House of Fraser (Binns), Darlington (1 Mar 2011)

It’s not one of my most well-read posts, but some of you may remember my blog from last March about the disappointing state of the toilet facilities in Darlington’s landmark House of Fraser (Binns) store.

While at first glance it might seem a slightly frivolous topic, the post was making a serious point about the importance of retailers’ attention to detail, and ensuring that all aspects of the store experience – especially in a premium department store – meet customer expectations and convey an appropriately upmarket image for the brand. While the Middlesbrough store’s attractive facilities do just that, I couldn’t help feeling that Darlington’s were rather letting the side down.

Happily, I’m pleased to report that action has been taken – Revisiting the store yesterday, I noticed that the old grimy floor covering has been replaced - a quick fix, for sure, but one that makes a big and positive difference until a more comprehensive refurbishment can be carried out.

...how it looked before (1 Mar 2011)

...and the improved version (5 Jan 2012)

Of course, whether the improvement is due to my inf-loo-ence is impossible to say, but either way it’s very welcome.

I don’t propose Soult’s Retail Loo to become a regular feature, but if you do wish to flag the frightful or salute the shining, you may feel free, as always, to add your comment below.

Stockton High Street (11 Jul 2011)

Since I blogged about my judging role as part of Stockton Council’s first ever Town Centre Business Awards, launched back in July, I’m pleased to report that there have been over 200 nominations from the public for the Borough’s ‘Town Centre Business of the Year’.

I’m told that there have also been a lot of strong entries in each of the business categories – Eatery of the Year, Independent Retailer of the Year, Market Trader of the Year, National Chain of the Year and Newcomer of the Year – though I won’t get to see these until I meet up with all the other judges in a couple of weeks’ time.

Stockton Town Centre Business Awards judges, including me on the left

As well as me, the judging panel comprises Christine Kavanagh, who fronts the region’s Retail Skills Shops; Councillor Bob Cook, the Leader of Stockton Council; and Richard Poundford, who’s Stockton Council’s Head of Regeneration and Economic Development.

With the closing date set for Tuesday 20 September, businesses trading within any of the Borough’s town centres have just seven more days to enter the inaugural competition. Members of the public also still have time to vote for their ‘Town Centre Business of the Year’, which can be an eatery or market stall, as well as a shop.

As I noted before, the Awards are intended to recognise shops and eateries for their trading excellence – something that I’m more than happy to support and celebrate. From my previous posts, you’ll know that Stockton town centre is not without its challenges, including major competition from other retail centres, some prominent empty units, and a number of other properties – such as Debenhams – that could use some TLC. However, it’s good to be involved in something that helps to counter the relentlessly negative commentary from The Local Data Company, where Stockton’s apparently high proportion of empty shop units was once again highlighted in the latest six-monthly data last week.

Entry forms for the Awards are available from libraries across the Borough, and businesses and the public can also submit an entry online at www.stockton.gov.uk/businessawards. The winner of each category will receive £250 at an awards ceremony at Stockton Town Hall on Friday 30 September.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing – and judging – all the contenders!

Stockton Town Centre Business Awards judges, including me on the left

While I was on my holidays, I was pleased to see both the Northern Echo and Teesside’s Evening Gazette covering the opening of entries for Stockton Council’s Town Centre Business Awards. It’s a new initiative designed to find and celebrate “Stockton Borough’s crème de la crème of town centre businesses”… and I’m thrilled to be one of the four members of the judging panel.

Regular readers will know that Stockton-on-Tees is one of the places I’ve blogged about most frequently, most often in the context of the town centre having an unusually high proportion of empty shops – a figure getting on for 30%, according to LDC data, at the point when I covered the topic in detail back in December 2010.

Filming with the BBC's Chris Jackson in Stockton High Street (22 Nov 2010)

At roughly double the national average, there’s little wonder that I seem to have spent a good chunk of the last few months appearing on BBC1, BBC Tees and ITV1, trying to explain to the media why the number of voids in Stockton is apparently so high.

