Duty manager: Mark Brown
Store: Waitrose Maidenhead
Opened: 1989
Size: 25,599 sq ft
Market share: 8.9%
Population: 223,503
Grocery spend: £6,011,059.92
Spend by household: £68.13
Competitors: 36
Nearest rivals: Aldi 6.5 miles, Asda 3.8 miles, Co-op 0.5 miles, Iceland 0.3 miles, Lidl 0.3 miles, M&S 0.3 miles, Morrisons 7.7 miles, Sainsbury’s 0.2 miles, Tesco 0.9 miles, Waitrose 5.3 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
Is this your first Grocer 33 win? I’ve been a partner for 33 years and a branch manager for 18 of those and this is the first time I’ve even worked in a store that’s been shopped as part of the Grocer 33! It means the world to me and the team, we’ve been on cloud nine all week. I’ve worked in about 20 stores, and some operational roles at head office. I was appointed here in 2017.
How does the store’s location affect sales? We’re on the edge of town, just off the Bath Road. So, we’re perfectly situated whether you’re coming in by car or on foot. We’re here for everyone, whether your mission be a convenience shop for lunchtime, or a shop for families that are passionate about food. The store tends to trade very well and has got pretty much the full Waitrose offer, bar hospitality. We’re quite a traditional core grocery store. Recently we’ve seen real growth on our on-demand grocery.
Any lines that you sell noticeably more of in this store? We’ve recently relaunched the No.1 range, and we’re seeing spikes in sales. There’s been a good uplift in food to go as well, which includes the No.1 sandwiches, Perfect Ploughman’s and Prawn Cocktail in particular. Throughout the summer we’ve seen really strong sales of British berries, particularly strawberries. We’re known for the quality of our fruit & veg and there’s been a noticeable uptick this summer. It’s been helped by the warm weather.
Has the late arrival of summer weather affected sales? We’ve had really good interest in summer lines. But we have seen trade really boosted by a good late summer, coupled with the sporting events: the Euros, the Olympics and Wimbledon. Our 25% off six bottles of wine offer started this week. There’s been lots of interest in rosé this year.
Our shopper was impressed by how well staffed the store was, and the service levels. That doesn’t surprise me. We had a cracking week last week, with solid availability for customers and the shop looked brilliant. This store consistently delivers good availability. We resource our shop through our labour scheduling to make sure that we’ve got enough customers in the store when it’s needed.
We’ve got 200 partners. Many have worked here for over 30 years and have developed really strong bonds with customers in the community. Those bonds bring loyalty. I genuinely couldn’t be prouder of the team. I grew up in Africa and an old African proverb really stuck with me: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” That sums up my partners in the store.
Maidenhead is the next ‘trial store’ set for a refit as part of Waitrose’s investment. What’s planned? We’ve got really ambitious plans to invest in the store estate. I can’t give much detail at the moment, but I’ll go as far as to say we’re really excited for what’s planned for this store.
There’s been lots of change at Waitrose over the past couple of years. What’s had the biggest impact? One of the really big things has been the Simpler Shops programme. We’ve worked hard to look at process improvement, like stock management. The introduction of high-level shelving on the floor has had a really big impact. It’s made stock easier to replenish. It’s really helped our availability figures.
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