Grocer 33 store of the week: Tesco Tidworth

Could you tell me about your career? I’ve worked for Tesco for 12 years, in the distribution head office and in stores. I’m five months into being store manager in my own store. I’ve mainly worked in the south, covering the Wiltshire and Hampshire area.

What distinguishes Tidworth Tesco? The store opened in December 2007. We are situated in a military town, very close to Tidworth Garrison, and we’re also surrounded by other garrisons with Bulford and Larkhill. It’s quite a unique set-up in terms of customer base. And it’s a very close-knit community, so a lot of our spouses work for the military and we have colleagues who are in the army too. It’s really nice that we’re able to be part of that community in terms of customer base but also our colleagues too.

How does that affect the way you run the store? It’s a very complex trading pattern. Where other stores might see a typical weekend spike in trade, we find a lot of our customer base are in the area during the week and go home to their families at the weekend. It has its complexity: you’ve got soldiers who have families and children, but you also have the soldiers who are single. We as a store have to accommodate that. We look after our colleagues exceptionally anyway as a company, but for us there will also be times when colleagues are posted for three to six months at a time, and we have to adapt their shift patterns to support that. In terms of trade, there will be spikes when, for example, the army goes on exercises and they move around the country in their regiments. Some weeks we might be really quiet, and some weeks you’ve got 8,000 soldiers coming home and they all need to do their shopping. It’s a very unique setting.

How do you prepare as a team for the challenges of working in a unique store? I think the one thing that is great about the store is that the colleagues are part of the local community. We work closely with the army and the military, especially with our armed forces network. We do a lot of work in the community anyway, so we have that relationship where they’ll give us a heads-up if colleagues are going away, or if there’s an event going on. By having a relationship with the local community, we’re able to understand to a degree what’s coming up and what that looks like for our footfall. Communication is massive, and knowing the colleagues as well. I can’t express how much of a tight-knit community it really is, which is lovely because everybody knows everybody. It’s the same customers that come in week in, week out. But then we also have that excitement of having a number of completely new customers and a new perspective.

How did January go for you? Really well actually. In terms of availability, following Christmas our supply chains recovered well so we’ve got strong availability. And in terms of price, we’ve introduced the new price lock commitment, so we’re freezing prices on more than 1,000 everyday products until Easter. That’s solidified our loyalty, because our customers can see we’re maintaining our competitiveness. Over 80% of our sales are now through Clubcard, which has exclusive deals, including our five for four frozen promotion running at the minute.