As I’ve argued on air, competition from out-of-town retail – of which the Stockton area has a particularly large amount – is undoubtedly a factor, with potential town centre retailers such as TK Maxx and Next choosing to occupy retail park sites instead.

At the same time, Stockton’s town centre has had to deal with its proximity to the North East’s third and fourth largest retail centres (Middlesbrough and Darlington, according to CACI Retail Footprint data, behind Newcastle and Metrocentre; Sunderland, interestingly, is fifth), as well as an unusually severe impact from national retail collapses.

Stockton Enterprise Arcade (11 Jul 2011)

However, for all these challenges, one point that I’ve made consistently and passionately is that Stockton has all the right ingredients to be a successful retail centre. Its High Street constitutes one of the country’s most impressive urban spaces, and the local council seems to be making the right types of intervention – such as opening the innovative Stockton Enterprise Arcade, supporting the reopening of the 2,500-capacity Globe Theatre, and instilling pride in the town centre through Stockton in Bloom.

Stockton High Street (11 Jul 2011)

Equally, if you ignore the empty shops for a moment, it’s hard to dispute that Stockton does still have a pretty strong retail centre for a town of its size. For example, the value-focused Castlegate Shopping Centre is consistently busy and almost fully occupied, while there are many larger and more prominent towns that would covet a Debenhams department store and a modernised Marks & Spencer.

Marks & Spencer in Stockton (16 Nov 2010)

Given my enthusiasm for the town, I was therefore delighted when Stockton Council asked if I would like to be a judge of the borough’s inaugural Town Centre Business Awards. As a blogger I’ve always believed in backing up my words with action, and this seemed like a great opportunity to do just that.

So, how do the awards work? The first thing to flag up is that they’re not just limited to Stockton itself, but cover all the town centres within the wider borough, which also includes retail centres such as Billingham, Thornaby, Yarm and Norton. Similarly, while shops are obviously a big part of these centres and of the awards, the competition is open to all town centre businesses, including eateries and market traders.

Billingham town centre (16 Nov 2010)

I’ll be joined on the judging panel by North East retail expert Christine Kavanagh, who fronts the Tees Valley Retail Skills Shop that delivers Mary Portas Retail Masterclasses to businesses; Councillor Bob Cook, the Leader of Stockton Council; and Richard Poundford, Stockton Council’s Head of Regeneration and Economic Development. The judges will meet in September to consider entries and select the overall winners, and the awards will culminate in a ceremony at Stockton Town Hall on Friday 30 September.

A total of six awards are up for grabs and the winners will each receive £250. Businesses are being invited to submit entries in five categories, which are:

• Eatery of the Year
• Independent Retailer of the Year
• Market Trader of the Year
• National Chain of the Year
• Newcomer of the Year.

In addition, one category will be voted for solely by the public, whose votes will determine the winner of ‘The Consumers’ Town Centre Business of the Year’ award.

As Bob Cook notes, “the Consumers’ Town Centre Business of the Year award is a great chance for residents to support their local shops, market traders and businesses and make sure they are recognised for going the extra mile and putting the customer first in all they do. It is also important for traders to celebrate their own strengths. It’s quick and simple to apply and I would encourage all of traders in all of our town centres to take part.”

At a challenging time for both retail and the wider economy, anything that helps to celebrate the high street and promote great town centres businesses has to be a positive thing. So, like Bob, I’d encourage businesses to nominate themselves for an award; and local people to get involved and nominate their favourite town centre shops and eateries.

Entry forms are available from libraries across the Borough and can also be downloaded at www.stockton.gov.uk/businessawards. Meanwhile, I’ll certainly be blogging any interesting updates as I get them. Good luck, and get entering!

Signage at UGO store, Eston (4 May 2011)

Since first meeting them at the UGO launch press conference back in January, it’s been a pleasure to develop a really good relationship with the key people at both the Haldane Retail Group and at Charles Hollywood, the Darlington-based agency responsible for the chain’s graphic design and instore promo work.

