Tesco Bathgate: Grocer 33 store of the week

Your store performed very well on a busy day for the town. You must be pleased. Yes. It was the local Highland Games in the town this weekend so I’m delighted at how well we did. It’s actually the start of a busy period in the area with the Bathgate gala day taking place this weekend coming.

And the weather played its part too? Yes, it’s unusual but the north of the country seems to be getting the best of the weather at the moment. The BBQ range we launched about four weeks ago is doing really well, including our fire burgers and chicken tikka kebabs on skewers. We are also selling lots of patio sets and gardening equipment.

Your store scored highly on customer service. How do you maintain this? It comes down to the fact that we have some very capable and experienced colleagues on the team. We have a lot of staff who have been here since the store opening 16 years ago and even going back to the previous Tesco store in Bathgate. We encourage all colleagues to be relaxed when dealing with customers and to bring their personality out.

And how do you ensure strong availability? You can’t underestimate the part played by the night operation. Once you have a good set-up it becomes a lot easier for the day shift to maintain it as the day goes on.

The Grocer is running an anti-food waste campaign. Is that something you would support? Definitely. It’s a big issue we all need to address. We have been running the Tesco Community Food Connection, which works with FareShare, for four weeks now. We have seven different local charities that each come into the store once a week and take what surplus food they can use. The colleagues are really happy about this and doing it locally helps to build great relations in the community. We are definitely producing less waste as a result and we are all looking forward to seeing the results when they come out.