Duty manager: Richard Lowe
Store: Waitrose, Lincoln
Opened: 2004
Size: 29,119 sq ft
Market share: 4.77%
Population: 149,838
Grocery spend: £3,870,319.22
Spend by household: £61.19
Competitors: 44
Nearest rivals: Aldi 0.8 miles, Asda 0.2 miles, Co-op 0.4 miles, Iceland 0.2 miles, Lidl 1 mile, M&S 0.2 miles, Morrisons 2.4 miles, Sainsbury’s 2 miles, Tesco 0.8 miles, Waitrose 16.9 miles
Source: CACI. For more info visit www.caci.co.uk/contact. Notes: Shopper profiling is measured using Grocery Acorn shopper segmentation. Store catchment data (market share, population, expenditure, spend by household, competition) is within a five-mile radius. For CACI’s shopper segmentation of the other stores we visited this week see the online report at www.thegrocer.co.uk/stores/the-grocer-33
This is the store’s third win since 2019: I know. I’m really proud of the team. We’ve got 255 partners here and they are awesome. It’s my first win after doing this sort of role for 35 years. I started as a student with Asda, then did 25 years with Morrisons. I took a break from food, and worked for Wilko for four years. Then I came here just shy of four years ago, as a night team manager. I stepped up to branch manager on secondment nine months ago.
How do you describe the store? We’re the beacon for Waitrose in Lincolnshire. We do the e-commerce for the whole county, so that makes us quite a hub. We’re also one of around 10 Waitrose stores to have a large John Lewis store-within-a-store section – now that Christmas is here it creates a real buzz. We also have one of the busiest Waite & Rose cafés in the business..
How do you promote local Lincolnshire products in store? We promote a lot of products through our multimedia site and social media. We have a big team of people who are very much into using TikTok and Instagram to promote the store. I spend a lot of time with them discussing what they’re going to showcase. Type #Lincoln into any social site and you’ll see a lot of our stuff there. Charlotte, one of our partners, does a lot of the work on that.
What are people stocking up on for Christmas? There’s just over a month to go, so all ambient lines are in, with a few more fresh lines set to come. The full party range comes in later this week. We’re putting together a big series of tastings on seasonal lines and seasonal wines. We had fantastic offers on bakery products early on and that’s really driven footfall there in particular. It’s mince pies, stollen and other lines. I bought the puff pastry mince pies last week, added a bit of No.1 Madagascan custard, and honestly, it’s my favourite mince pie now.
Does a wet summer put more emphasis on the need to deliver a strong Christmas this year? There were a lot of sporting events this summer, so the weather didn’t hamper our sales as people were encouraged to stay at home and stock up on wonderful food. Having said that, there’s a feeling in branch that there has been an uptake in people shopping for Christmas. The time we’re spending replenishing our seasonal aisle is certainly up on last year. I believe we’ll have a fantastic Christmas.
What have you done to improve availability in store? The business put some high-level shelves in, which has aided availability throughout the day and made it easier to replenish. We’ve experienced some really good figures on availability, and it’s constant, week in week out.
What about service and standards? If you get availability right you are at the starting point, then we can focus on customer service throughout the day. Speed and reaction of partners on the till, as well as everything else, comes to fruition when you are not having to chase your tail getting products on the shelves. Customer service becomes stronger as a result.
How do you intend to make sure the rest of the year goes smoothly? We have two goals in the branch: smile and greet every single customer, and praise every partner for doing a great job.
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