Store: Waitrose Altrincham, Cheshire
Store manager: Ashley Gaunt
Opened: 2009
Size: 18,000 sq ft
Market share: 4.7%
Nearest rivals: Aldi – 0.9 miles, Asda – 1 mile, Sainsbury’s – 2.1 miles, Tesco – 2.6 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI.
Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000
What’s changed at the store since it won almost two years ago? The biggest thing is the phenomenal e-commerce growth we’ve seen – it’s quadrupled in the past year. We’re also in the final stages of getting a substantial extension of our grocery delivery area to enable even further growth. Partners are looking forward to it and it’s a very exciting time for the branch.
Availability was at 97% after requiring improvement last time. How have you achieved that? Our central team has done a tremendous amount of work to ensure branches keep going, especially over the past few months. Availability is a daily focus for the entire team, with partners keeping an eye on the highly traded areas to ensure replenishment is done quickly when needed. It’s been a challenging time and not always perfect, but I can’t ask for anymore from our partners who have worked so hard.
Our mystery shopper found one of the freezers had broken. How do you tackle issues like that efficiently? You can thank the really hot weather last week for that breakage. Our freezers and chillers are linked to a central control system, so we get early warnings if things are starting to drift, which means we have time to protect stock. We also conduct regular maintenance, but you do get unusual situations where we have a failure without warning, which means partners have to react very quickly. The team is very tuned in to what steps they need to take – so much so that it’s almost an automatic response.
What lines sold well during the hot weather? Barbecue products are selling so well that it’s hard to keep them on the shelves, plus beer and wine continue to perform incredibly well. Those go alongside picnic and healthy lines, which are going through the roof.
How have shoppers and partners taken to the coronavirus measures? They have been well embraced. Customers have been good at wearing face masks and remaining socially distant, plus we have announcements to gently remind them of the appropriate protocols alongside marshals at the front door. Shoppers have told us they feel safe coming into the store, and staff feel the same. .
How are you keeping partners’ morale up? In the early days of the outbreak, everyone was extremely nervous about what was going on and what changes it would bring, which was mirrored by our staff and shoppers. One of the areas we addressed as a business was making sure we invested in providing complementary healthy food for the team in our dining area every day from March for a few months. It really helped keep spirits up – especially near the beginning of the outbreak when we were asking an awful lot of them to perform a job in difficult conditions. There was a sense of fatigue with the increased workload in those first few months. The store’s overall performance has helped with boosting morale too, as there’s a great sense of pride in what we’ve achieved, particularly when it comes to e-commerce.
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