In the last couple of weeks, the first of the 20 conversions of Netto stores to UGO have taken place, following on from the trial stores – both former Haldanes-branded shops – at Biddulph and Broxburn. In due course, I hope to be able to visit (officially) one or more of the local UGO stores and to get some interior pics for the blog.

Strongman Geoff Capes at the launch of Biddulph's UGO in February

However, with the first two North East branches – at Eston, near Middlesbrough, and Hartlepool – having already opened, I was curious to check them out as soon as possible.

So, unannounced – but without a Mary Portas-style dark wig – I went along on Wednesday (4 May) to experience and review the two shops, paying particular attention to certain key factors:

• First impressions
• Instore signage
• Product range and availability
• Price
• Customer service.

So, how did the two Teesside UGO stores fare?

First impressions

My first stop was the Eston store, which serves the town’s Whale Hill housing estate and is part of a modern retail block that also includes a Numark pharmacy and a Post Office branch. Though there is some parking close to the store, most people I saw seemed to be travelling to and from the store on foot.

UGO store, Eston (4 May 2011)

Initial impressions were good – bold UGO banners and signage ensure that the shop is hard to miss, even from the top of the road, and the overall treatment of the store exterior makes a smart and vibrant first impression.

I was a little surprised, however, to see shoppers leaving the store with plain white carrier bags. Given the obvious investment in building the UGO brand, it seems a missed opportunity to not use UGO-branded bags. Just by walking down the street, those shoppers on foot could be doing their bit to raise awareness of the local UGO store.

My first challenge at Eston was finding the way in. A lack of signage meant that it wasn’t obvious which of the two doors was the entrance, so I tentatively tried one in the hope that it was the right choice (it was).

Inside, the store is relatively compact – which is fine – though the interior did feel quite gloomy and cluttered, partly as a result of having rather fewer windows than if it were a detached, standalone store. This is a constraint of the property that obviously has to be worked with, but there are almost certainly ways – through lighting and surface treatment – to brighten things up a bit.

UGO store, Hartlepool (4 May 2011)

Hartlepool’s UGO, in contrast, feels rather more typical of a discount supermarket. Located in the Dyke House area close to the town’s main hospital, the store is housed in a functional but modern standalone building with its own car park, and is probably about twice the size of the Eston store. Though there is some housing nearby, my perception was that shoppers would be more likely to travel to this store by car than on foot.

Again, the initial impression is really good, with bold signage and banners ensuring that the store makes its presence felt strongly. After the relative disappointment of the Eston shop’s interior, I was also pleased to find that the Hartlepool store felt much brighter and more spacious, coming across very much like a typical Aldi, Lidl or, indeed, a Netto. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Haldanes used the Hartlepool store in its initial mockup artwork, as it, rather than Eston, was much closer to my expectations of what a UGO store is supposed to look and feel like.

It was almost noon when I visited Eston and gone 4 when I arrived at Hartlepool, but both stores seemed to be doing a steady – rather than a bustling – trade. Despite this, I was oddly struck by the silence in the Eston store, and – despite not usually being an advocate of instore muzak – felt that it could really use some background music to help lift the mood.

Instore signage

Happily, the excellent implementation of the UGO brand – which is highly professional, yet warm and fun – carries through to the store interiors. Again, I felt it was more effective in the Hartlepool store, where the greater brightness and sense of space allows the posters and navigational signage to work really well and be better appreciated.

On the downside, both stores featured some rather scrappy handwritten signage to indicate where items had been marked down in price, and I thought this looked a little incongruous and unprofessional amid the otherwise slick implementation of the brand.

Also, I was puzzled by the prominent use of the abbreviation ‘PMP’ on some of the instore offers posters. As a supposed retail expert, perhaps I should have known already that this stands for ‘price-marked pack’ – basically, a branded product where the offer price is highlighted and preprinted on the item’s packaging. To me it seems a little odd, however, to use retail jargon on customer-facing material.

