Sainsbury's Fareham: Grocer 33 store of the week

You have a lot of competition in your area. How do you try to stay ahead? It is a very competitive market here and we have a Lidl opening nearby shortly as well. I make sure I go and visit each of our competitors’ stores at least once a month, but I’m sure we are the best in town. I’ve been store manager here for two years and am very proud of all the team. We also have a great range of food and I think our clothing and general merchandise really sets us apart. We have a very foodie customer-base and so our sales of wine and fresh food are doing particularly well.

How do you go about getting to know your customers? By listening. We have customer feedback sessions in the in-store café four times a year, which is a great, informal way of getting to know what they like and don’t like. It may mean we can bring in a line that they haven’t been able to get previously or ensure we open extra checkouts on a busy Saturday morning.

Earlier this month, Sainsbury’s said it was phasing out multibuys by August, having started this process last year. How is it working? It is going very well. Shoppers are becoming a lot savvier these days. They are moving towards more little and often shopping and so want a great-value price for a single item rather than multibuys. There is also a lot of concern about food waste and we are getting ahead of the curve on this by helping our customers.

Are you getting any extra services or concessions into the store? We had a Timpson concession introduced last year and that’s gone down well. However, we haven’t been earmarked for any more as we already have a very high trading intensity. We also replaced the salad bar to stock a wider range of grab and go food, which is working well.

So it’s full steam ahead for Easter? Yes, we are fully in the swing for Easter. In fact, we are in the top 10 Sainsbury’s stores for sales of hot cross buns.