Talk to anybody at Safeway these days and you can't help thinking they have all joined some strange religious cult. Almost without fail, and always without any prompting, they will rattle on about how Carlos has done this, that and the other. Store managers, buyers, directors. They're all at it. And that's undeniably the biggest and most important impact that the Carlos in question ­ Criado-Perez ­ has had on the Safeway business. Forget the figures (which are excellent). Forget the new retail formats (which are also excellent). It's the way one man has clearly changed the entire culture of a business in such a short space of time that is so impressive. He's also done it without forcing people to sing cheesy songs ­ which must be a relief to everybody at Safeway. Ask members of the Carlos cult what's changed in the past couple of years, and they will serve up a whole menu of neat stuff. Store managers talk about their new found autonomy; buyers about how they are encouraged to come up with new ideas (even if they don't always work); and directors about how the business is no longer driven by process and procedures but by a focus on stores and customers. Best of all, Safeway's people genuinely seem to be having fun. And it's not only employees who are keen to get a piece of the suave Argentinian. The opening of a new store is not usually a big enough event to attract 60 top analysts and practically every consumer, retail and business journalist around. But Safeway managed that last Friday in Woking ­ much to the obvious chagrin of some PR folk in rival chains. In truth, we were all there to see retail's Mr Charisma in action. And he didn't let us down. So what's my beef? I haven't really got one. I'm as impressed as anybody by the changes at Safeway. But I would add one note of caution: Carlos is fast becoming a hot property. And should someone steal him away from Safeway ­ as they undoubtedly will one day ­ I wonder if the cult would be strong enough to survive without its leader. Julian Hunt, Deputy Editor {{OPINION }}

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