How long have you been running this store? It’s been a year now. But this was the store I started my Waitrose career at so it was lovely to return as store manager last year after 10 years away.
Tell us about Comely Bank. What are people coming in for? Comely Bank is very close to the neighbourhood of Stockbridge, so very residential, but also not too far from the city centre. A lot of customers will travel to us from other parts of Scotland if they don’t have a Waitrose store local to them. It means we are consistently busy, but within that we have some particularly busy spells. There is a primary school opposite and a high school around the corner, so we always have the pre- and post-school drop-off rush. The high school children also come in during all of their breaks for their treats. In between that, it is big trolley shops.
Edinburgh is famous for many things, including the Fringe festival. What are the big drivers of trade? We see an uplift during the Fringe, there are lots of Airbnbs around and lots of people want to stay further out from the centre. Edinburgh is also a real tourist attraction at Christmas with the markets and Hogmanay. More recently we’ve had a real uplift from Black Friday. Lots of customers use us as their collection point for John Lewis, so it’s helped our sales as well. It can get very busy, but the introduction of headsets has been a real game-changer at helping partners to stay on top of the rush.
How do you show off local Scottish produce? This is something I’m currently working on with buyers on behalf of all six Waitrose stores in Scotland. So far, we’ve got Brownings, who supply bakery products and will be rolling out more Scottish ranges. In the meantime, we’ve produced new locally produced PoS to highlight our existing local products. Our customers really care about where their food comes from, so it’s great to see more local ranges hitting shelves.
It was the premium Christmas basket this week. What are some of your favourite SKUs? My favourite is the No1 Hazelnut Creme Panettone. Our Christmas cinnamon knots have been really popular, as have our No.1 Brown Butter Mince Pies, which have been our top-selling product. They’ve both been offered as part of Little Treats offer through MyWaitrose, which has given customers the chance to try more premium products.
Christmas can be a tough time to work in retail. How are you keeping morale up? It’s always really busy, but also I think us retailers tend to thrive from the change of pace. We have a real mix of experience in our team of 199 partners, with lots of students but also lots of colleagues who have been here for decades. As a management team it’s important that we are hands-on and have a strong presence on the shop floor so they feel supported. We also want to keep it fun, so we always have lots of Christmas treats for partners to try as well as other events like raffles.
What’s been your biggest challenge as a store team during your first year? Due to our location, our partner demographic is quite student-based. As a result our turnover is very high, which has its challenges. But saying that, it comes with its benefits because students bring real buzz to the store team. One of the things I most look forward to at Christmas is welcoming back all the familiar faces who are back at their home store. That helps on the morale side as well. We have a buddy system over Christmas that pairs anyone new with a more experienced partner so they can learn the ropes quickly.
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