Product range and availability

At its press launch, Haldanes made great play of UGO being “the icing on the Netto cake”, and talked of the UGO brand and product mix being designed to provide “reassurance” and a “seamless transfer” for Netto’s loyal customers. One key Netto feature – the non-food offers – have, sure enough, been carried through to UGO, and the eclectic mix of suitcases, microfibre cloths and Gino D’Acampo cookware seemed to be attracting plenty of attention in both Eston and Hartlepool.

On the grocery side, Netto’s own-brand products have obviously had to go, replaced by items from Nisa’s Heritage label. As a very infrequent Netto shopper it’s hard for me to judge the impact of this change, but there are bound to be people who will dislike the disappearance of items that they’ve got used to buying. On the plus side, Netto stores have always included a higher proportion of well-known brands than its hard discounter rivals, Aldi and Lidl, which helps to ease the transition.

A key part of the UGO strategy is to make it easier for customers to carry out a full weekly shop, by doubling Netto’s core range of branded traditional grocery lines to around 3,000 SKUs. There was certainly evidence of this instore, with plenty of different items squeezed into the space, and the presence of certain types of product – such as puff pastry (an item I buy often!) – that haven’t traditionally been available from discount supermarkets. Moreover, where items were in stock, there seemed to plenty of them on the shelf.

Overall, however, it was clear that there were some problems with availability and stock replenishment. Both stores had some notable gaps, with the fruit and vegetable aisles especially depleted. Hartlepool, for example, had no avocados or cauliflowers, so if you’d gone along with a shopping list you may well have left the store disappointed.

Price

If being able to use UGO “for all your weekly shopping” is one of the chain’s key messages, the other is surely that of value. After all, the tagline “where the prices is low” is embedded in the UGO logo and fascia.

So, are UGO’s prices low? Again, having not been a regular Netto shopper, it’s difficult for me to be sure how they compare with the store of old. Overall, my impression was that the everyday prices seemed ‘reasonable’, rather than necessarily ‘cheap’.

The prices of the fresh fruit and veg that I looked at – such as cucumbers and tomatoes – seemed to compare favourably enough with what I pay in Aldi or Lidl, while the Heritage-branded items from Nisa looked to be similarly priced to the big supermarkets’ standard own-brand items, rather than any of the ‘Value’ or ‘Basics’-type lines. Presumably when groceries are being sourced from Nisa, rather than Haldanes’ own supply chain, there’s a limit to how far the prices can differ from Haldanes’ eponymous stores or, indeed, any other Nisa-supplied outlet.

In the alcohol aisle, however, I was pleased to see UGO still offering a decent selection of sub-£4 bottles of wine, at both regular and offer prices – this is one of the areas in which Netto was always particularly useful! As might be expected, the different in size between the two stores is apparent here, with Hartlepool seeming to have a far superior wines and spirits range.

Interestingly, where hard discounters (and Asda) have tended to adopt an ‘everyday low prices’ (EDLP) strategy, one of the most notable features of UGO, for me, is its eyecatching offers, which appear to change ever three weeks or so.

UGO offers leaflet

Prior to my visits, I’d checked out the online PDF of the latest offers leaflet from the UGO website, and was struck by some of the great deals on offer. Ones that stood out included two-packs of Frü and Gü puddings for half price (£1.50, compared to RRP of £3.19); 750 ml Innocent smoothies for £1.34 (RRP £2.96 to £3.05); and New Covent Garden soups (£2.19) on buy one get one free.

These are genuinely impressive offers; on my way home, I popped into Tesco in Gateshead where I noted that the same Innocent smoothies were being sold at £2.85; today, the same price was being charged in Morrisons in Morpeth. If I lived close enough to a UGO store, these deals would definitely prompt me to make a special trip, and I can imagine other people using UGO in a similar way to ‘top-up’ their regular grocery shop. On the other hand, you might question how far UGO’s target shoppers in areas such as Eston will care about posh soup and smoothies as opposed to keenly priced everyday basics.

