Waitrose Bagshot: Grocer 33 store of the week

This store has a good record on the Grocer 33… I’ve been here nine years, and the store has won three times. It’s testament to the partners more than anything else. When we last won 14 months ago, there was a duty manager looking after the store for me while I was seriously ill. I had a triple heart bypass and had only just come back as he was getting his photos taken! It makes you value your friends, family and the business. I’m a 40-year partner and that’s the time that this business steps up and looks after its people.

What makes this store so successful? We are a truly modern Waitrose branch with a great team of 150 absolutely outstanding individuals. These days we have all of these apps, but it still holds true that customers want great service, great availability and to be treated with respect. Our location gives us some advantages – we have a lovely light building, great car park and a lovely café. We’re on a retail park, with a Pets at Home, Subway and now a Hobbycraft. It’s not unique as a model, but it’s complementary to our offer.

The average Bagshot shopper could be seen as the ‘typical’ Waitrose customer – do you agree? Look, we are in Surrey, so there is an element of affluence. But these days not everyone has money to spend, so things like our Essentials range offer great value for money. I remember a time when Waitrose was significantly more expensive on branded products, sometimes up to 40% compared to our competitors. That’s not the case any more – we can’t afford to be.

Has much changed in Bagshot since the last win? We were getting a lot of feedback that we didn’t have enough self-service checkouts, so we had a rebalance in August. We only had four at the time, which was very low for a store of our size, so we doubled it. Our checkout scores are now as strong as they’ve ever been. At the same time, we took the opportunity to move some of our ambient lines around. Our free-from was stuck in the corner, now it’s in the middle of the store. Sales have gone up significantly!

Waitrose has really stepped up its NPD efforts. What’s your favourite product? Some of our No.1 products are off the scale in terms of flavour, particularly the No.1 Calabrian Pizza. Bread and chocolate are my vices, and our sourdough is a staple. For someone who likes food, this store is the largest larder in the world.

Waitrose is putting more emphasis on improving customer service. What has that looked like at Bagshot? We haven’t invested in customer service training for a number of years, but we are about to roll out a new programme for every single partner. It’s really going to focus on making our partners much more informed about the food we sell. That could be through tastings, but we might also provide ingredients to partners to cook one of our monthly recipe cards, then they share their thoughts with the team.

How are you feeling ahead of annual results? More confident. We’re doing things, we’re investing in our core estate and investing in customer service training. We’re in a much more confident place to move forward. It’s not a secret that we are trying to recover our position, but I’ve never known the business to transform at a greater pace.