Tesco Superstore, Perth: Grocer 33 store of the week

How did you fare over the Bank Holiday weekend? The weather was a bit mixed. It was the first weekend where a lot of tourist customers came back. When people start asking where product is we know they are new. Friday and Saturday were very busy. We achieved our expectations. Scotland is changing its licensing laws on unit pricing next month so wines and spirits sold very well. So did fresh - both counter and pre-packed beef and lamb. With Easter eggs, volume came through slightly later than when Easter is at the back end of April. We did a 3-for-£10 offer on large eggs which was phenomenal, and speciality eggs, like Thorntons, were on at half price.

Any trends you are noticing in terms of the soft drinks levy which comes in on Friday? Too early to say. Tesco own brand moved to reduced sugar content more than a year ago and has been very strong. We did a remerchandise within that category to emphasise zero sugar or diet range. I think customers are generally more conscious of all ingredients, whether sugar or salt. The clearer the labelling has become over the years, the more aware they are of it. It’s about taste as opposed to deciding sugar or sugar free.

Is there anything new happening in store at the moment that you are particularly excited about? We’ve had a strong focus in the past couple of years on customer service. It was one of Dave Lewis’s initial launches when he joined the business and we are reenergising that on a regular basis and continuing to improve the customer service in stores. Availability is the most important thing to my customers, a clean store and to find and purchase the products they want at a reasonable price.

What do you like most about your job? I enjoy the interaction with colleagues and customers. It’s a different challenge every day. I’ve been manager here for four years and have been at Tesco for 36 years. I began at William Low, which Tesco took over, and came up through the ranks - trading manager, department manager, deputy manager, store manager.

How do you get the best out of people who work for you? I listen to understand their difficulties and coach to see how we can inspire them to perform and serve customers better. I take away the barriers. I’m very much the carrot as opposed to the stick. I have an open-door policy. I take away the barriers. Although it’s a 35,000 sq ft store with the best part of 200 staff, it’s very much a family shop. Most colleagues have been here a long time. Staff retention, apart from the student population, is very high.