Sainsbury's Crayford: G33 store of the week

Your store scored highly on service and availability. How do you encourage this? It’s all about my 680 colleagues. If you create a great atmosphere and your staff enjoy their job and genuinely want to come to work, and you encourage and inspire them, they will do a great job. 

Our shopper also praised the store’s logical layout. What work have you done on this? We’ve got a lot of space here so our store support team has looked at the design using customer feedback. I also always make sure the store is clear and clutter-free. 

How do you ensure you utilise space in your store? We may be a big store, but customers still come in and use us for small shops because they can get to what they want easily. We’ve also done a lot of work at the checkouts to make sure they don’t have to queue. 

Are hypermarkets dead? I don’t think so. Hypermarkets still have a place if they are run well and offer the customer what they want. Customers have a huge amount of choice where to shop and it’s about making sure they come to your store. I spoke to a customer recently who told me she comes all the way from Sevenoaks to shop here because she likes it so much.

January is traditionally quiet in retail. How has trading been? Very good. Non-food and clothing are definitely growth areas, but food and produce is also doing well.

What has customer feedback been like following Sainsbury’s price investment campaign? Customer feedback has been very positive. Customers obviously want to pay a fair price, but it’s about the quality of the product too, so with the price cuts we can offer quality products at great value.

How did your team react to news of the win? I’m extremely proud of the whole team for delivering the win. Retail can be a tough sector to work in so this is something to really celebrate.