in store, as it’s going to be busy.
How is trade going for the new summer lines? Customers are really going for some of our new lines, including our new ranges in meat, fish, poultry and barbecue, as well as across fresh foods. But we’re seeing a lot of customers switching into value so we’ve had to widen the displays of particular lines. If the customer can’t get a particular line and they have to switch to an alternative, and that alternative is more expensive, that could be the reason they choose to shop elsewhere. So that’s become really important for us.
Has Sainsbury’s new food offering strategy impacted your store? From a café point of view we really weren’t affected – we haven’t had a café here for a number of years. We have a Starbucks concession. In terms of the food counters, we’ve closed down the deli, meat and fish counters now so we only provide a hot food and pizza counter, and an in-store bakery with confectionery. It’s good because it stops us trying to focus on a wide selection of foodservice offers and really streamlines it into what the customer wants.
Being located in a big retail park, what’s your customer base like? Because we’ve got the Ikea next door, a McDonald’s in our carpark,a Boots and a Sports Direct, I think that definitely drives in a much younger demographic, particularly later in the evenings. We’ve also got a Pure Gym that’s attached to the store, which is open from the early hours of the morning right through till late night, so that brings in a much younger clientele too.
Do you have any community initiatives going on? We’ve had a local partnership with Neighbourly for just over a year to donate our surplus food. We try and make sure that we’re as involved as we can be with the local community.
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