A year ago, Morrisons said it was making the customer journey easier by stripping the clutter - and the promotional dump bins - out of its stores. Now many of these bins are going back in as the retailer looks to give store managers more say over what they sell.
The plan for greater autonomy has been rolled out over the past few weeks and gives managers greater freedom over where to stock promoted items, including off-shelf - with a return to dump bins an option.
There will still be an overall national promotions strategy but the plan allows individual stores more say over where deals are sited, stock levels, as well as seasonal executions. The Grocer understands the new freedom even covers what PA announcements are made.
“We’re giving our store teams more autonomy to create additional selling space over and above their existing promotional plan to drive trading momentum,” said a spokesman.
The move is part of chairman Andrew Higginson’s plan to drive sales and chase volumes harder as Morrisons looks to arrest the decline in sales that eventually cost former CEO Dalton Philips his job.
The move has been well received in stores. Andy Savage, manager of this week’s Grocer 33 store of the week (p22), said this was creating “a good buzz about the business”. “It is about creating an environment in which we can get after sales. Of course there has to be a balance struck with making stores easy to shop, but this is about letting us be retailers.”
The move comes ahead of the arrival next week of new CEO David Potts, who has a clear brief to drive sales in the core supermarket estate.
Morrisons reported a 52% decline in underlying profits before tax to £345m for the year to 1 February on the back of a 5.9% fall in like for likes.
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