Store: Morrisons Seaham
People manager: Emma Hepper
Opened: November 2020
Size: 28,500 sq ft
Market share: N/A
Population: 147,217
Grocery spend: £3,547,251
Spend by household: £54
Competitors: 24
Nearest rivals: Aldi 2.4 miles, Asda 2.3 miles, Co-op 0.5 miles, Iceland 4.0 miles, Lidl 3.9 miles, M&S 0.2 miles, Morrisons 4.0 miles, Sainsbury’s 2.6 miles, Tesco 1.8 miles, Waitrose 14.7 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.
This is a relatively new store. Tell us more about it. Dalton Park has been open about 18 months. I’ve been here for six weeks and so has the new store manager – we came together. The previous store manager was here from the beginning, I believe. A lot of the team are brand-new to the company, so for them to open a new store and for it to be in the position it’s in now is fantastic. They all get on and support each other when they need to, and I believe that was all down to the fact that they opened in the pandemic. I can’t speak for the challenges the previous store manager faced, but I know they’ve built a strong team, so it’s been wonderful to come in and become part of it and be welcomed.
The mystery shopper noticed the great atmosphere between colleagues. I also think it’s a lot of the management as well. When David [store manager] and I came in – we work as a partnership – David would not make any decisions without asking me, and vice versa. And I think working closely with the operations manager works really well, because we’re a team and we’re really approachable. We just want to work alongside the colleagues – we come in, we support them, we’re on the shop floor. We’re active with them. We try and have a new model, that great things can never be done by one person, and that’s how we try to run the store.
What role do local suppliers play in how you approach your fresh seasonal displays? I think it’s really important. We’re surrounded by quiet local villages, so to support the local farmers is a really big deal and I think people love that we’re able to support them.
What are people’s favourite products now the weather’s improving? The most popular [section] in our store is probably our seasonal aisle, and we also have the Savers brand in the aisle too for the more price-sensitive customers. We also have a really good Garden Centre section here, which I think is quite unique because we’re on a shopping outlet, so it’s very popular among the customers.
How are you highlighting the Savers range to make sure it’s visible and attractive to shoppers? We have the API team, so they put up our banners and we have a big board that points you in the direction of where these Savers sections are. We’ve put quite a few sections together, so they’re all easy to find and at reasonable prices.
What has the customer reaction been like, and have you seen an uptick in sales of the Savers range recently? I can’t personally comment on sales, but I know shoppers are really pleased with the price cuts – we have local villages around and we work with the Community Champion as well, who works alongside the food banks and such, so yes I think the community is really pleased.
Have you trialled any other changes to the store layout in relation to the coming HFSS legislation? We haven’t. The head office will send us some communication when that comes into play.
Our shopper also noticed lots of pickers. How is the online operation going? We have really good team leaders and pickers, and our home delivery team are now working hard to try and have 100% availability and 100% dispatch time on vans.
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