Asda Livingston: Grocer 33 store of the week

You got maximum points for availability and service. What’s the secret? We’re actually Asda’s retail training academy for East Scotland, covering about 30 stores, so it’s really good to see that we’re practising what we’re preaching.

You have the discounters right on your doorstep. How are you competing? It’s not just the discounters, about 50% of the population of Scotland lives within 60 minutes of the store and I think we have just about every possible retail rival in the area. I spend a lot of time checking out the opposition.

How are you going about closing the gap on price to Aldi and Lidl? I think the Pocket More campaign has really resonated. We backed it up with a really good PoS campaign but it’s the prices that really matter and as a business we’re clear what we need to do. It’s not about buying sales with vouchers.

You have a massive online catchment area. How does that affect the store? We’re probably the largest e-commerce store in Scotland. Soon we’re getting new picking technology to help improve accuracy and make the process more efficient. We’re also trialling click & collect lockers at a petrol station 10 miles away.

How’s the wonky veg trial going? Really well. We’ve shattered the myth that people in Scotland only want straight carrots. On a serious note, people feel very strongly about food waste and it’s good to be doing something positive about it.

You recently opened a butchery concession. How has that gone down? We were the first store in Scotland to open a McGee’s butchery, six months ago, and the quality of produce and the range they sell is fantastic and really complements our own label meat lines.

Has the giant Easter hen paid a visit yet? Asda is really good at coming up with ad campaigns that stick in the mind and this one is really good but we’ve not had any giant hens perch on top of the store just yet.