Grocer 33: Store of the week

Our mystery shopper spoke very highly of the customer service at Tesco Cheshunt. What is your secret? We have worked hard on training our staff for a while now and customer service is at the forefront of everything that we do. This win is down to the efforts of the whole team. The Love Every Mouthful campaign has been great for interacting with customers and the tasting sessions have gone down well too.

With Tesco HQ just down the road, do Philip Clarke and the guys ever pop in for a cuppa? We have them here every week actually, and the store provides them with a great mirror of their business. Having them so close keeps us all on our toes and despite the added pressures we usually get a heads-up on new store initiatives, which is a great bonus.

A Giraffe restaurant and a Harris + Hoole coffee shop are both set to open within the store this month. Is excitement building? Absolutely. The Giraffe will open on 25 November and the coffee shop three days later. I think both will provide a richer shopping experience for customers. The competitiveness of the UK retail market is massive at the moment and moves like this make Tesco stand out, as the new-look store in Watford proved so well.

And what’s selling well at the moment? Would you be shocked if I said pumpkins? Our Halloween range is flying off the shelves. We’ve also had a phenomenal response to the Hudl in the build-up to Christmas. With its high specifications, the £119 price tag was a masterstroke and will give the iPad a lot of competition.

Have customers been stocking up on Christmas goodies earlier this year? We’ve actually seen a more measured response from customers so far as they weigh up how best to use their household budgets. But as we are the busiest Tesco store in the country, in terms of sales, I’d expect things to pick up massively over the coming weeks.