Sainsbury's Hazel Grove, Stockport: G33 store of the week

You’ve been store manager for a year. What changes have you made in that time? We’ve really focused on making the shopping experience as easy as possible for customers. We’ve taken the clutter away so we have wide aisles and a clear layout. 

This isn’t a tactic your rivals use - has it worked? It is key. Over Christmas and new year our customers really appreciated that we didn’t fill the store so that it became too difficult to navigate. It’s all about managing shelf space properly.

How have customers reacted to Sainsbury’s recent price cuts? Really positively and we can see it in our figures. Aldi opened nearby about a year ago so keeping up the price message is key, and our customers are seeing that at the till. 

How has trading been in such a tough environment? January is always quieter than other months in retail, but in terms of like-for-like sales, we’ve certainly seen a tick up. We also had a good Christmas and have seen a lot of new customers.

Have you noticed any changes in shopper habits? They are shopping differently. When there are events they are trading up. But they are also shopping smarter and more diversely. That means the challenge is to make sure we continue to offer great service and availability, as well as good-quality food at great prices. 

What plans do you have for your store this year? There are plans for a petrol filling station. And there’s also going to be a lot of focus on online, clothing, non-food and café. We will also continue to focus on service and availability. 

How do you encourage that? We talk about it every day. Our view is that you should serve a customer as you would want to be served. I really want to thank all my 344 colleagues for their hard work. The day before your mystery shopper visited, it had snowed and many had travelled in in difficult conditions.