Sainsbury's Weston-super-Mare: Grocer 33 store of the week

You started your career here 38 years ago, you’ve been away for 18 years, and back for four weeks. How does it feel? A bit surreal actually because there are so many colleagues here who were here 18 years ago and even some from 38 years ago! And dozens and dozens of customers have said ‘Welcome back!’ It’s been quite heart-warming to know that there is so much brand loyalty to us and this store despite all the changes in retailing. It’s absolutely fantastic to feel you are part of the community.

Are you getting an Argos concession? There’s a big Argos across the road so I’m not sure what will happen. It’s a very exciting time for Sainsbury’s, though I don’t think we’ll hear any more about this store until after Christmas now as we’ve got a lot of other things coming up.

What’s happening over the coming weeks? Our toy sale starts this week and it’s going to be outstanding, bigger and better than ever before, the customers will be bowled over. Then we’ve got Halloween, Bonfire Night and Black Friday - so it’s a very exciting time of year.

You don’t have click & collect or online. Is that a problem? Not at all. We have other stores in the area for online that deliver here and we do have fast-track shopping, so customers can scan their baskets as they go round, which is popular and is seen as a benefit to help them save a bit of extra time.

You’ve got a lot of competition, is it a struggle to keep your customers? I think we’ve got just about everyone pretty close by, including the discounters, so we have to be very competitive all of the time and I think we are.

Our shopper was very complimentary about your staff. What’s the secret? I see my role as making this a place where people want to work and to shop and both the management team and the colleagues here are fantastic, which is one reason why we can beat the competition.