Longstanding retailer Amit Patel, who took the decision to move his Go Local Extra store over to the Tesco-affiliated One Stop franchise last month, has spoken to Convenience Store about the motivation behind the changeover.
The move came in part as a result of listening to his brother, Priyesh Vekaria - who runs a store under the exact same fascia just over a mile away, also in Salford near central Manchester.
Alarm bells may be ringing for many retailers reading, not only because of the pressures of working in the same business as a family member – but one whose business is also so close by.
Family interest
Amit initially took over Duchy Stores from his parents, with the premises serving the Salford community for 35 years.
Amit takes up the story: “While it’s true I’m only about a mile and a half away from my brother’s store, we’re completely different in terms of location and customers. We’re a little diamond in the rough in a council estate and we’ve got our own pitch - we’ve got our own area and we do well.
“We don’t get the same passing trade as Priyesh, but since we made the changeover we’re now on Uber, Deliveroo and Just Eat, so we’re getting a broader customer reach because when people order online, they order from anywhere.”
The transition to One Stop has been, Amit says, “lengthy” but one in which all concerned have been heavily involved.
“I basically needed somebody to say what my dad would’ve said.”
The lion’s share of that guidance initially came from Priyesh, Amit says. “He wanted us to join One Stop for quite a while. When I say nagging, do you know what - I’ll be honest with you - since my dad’s passed away, yes, he’s been annoying! But you need that person there as a second dad. I basically needed somebody to say what my dad would’ve said.
“Initially, my team weren’t ready for the One Stop model, but Priyesh only wanted the best for me as a person and the business.”
So, Amit’s store joined One Stop and initially went through a trial period in April. “We got the tills in so we could start the transition. But the main switchover was on 17 July, and we had a street party in August,” he explains.
“We were with Go Local originally, and then we fought to be a Go Local Extra because we needed a bit of a boost. We’d started to see sales - not tumble - but they weren’t increasing, we’d kind of peaked. So we shifted to Go Local Extra from Go Local, and we started to feel a bit more support from the RDAs over there.”
Amit adds that he felt he could get better support elsewhere as time went on, and after being continually cajoled by his brother, decided to take the plunge. “I was nominated for two national awards but the only feedback I got from Parfetts, as I didn’t win, was to keep doing what I was doing.
“Now, as nice as that was in regard to doing well, that’s not advice. That’s not support as such. I know we’ve been in the trade for 35 years - so automatically people think we should know what we’re doing - but it doesn’t work that way. Every day’s a school day. You pick up stuff every single day.
“So we decided to move to One Stop. I was already teetering on the edge of the decision to move over, but I was kind of giving everybody a chance.”
The move, Amit says, was encouraged by One Stop’s team and the group’s pricing. “This was the right time to make the change,” he recalls. “We saw the lowering of One Stop’s prices and something we didn’t have before.
“Priyesh went through the whole process with me…”
“I asked my brother to start explaining the One Stop model to teach me about how things go and what the process is for X, Y or Z. And he went through the whole process with me.
“So I knew it was sound advice coming from a good place. People might think I’m going to bother my brother’s sales, but we’re not. We are, like I said, two completely different stores. There was no element of destroying anybody or disrupting either of the businesses.”
Simple enough
Although the move was simple enough for Amit and his team, he says the regulars in his store took a little more persuasion. “My shoppers, being from an estate, are savvy. They’re creatures of habit too. They were very unsure at first, very sceptical, because for years they’d been used to pricemarked packs. They thought prices would be going up.
“But a bonus that we found, with it being One Stop, is that all the prices were updated automatically. And as the prices went up, our system would automatically prompt us to change them. It’s very self-run and we don’t need to be regularly going over the prices ourselves, making sure the price is up to date, because the system automatically does it.
“Another thing that’s helped is the yellow tickets going around the store. There are 40 or 50 per aisle, and we’re only a 1,000 sq.ft. store. That’s quite mega for us.
“As shoppers have gone round, they’ve slowly been adapting to the model. At first, they were asking questions like, could they use their Clubcards. They thought they had to use them to get the low yellow ticket prices, but they’re for everyone…”
The support from his business development manager at One Stop is, Amit says, fantastic as well. “They’re already looked at your store’s data before they come in. They know our wastage levels, there’s already support before they even stepped into the project.
“And if we’re making mistakes, if we’re doing poorly in a certain area or not hitting certain targets, they do let us know. One example is fresh fruit and veg.
”They saw our wastage and couldn’t fathom why we weren’t reordering. And it was purely because we were throwing so much away.
“But they’d say, don’t be scared of wastage or of ordering too much, because at the end of the day, you’re only going to learn through what you sell. You need to keep putting it in the customers’ faces so they learn. Maybe they don’t want it today, but they’ll want it next week.”
In then end, Amit says the whole process has been inspired by family, but that it might benefit them too. “I think the change will be good for us moving forward.
“We can take a step back slightly and have a bit more family time. It’s been a lengthy process, and we’re in the middle of it, but we’re getting used to it.”
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