Sainsbury's East Kilbride: Grocer 33 store of the week

You’ve recently installed contactless technology. How is that going? We got contactless about six weeks ago, which has made such a difference in terms of ease from a customer point of view. Across the industry, most places have contactless so there’s an expectation that we just have it. So customer feedback has all been positive.

How is the 25% off Tu clothing across Sainsbury’s going in your store? Our store’s clothing range is massive - there is nothing you can’t buy in East Kilbride - so we’ve seen a phenomenal boost in sales. We are about 100% up like-for-like on last year. Supermarkets are becoming a destination for clothing shops and customers are specifically coming in to shop the Tu brand.

You run a large online operation at your store. Are there any changes coming up? Yes, we’re going to be the first Scottish Sainsbury’s branch to offer early home delivery slots in three weeks’ time. Because of licensing laws in Scotland, we can’t sell alcohol before 10am. So 10am was the earliest delivery slot we offered. But now, if a customer wants to place an online order and isn’t purchasing alcohol we will be able to deliver from 7.30am onwards.

Would you be interested in running same-day delivery? Yes, same-day delivery is currently working really well in the trial stores and that fits with the Sainsbury’s ability to provide shopping whenever and wherever the customer wants. We’re planning to roll out a same-day service this year and we also want to offer click & collect.

Finally, you’ve had good feedback for your freshly baked gluten-free bread. We launched it in store four weeks ago and it’s been brilliant because customers don’t expect it. When they find out we sell it, they’re really pleased. Already, the growth each week has been substantial. A lot of the feedback we’ve had is about how the product tastes, which has been so positive.