Mike Snowdon of Waitrose Cheltenham on winning the Grocer 33

This is your third win in The Grocer 33. What’s your secret? It’s got to be down to the staff and it’s nice that they get recognition for that. We have a big team here of 550 partners.

Your store had no out-of-stock items. Have you done any work on availability? We have got better at working our stock management systems. It means stock counting regularly and reacting quickly when stocks start to run low.

What’s working well in your store at the moment? The big thing is the myWaitrose card. It’s been a phenomenal success. Free coffee is a big attraction. At Cheltenham, the number of people scanning the cards has gone up about four times in the last year. And what’s selling well? People are making the switch to cosy, heartier types of food because of the weather. It’s nice to get some consistency even if it is consistently wet! Our Halloween products are going very well too. This year, we’re selling pumpkins inside the store and outside in our new horticulture area.

Has the horticulture range been well received by customers? There were weeks in the summer when we were taking far more than anticipated. People are doing less gardening now so we are going for more seasonal products like pumpkins and bird feeders.

How is Waitrose’s online business developing locally? We now have a click & collect area where people can park and someone will give them their shopping. That came in six months ago. We still have far more opting for home delivery but Waitrose Click & Collect is building steadily. Click & Collect John Lewis also starts to build up at this time of year as Christmas approaches.

Are your shoppers starting to think about Christmas already? Half of our store is given over to home and those sales really start to increase now. We see a bigger uplift around Christmas than other stores because of home.