Store manager: Scott Berti
Store: Tesco Aldershot
Opened: 1993
Size: 54,000 sq ft
Market share: 17.54%
Population: 224,588
Grocery spend: £6,276,609.72
Spend by household: £69.84
Competitors: 44
Nearest rivals: Aldi 5.5 miles, Asda 2.9 miles, Co-op 1.2 miles, Iceland 0.5 miles, Lidl 0.5 miles, M&S 2.5 miles, Morrisons 0.3 miles, Sainsbury’s 1.5 miles, Tesco 1.6 miles, Waitrose 2.7 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.
For CACI’s shopper segmentation of the other stores we visited this week see the online report at www.thegrocer.co.uk/stores/the-grocer-33
How long have you been with Tesco? It’s quite a nice week to win, as it coincides with my 20-year anniversary almost to the day. I’ve been a store manager for the past eight years and I’ve been in Aldershot for eight months. Initially it was as temporary cover, but it’s just been confirmed as permanent.
This is the second time a store in Aldershot has won in 2024. What’s in the water? It’s a very military-focused town, and within that there are a number of wonderful colleagues who want to do their best for the local area. We have 16 management positions in store, and employ 475 colleagues across nights, days and our online shopping business.
Sometimes that local competition drives you on to do better.
What’s your point of difference? It starts from the front with ease of access. We’ve got a large car park that’s all on one level, which not all our superstores have. We certainly feel like we win on availability. We’re predominantly food-based, and our offer is right at the top end of the Tesco range as a large superstore. We have a really large world food range, which plays to some of the local community. Our fresh food offering is also really strong, frozen as well, and we see good sales through that. What’s been pleasing this year is we’ve seen a real increase in our bakery sales year on year.
Availability was once again good – is that something Tesco has worked on? We have two main measures. Having a large online operation means we’re able to clearly measure how we’re delivering for customers by day, by week and by period. Online accounts for just under a third of our total sales. Then, as a business we’ve worked hard to improve what we call our ‘sales-based availability measure’, which shows how we’re delivering for customers in the evening. So we’re able to see how we’re delivering at both ends of the day. That’s underpinned by good routines in store.
Interestingly, our shopper felt there were too many staff on checkouts. What’s your reaction to that? It’s a very high-trading store, and can get very busy, very quickly. We’re focused on getting people through checkout. The business has done a really good job at multiskilling colleagues.
New Clubcard Price branding is online. Is this in store yet? You can expect to see it rolled out more over the coming weeks. The small bits we have changed in store that I’ve seen are very strong and impactful.
How are your preparations for summer going? With Easter being early this year, we’ve been able to start thinking about it now. Already alcohol sales are increasing, and our plans for beer and other summer trading lines are already ramping up in warehouses. We’ve just launched gardening displays in store. We’re not a large GM site, so to be able to have a grocery seasonal aisle with gardening on is great.
Now you’re the permanent manager, what’s your main focus? Continuing the work we’ve done on availability, but generally continuing to respond to anything the customer needs. We’ve recently changed our service metrics and the way we receive feedback, so we get quicker, real time and much more informative information from shoppers. We can react much more quickly.
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