Given the strength and appeal of the offers, I did feel that much more could be made of them instore. I found it hard to locate the soup, smoothies and puddings offers, even though I’d looked at the leaflet beforehand and was keeping a special eye out for them. The shelf-edge signage promoting the offers was relatively low-key, and in Hartlepool there was actually no reference at all to the soup being on BOGOF. UGO’s special offers seem to be one of its real strengths, and I think more can be done instore to really shout about these deals.

Customer service

Commenting on my blog last week, George Wilson remarked that the staff in the Eston store appeared “not very happy” when he’d recently visited, so I was particularly curious to assess the quality of both stores’ customer service.

I was pleased at how smart the staff looked in their new UGO uniforms, but, like George, I was a little underwhelmed by the customer experience. To test the checkouts I bought an item in both stores, armed with a smile and a readiness to engage in conversation.

In Eston, the first staff member I approached seemed to be having trouble with her till, resulting in the person in front having to move his purchases to another checkout. She seemed a little flustered as she told me – perhaps rather abruptly – that “there’s no point in you putting your stuff on this till”. I duly moved over to the next till and paid for my purchase, where the member of staff was pleasant rather than friendly. Based on my experience, I probably wouldn’t go back to the Eston store unless it was my local shop.

In Hartlepool, my experience at the checkout was similar; the service I received was adequate rather than exceptional – polite and perfunctory, rather than warm. I noted that the customer in front of me seemed to be complaining about certain items they wanted not being in stock, and there’s always a danger that this frustration from shoppers rubs off on the staff. If the availability issues can be quickly sorted, happier customers will hopefully lead to cheerier staff. Whatever the reasons, however, it does seems that there’s still a bit of work needed if UGO is to deliver on its promise – stated in the press pack that I received in January – to concentrate “huge effort on delivering the very best in customer service.”

Conclusion

Signage at UGO store, Hartlepool (4 May 2011)

To be a success, UGO needs to keep happy as many as possible of Netto’s customers while simultanously attracting new ones – no mean feat for any business taking over another retailer’s stores.

Having tried out the UGO experience, two particularly positive features stand out for me. The first is the implementation of the UGO brand, which is excellent throughout. Carrier bags and handwritten signs excepted, UGO has managed to develop a bold, distinctive and highly professional look and feel for the brand, carried through from the welcoming store exterior to the instore signage and offers leaflets.

UGO store, Hartlepool (4 May 2011)

The other real positive is UGO’s special offers. Some of the deals on the products that I regularly buy are among the best I’ve seen in any supermarket, and the chain’s marketing – externally and instore – really needs to celebrate these, perhaps through explicit price comparisons with other retailers, rather than less easily understood references to RRP.

As far as negatives are concerned, issues such as brightening up the Eston store interior or making sure the tills work are easily fixable. However, the crucial area for improvement is ensuring that the stores have in stock the products that people are expecting to find.

Haldanes, rightly, sees an opportunity to drive footfall and sales at UGO by offering a wider product range than Netto ever did, making it a place “for all your weekly shopping.” As the business finds its feet, delivering on this promise will be key. The danger, otherwise, is that shoppers will get out of the UGO habit as they head off to Morrisons in search of their cauliflowers and avocados.

Former Woolworths (now WHSmith), Pinner, 1 May 2011. Photograph by Bryan Roberts

Many thanks to Bryan Roberts from Kantar Retail iQ, who let me know via Twitter that the old Woolworths in Pinner, north west London, has recently reopened as a branch of WHSmith.

Regular readers may recall that I visited Pinner nearly a year ago, when the old Woolies premises in Bridge Street were then occupied by Poundstar. Just as Poundstar made do with the existing Woolworths shopfront, it looks like WHSmith has similarly done little more – at least on the outside – than add its own signage to the current fascia.

Former Woolworths in Pinner, as Poundstar (14 May 2010)

With WHSmith’s opening, Pinner’s joins the growing number of ex-Woolies locations that are already on to their second occupant since the collapse of Woolworths in 2008. In some places – such as Warrington – this is simply the result of the original post-Woolies occupant going out of business, and another retailer coming in to fill the void.

