Store of the week: Sainsbury's Macclesfield

This week’s shopping list had a green theme. How important is sustainability at your store? It’s absolutely massive for us. We are focused on sending no food waste to landfill, and all of our cardboard and plastic waste goes back to the depot. We also get real-time updates of our energy use during the day, which helps us tailor this to areas where it is needed.

Sainsbury’s sales were down 1.8%, according to Kantar figures this week. How has your trading been? It’s the same as it has been all year. We have a saying in the north - ‘it’s not difficult, it’s different.’ We have to keep doing what we are doing in terms of making sure our great value shines through to customers so they see that they don’t need to go anywhere else.

What differences have you seen in the way people are shopping? This year people are definitely doing more frequent, smaller shops. We have had a lot of new c-stores opening in the area. We want to show shoppers they don’t need to go to a smaller shop for convenience and so are focusing on service and availability and making sure they can get through tills quickly.

So what are you doing in terms of service and availability? It is all about listening to customers and acting on their feedback - that is the difference between what makes a great store rather than a good store. On availability we are constantly reviewing everything in stock and maximising everything on promotions. It is not about having full stockrooms any more but about responsive ordering and doing business more efficiently.

So how do you listen to your customers? Our Tell Sainsbury’s service allows shoppers to leave feedback about the store online which we react to immediately - sometimes even before they have left the store. If shoppers see you are listening they will be more inclined to talk to you. We also do regular customer journeys - a look at the store as a shopper would - accompanied by a shopper.