A focus on offering value and providing a more comfortable shopping experience for customers have been the driving forces behind the refit of Shingadia’s Budgens & Post Office at Caterways in Horsham, West Sussex.
The Shingadia family took over the site eight years ago and was trading under the Londis banner, doing good figures according to Amish who runs the store. However when the pandemic hit, “the store went to a different level” due to customers using it more often.
Amish explains that the customers got used to shopping there regularly and the family felt it was time to change the store’s mission as shoppers had changed since Covid-19.
A year of planning has gone into the refit in order to make the most of the store’s 1,200sq floor space. That included being ruthless with some categories to make way for others and to create a more comfortable shopping experience.
“To make the most of our space, we had to cut any dead category. For example, magazines have been taken away and newspapers have been moved without seeing a drop in sales in the latter.”
Other changes included food to go moving from the front of the store to the back to allow for an expanded offering. “We’ve done a lot of work with Country Choice and Costa to get a proper food to go solution. With the refit, we’ve expanded on food to go and have a larger meal deal offer in place. We’ve got local suppliers in to provide the sandwiches that offers us a USP.”
A lot of effort was put into the customer journey and to make it as enjoyable as possible, something Amish felt was lacking before the refit.
“We wanted to make zones within the store – meals for tonight, food to go, alcohol etc, so that shoppers can work their way along the store comfortably. It was a challenge doing that before and the store had a tunnel effect but now whole families can walk down the aisles without it feeling crowded. Some customers have even asked if we’ve extended the store but it’s just laid out better.”
The move to Budgens also helped the Shingadia’s enhance their fresh offering. “Budgens is more about fresh food so we now have more evening solutions for families.”
The refit included the introduction of push-feeding systems in the fresh category which Amish says keeps the shelves looking full and saves staff having to constantly fill them up. To keep the fresh section looking good, the produce is displayed in bespoke wooden crates to create a market feel.
Although sustainability is a big concern for the business, he expects the wastage to level off. “We will have some wastage because it’s a new concept for us but we have systems in place to deal with it such as working with Too Good To Go and reducing the price of stock.”
While they were unable to expand outwards, they could go up and to make better use of the store’s space, they increased the shelf heights to get more stock in. Particularly important as they wanted to have a value grocery range for their customers. “We got rid of a lot more expensive brands and we’ve added more Euroshopper and Jacks and now it’s a lot better because there are lines in that range that sometimes half the price of the branded versions.”
With everyone conscious of costs, the team made sure to stock the Jack’s range to provide a value offering to customers, even if it’s proved divisive amongst some retailers. “There’s a little bit of disinformation about it because some retailers aren’t happy with the brand. When customers actually know what Jack’s is, they’re really happy with it because it’s Tesco product but just rebranded. I think the quality and pricing of it has really helped us, especially in our fresh produce section.”
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