Elsewhere, however, there are some interesting examples of discount retailers in ex-Woolies premises, more than likely on short-term leases, being replaced by (relatively) more upmarket or better-known names. Waitrose taking over the Alworths site in Amersham is an obvious example, as is Denmark Hill’s 99p Stores being replaced by Peacocks.

Is it just coincidence or local circumstances? An illustration of certain retailers’ relative success or evolving property requirements? Or perhaps a sign of confidence in the retail property market as big names target locations that they may have passed by a couple of years earlier? Whatever the reason, it’s fair to say that Pinner was reasonably quiet on the Friday morning when I visited last year, so hopefully WHSmith’s arrival provides a welcome boost to footfall in a retail centre that, arguably, was never the most obvious location for a pound shop.

One of Pinner’s charms is that it manages to combine a lovely historic centre with a reasonably strong retail and leisure offer. I knew next to nothing about the place before stepping off the train last year, but I was really impressed by the gorgeous High Street, lined with timber-framed buildings housing bars and independent shops.

High Street, Pinner (14 May 2010)

Tucked behind the High Street, there’s also an M&S Simply Food and a good-sized Sainsbury’s, both accessed via discreet archways and reasonably well integrated with the rest of the shopping centre.

Sainsbury's, Pinner (14 May 2010)

My general view is that places like Pinner benefit from having a healthy mix of big-name stores and interesting independents, allowing shoppers to meet most of their everyday needs while maintaining a retail centre that is distinctive and characterful.

Of course, not everyone subscribes to that view. Take those superstores away, and the romantic vision is that shoppers will revert to old-fashioned shopping habits, providing an automatic boost for the local butcher and greengrocer. Here in the North East, however, the example of Wallsend – a town that has been without its main supermarket for the last two years – reminds us that shoppers are just as capable of taking their business to the nearest Morrisons or Tesco down the road.

With this in mind, I was disappointed, but not surprised, to read that WHSmith’s arrival in Pinner has apparently provoked a “backlash” from local independent shopkeepers. Of course, local newspapers thrive on this kind of drama, and we shouldn’t believe everything we read in them. However, the “local indies object to big-name newcomer” story is wearily familiar, and often based on the flimsiest of premises.

Harrow Observer article about "WHSmith backlash"

The article in the Harrow Observer last month reported that “WHSmith is facing a backlash from independent traders in Pinner who fear the stationery giant will steal their customers”, and revealed that “a group of shops selling cards, stationery, books and printing services have written a joint letter to WHSmith bosses over their fears that independent shops like theirs will be undercut.”

On several counts this argument is bizarre. It ignores the fact that some of WHSmith’s ranges – such as stationery and newspapers – are items that Woolworths used to sell from that site without anyone seemingly complaining. Equally, anyone who’s recently been to a branch of Smith’s will recognise that its upmarket (or, some might say, overpriced) cards compete more with Paperchase or Clinton’s than with Card Factory or local independents.

What I find most depressing about this kind of article, however, is the apparent complacency and sense of blame among some indie retailers – the view that “we’ve been here forever, and how dare the big boys come in, undercut us, and nick our customers” – and the implication that everything revolves around price. What about celebrating independents’ potential to offer superlative customer service? Providing a friendly, personal touch and superb specialist knowledge that the big chains simply can’t match?

In the modern world of retailing, no retail business has – or should have – a God-given right to thrive. Success needs to be earnt. Unfortunately, alongside all the brilliant and innovative independent retailers out there, there are still too many that haven’t invested enough in brightening up dismal store interiors, in showcasing product effectively, or in offering more-than-perfunctory customer service. In short, these are shops that have coasted along, reliant on a relatively captive audience, and whose limitations are exposed when a big chain opens up down the road.

Instead of grumbling, Pinner’s indie retailers should therefore be seizing upon the opportunity afforded by WHSmith’s arrival.

