Sainsbury’s is the best shop in Reading. How does that feel? Best shop in Reading has a great ring to it. I’ve won before but it’s great now to be able to compare ourselves to our direct competition in town. It’s my 35th year with Sainsbury’s. I’ve managed a double-digit number of stores, but it’s only my second week here as store manager. This result has more to do with the team, especially our deputy manager Cecile, who has been running the store essentially on her own while the previous store manager was unwell.
What role does Calcot play in the retail landscape of Reading? We’re a destination both from a shopping mission perspective, but also from an access perspective. People can come here, go into Reading, come back and do some shopping. We’ve got Ikea, Boots and Sports Direct near us and there’s a gym above as well. That gives us a really good platform to serve lots of different people. Because of the gym, we overindex on protein shakes and protein puddings, but didn’t previously give enough core space to them.
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What’s your impression of the competition and how you can win? Our availability beats everyone else hands down. Customers trust us to come and get what they need at any point in the trading day. The product quality is the other, particularly Taste The Difference. We don’t have many direct grocers around us, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t in competition. I look at Boots in particular; I’m absolutely determined that we are going to win in that space. Our beauty offer is more than a match in both range and value.
It’s Reading Festival in a couple of weeks. How are you preparing? It’ll be a case of bulking up on water, BWS, etc. Let’s face it, the beauty of Reading Festival and the demographic of the customers it brings is that they use our self-serve mission. They want to be in and out as quickly as possible. So, it’s actually very little service, other than availability, and then providing great service when they get prompted to verify their age.
What’s your routine for joining a new store? What have you done in your first two weeks? Every store I take over, my first focus is floral. I’m very shop window-focused, there’s nothing worse than a customer coming to the store and seeing dead bedding plants. It’s the first chance to say: “This is a store that looks after its products.” I then always flow in from floral to produce, as it’s the next thing a customer sees when they come into store. I’ve had lots of conversations with customers. I have to be honest, the shop is already a good shop, and they like shopping here. But one common complaint has been that they would like to see more tills. I’ve instructed my team that if we have a call out for more till support, the management team go down there as well. I was on a till myself on Saturday.
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