What recent promotions have been a success? Valentine’s Day did extremely well. We had a good range at good prices and attractive PoS. The bestseller was a better-thanhalf- price pink Lanson Champagne that came in a pink bottle, which I thought was excellent marketing.
What else has been selling well recently? Fruit and vegetables are doing very well – we have seen a sales uplift of about 4%. Frozen food has also been up by about 3%.
Why do you think that is? We have been doing a lot of work around making availability better the entire time we are open. After 5pm, stock was beginning to run short. We looked at how we could replenish the store better. We also refurbished it so we could devote more space to popular lines. Since then we’ve seen a gradual increase in sales – particularly in the evening.
Do you ever visit your nearest rivals? Yes, quite often. I look to see how congested they are, what the service is like and the general environment of the store and car park. Then we try and better it.
Do you have any big promotions coming up? Passover is a really important time of year for us as we have a very prominent Jewish community. We give a lot of seasonal space to Passover products and will sell a lot of ‘certified as kosher for Passover’ products such as wine, matsos, Coca-Cola and grape juice. There will be lots of ads in the Jewish Chronicle, so it will be very busy and we will see a significant uplift in that period.
Do you have a problem with crime in-store? We are quite vulnerable – the building has a lot of exit points and we are open 24 hours – it is a high-risk store. We try to maintain a very visible security presence. There are frequent attempts by shoplifters to steal items – on Saturday at about 10pm two of my staff stopped a young man trying to steal nine DVDs that he had hidden under his jacket.
What are your thoughts on Sir Terry Leahy stepping down? He has been a phenomenal leader for Tesco and has always spoken about listening to customers, doing the right thing and looking after our staff. Have you had any customers using Asda APG vouchers? No – and I haven’t had any feedback from customers or colleagues either. Asda has always been good at promoting its price point, but I sense the industry seems to think the 10% cheaper claim isn’t a realistic one.
How long have you worked at Brent Cross? For eight months. I started as a warehouse boy in Tesco Strood, in Kent. I used to tidy and sweep up.
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