Celebrate the fact that a major name has made an investment in your retail centre, bringing a vacated shop unit back into use.

Assuming local footfall increases, tap into this. Bring more customers into your own shop by offering the products that they want, wrapped up with a sense of theatre and top-notch customer service that makes people feel good and want to come back.

But, above all, don’t ask them at the till if they’d like to buy some cheap chocolate.

Not what you expect in an upmarket department store

Apologies for the Richard Whiteley-style headline and the rather gruesome photograph, but if Mary Portas was looking for another retail-related programme idea she could do worse than turn her attention to customer toilet facilities – celebrating the good and exposing the horrible.

Customer loos are a staple of most department stores, and a necessity for those that have a restaurant or café. In the context of shops’ facilities increasingly taking the place of those that local councils once provided, many retailers do an admirable job.

As you would expect, John Lewis’s toilets are usually spotless – resplendent with upmarket Dyson hand driers, and showing the attention to detail and superb customer service that has underpinned the recent success of the Partnership’s business. Given the high footfall, the big four supermarkets also do a pretty good job of providing facilities that are clean, pleasant and well equipped – the same qualities that you expect to find on the supermarket salesfloor.

Alas, not all shops’ toilet facilities are, quite literally, as sparkling, particularly where stores are in older buildings or in need of a refit more generally. The example above – photographed yesterday – looks like a dodgy backstreet loo, but in fact it’s the gents’ customer toilets in House of Fraser in Darlington, serving both the restaurant and the wider store.

Let’s be clear – the state of a store’s toilets alone probably isn’t going to put a customer off going there to shop. However, grimy, unmodernised facilities aren’t what you expect to find in a department store that positions itself at the premium end of the market. By all means invest in celebrating the relaunch of Biba – but don’t forget the small, yet important, details that can impact negatively on your brand.

Original Woolworths (now House of Fraser), Briggate, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

As you would expect, I used the opportunity of being in Leeds last week to check out the city centre’s former Woolies sites.

Leeds’ original Woolworths in Briggate – store #5 – was one of the very first to open in the UK, in 1911. Following a 1959 rebuild, it also became one of the largest city centre sites from which Woolworths ever traded. The black and white postcard below shows the store (the prominent white building in the centre) prior to its redevelopment, while the colour view (taken from the opposite direction of Briggate) captures the rebuilt store’s 1960s heyday. Matthias Robinson’s department store – today’s Debenhams – is visible in the foreground, while Woolworths can be seen towards the far right of the scene.

Old postcard of Briggate prior to Woolworths rebuilding

Postcard of Briggate, Leeds, c1960s. Woolworths is on the right

Just as Newcastle’s main Woolies store was sold off in 1984, so the Leeds store was also disposed of in the same year. In turn, the House of Fraser-owned department store group Schofields took over the site, in 1988, while its longstanding Headrow store – opened in 1901 on the site of today’s Core shopping centre – was redeveloped and reduced in size.

Subsequently, the temporary Schofields (rebadged as Rackhams) was retained alongside the original Schofields store. In 1996, however, the original Schofields on The Headrow was closed down – just six years after it had been rebuilt – while the Briggate store took on the House of Fraser name that it retains to this day. Even now, however, the Briggate frontage is remarkably unchanged from how it appeared as a Woolworths store more than half a century ago. 

Former Woolworths (now Home Bargains), Merrion Centre, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

Some time after the Briggate Woolworths closed, a new but much smaller Woolies (#1142) opened in the Merrion Centre at the opposite end of town. This lasted until the retailer’s collapse into administration, closing its doors for the last time on 2 January 2009. Just days later, however, Home Bargains was revealed as the new tenant of the 15,158 sq ft unit.

1970s postcard of Merrion Centre

Conscious of the hazards of shopping centre security guards, I made a point of tracking down the centre manager’s office to ask permission to take a photograph. Given the prominent signposting of the office from the mall, I imagined that the management would be accustomed to – or would even welcome – members of the public dropping in with enquiries.

