Store: Asda Stockport Superstore
Store manager: Lee Buckley
Opened: October 1985
Size: 39,262 sq ft
Market share: 6.8%
Population: 688,277
Grocery spend: £16,857,050
Spend by household: £60.30
Competitors: 120
Nearest rivals: Aldi 0.2 miles, Asda 0.4 miles, Co-op 0.7 miles, Iceland 2.5 miles, Lidl 0.8 miles, M&S 2.3 miles, Morrisons 1.6 miles, Sainsbury’s 0.4 miles, Tesco 0.3 miles, Waitrose 2.8 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.
How long have you worked for Asda? I’ve been fortunate enough to work for the company for 26 years. I started off as a 17-year-old, and I’ve worked my way up to become a general store manager. I’ve been at this store for just over 18 months.
What were the main challenges you encountered at Stockport? During Covid there were obviously challenges, but we came together as a team and to make sure we were well supplied and here for the customers. Now, we are unfortunately starting to see some challenges in the economy, so what we’re trying to do at the store is keep the focus on price and value. With the launch of Just Essentials and having a more extensive range, we’re really seeing our customers choosing the value range. We’re also starting to see more customers stocking up on our frozen range.
What other customer behaviour changes have you witnessed in recent months? We have reduced items that we mark down through the day, and we have noticed more customers coming in when we do this. The reduced items are the sort of thing that appeals to the demographic we’ve got around here, which is predominantly those that are on lower incomes and young families starting out. We also have a high 65-plus range bracket and they are always looking for help where they can. And then equally because people aren’t going out, you can see they are buying stuff to stay in instead of going for takeaways, so the pizza counter for example is busier now.
Which processes do you have in place to ensure good store standards and availability? We make sure we have regular moments in the day where the colleagues and the leadership team walk around and ensure we are keeping standards as best as we can. The same goes for availability – we keep accurate recording of our out-of-stocks. As a company we get updates of current supply issues and what to do in those situations. There have been some issues around individual items, usually coming from the supplier side as opposed to being a big concern across a category, so generally there’s always a substitute item we can offer.
How much does your town centre location influence your customer base? We get customers coming in for convenience, and because of our lower prices and good customer service, we see regular customers. We’ve also got a café where a lot of people come in just to sit and chat.
And you’ve introduced the Kids Eat for £1 initiative at the café. The café manager says the increase in customers coming in with their children to take advantage of the Kids Eat for £1 has been great. We’ve been speaking to some of the customers because we’ve got a lot of families coming in and the feedback on the deal has been really positive. A lot of people are struggling so to be able to come in and not have to spend a lot to feed their kids, without a fixed amount that the adult has to spend to enjoy the offer, is great.
Is the store helping families during the summer break in any other ways? We continue to invest in our community and the food bank collection that we do in the store has been a real plus. We have dedicated community colleagues in store who work to drive that food bank incentive.
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