Tesco Commercial Road, Portsmouth: G33 store of the week

You scored 19 out of 20 for service. How pleased are you with that? I arrived at the store six months ago and my objective has been to put the customers at the centre of everything we do. It’s all about service so I’m delighted we’ve won on the back of that.

How is Project Reset going down with customers? We’re about three quarters of the way through it now and it’s certainly helping us improve our availability. The shelves are looking much fuller. We have a bit of a freeze of the Reset over Christmas so we can concentrate on the Christmas trading period but the feedback from customers has been amazing.

What have they said? They have said the shelves look much fresher and less cluttered. For example, after our beers wines and spirits refresh, people were asking if it was a new fixture. It wasn’t - it was just that it is so much less cluttered.

Dave Lewis has asked stores to make life simpler for customers. How are you doing that? We’ve gone back to basics with our training. It’s all about providing good service and making sure we have good availability and changing the culture to put the customer first. It’s also made things simpler for the staff and the morale is fantastic.

How is Christmas going so far? It’s been very busy and we’re overtrading against our targets, which is great especially as a new Tesco store opened at [nearby] Fratton Park just three weeks ago. Obviously it’s had an impact but so far we are ahead on our targets, which is very pleasing. We’re a different type of store, it’s a big Extra whereas we know there is still a strong demand for in-town superstores.

What do customers make of the self-service tills playing ‘Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas’? Customers love it and their children love it. It’s created a real Christmas feel and nobody was expecting it, so it’s been a great idea.