Duty manager: Harpal Sohanpaul
Store: Sainsbury’s Moor Allerton
Opened: 1998
Size: 43,000 sq ft
Market share: 6.7%
Population: 446,332
Grocery spend: £71,305,717
Spend by household: £386.35
Competitors: 111
Nearest rivals: Aldi 1.2 miles, Asda 2.3 miles, Co-op 0.7 miles, Iceland 2.8 miles, Lidl 1.2 miles, M&S 0.8 miles, Morrisons 2.8 miles, Sainsbury’s 0.8 miles, Tesco 0.8 miles, Waitrose 1.2 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. For CACI’s shopper segmentation of the other stores we visited this week see the online report at www.thegrocer.co.uk/stores/the-grocer-33
Do you have a long history with this store? I started my career as a produce colleague here, then worked my way through the business. I’ve been a store manager for the last seven years, including here three years ago. I returned to Moortown for my second spell as store manager about 16 weeks ago. It’s my 25-year anniversary with the business in December.
Tell us about this part of Leeds. Who’s coming in? Our location is central to some of the most affluent areas in Leeds, but then we’ve also got lots of families on budget. Everybody shops here, we’re very diverse. A couple of weeks ago we were running Passover, Eid and Easter promotions alongside each other on our seasonal display. We’re really close to the Jewish community in Leeds, and we get special lines in for Passover. We’re definitely seeing those big trolley shops coming back. It’s probably the paciest store I’ve worked in.
Sainsbury’s is readjusting a lot of the space in its stores. What does that look like here? The space works really hard here already. That contributes to the busyness of the store. There’s some work lined up, but I’m still waiting to see exactly what it involves.
Experience at checkouts was great, with five of six manned tills open. That’s quite a lot compared with other Sainsbury’s stores. We are always going to be at capacity on Sundays, so that doesn’t surprise me. Trading is so condensed. If you took that amount of money during an hour at any other day of the week, it would be huge numbers. Therefore, if there are queues, we’ll open up another till. We serve the customers how they want to be served, and we’ve got a huge self-checkout option as well.
How has the sun been for footfall? It was kind of unexpected to have such good weather over the end of April and it’s been fairly consistent. Luckily, we prepared well and had everything we needed. Anything associated with BBQ has been rocketing. We’ve had huge upticks on soft drinks and alcohol as well. Sun drives trade in all parts of the store – it’s a retailer’s dream. Unfortunately it looks like it’s going to cool down a bit this bank holiday. Then again, time with your family is really important, and people will still make the most of the time off. We will be here for whatever they need.
What has the Next Level strategy felt like from a store manager perspective? As a business we’re just running really fast, we’re not waiting for anyone else to trip up. From a store manager’s perspective, it feels like we are landing lots and lots of things. There is so much in the pipeline and lots of momentum. Retail can be tough at times, and when you feel like you are on the front foot and are setting the pace, it’s a great feeling. Resetting the value position has been massive. Historically there was a perception that we were an expensive place to shop. We’ve had to catch up and are now more than keeping pace. There’s a sea of purple in store, Nectar is alive.
How are you planning to celebrate your 25th anniversary? On the shop floor, no doubt. We’ll be bang in the build-up to Christmas. The business does recognise when you hit those special milestones. Someone recently celebrated 60 years, so my 25 is just warming up!
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