Merrion Centre entrance, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

However, even once I’d explained who I was, the reception I received was rather frosty and disinterested – a pity, given that my intention was to say positive things about a centre that is, admittedly, slightly dated in ambience, but has a pretty good mix of value retailers, a strong anchor in Morrisons, and very few empty units at all.

Informed that I would have to get permission from the manager of each and every store whose shopfront I wanted to photograph, I duly set off, with some trepidation, to Home Bargains. Happily, the store manager was out and about on the shopfloor, and was delightful – warm, friendly, and pleased for me to take a photograph of his shop.

When I was filming with the BBC last year, I gained an equally positive impression of the smart and personable staff in Hartlepool’s Home Bargains store, and it all reflects well on the TJ Morris-owned business. I don’t know if ‘Secret Shopper’ Mary Portas is tackling discount variety stores as part of her current crusade “to give shoppers the service they deserve”, but my experience of Home Bargains certainly suggests that it is possible to build a growing and profitable discount business at the same time as nurturing a friendly, winning workforce.

Hotel Chocolat, Blackett Street, Newcastle (12 Jan 2011)

Back in early November, I reported upon the impending of arrival of upmarket chocolatier Hotel Chocolat to Newcastle’s Blackett Street – the retailer’s first standalone high-street store in the North East. The store opened for business on 26 November and I dropped in for a look just before Christmas. So, how does it check out?

From the street, the shopfront and signage is elegant and understated, but the attractive yet restrained window displays do a good job of grabbing the attention of passers-by, while always allowing a clear view into the shop – and of the chocolate delights inside.

Once over the threshold, the first thing to remark upon is quite how tiny the store is. However, it manages to fit a lot into the shelves around the edge of the shop, while avoiding cluttering up the middle of the floor – an important point given how busy the shop was when I visited. As with the outside of the store, a sense of elegance and simplicity runs throughout the interior, allowing the attractive product to very much be the centre of attention.

Having chosen my treats (actually a gift for the other half), I went to the counter where two staff were serving at the time of my visit. The girl who served me was delightful – really warm and chatty – and seemed genuinely interested in me and my purchase. It was a refreshing change from too many other shops I’ve visited recently (that includes you, Peacocks in Monument Mall), where the staff have managed to converse with each other during the entire transaction, only bothering to acknowledge my presence at the point where they’ve required payment.

The excellent attention to detail carried through to the store’s packaging – a simple paper carrier bag bearing the Hotel Chocolat logo, and reinforcing the feeling of quality – and to the friendly boy at the door who bade me farewell as I left the shop.

The whole point of Hotel Chocolat is that it’s not somewhere that you’ll shop all the time – unless you’re especially well off and have a thing for very decadent chocolate. It’s perfect, however, as a place for gifts or the occasional treat – and if the customer experience is this good every time, I’ll definitely be back.

Yet Another Sale

This guest post was written by Simon Barnett. Graham has kindly allowed me to write a few words on the subject of discount retailing. I have experience in this area and regularly contribute to a website about online discount codes.

Reading Graham’s post about his visit to Barnard Castle, I was struck by his observations of the discounting approach that’s been taken by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill chain of stores. Like many retailers, it seems that here is an example of a business that believes that the best way to succeed is by trading at the “bargain bucket” end of the retailing spectrum.

It’s clear that many retailers take such an approach because they believe that serious discounting will lead to a significant increase in sales and profitability. But such thinking may not necessarily ring true. Competing on the basis of price in this way has some inherent dangers.

Damaging the brand

In my local high street there are a number of stores that seem to have cropped up in the last few months. They are selling “everything for a pound”, or are already having a “clearance sale”. They probably won’t be there by Christmas. But they’ll be replaced by other stores with similar product ranges.

As consumers, what do we think of these shops? We may well think that there’s the chance that we can pick up a bargain. But we also know that they are unlikely to sell high quality goods. We probably wouldn’t choose to buy a High Definition television set, for example, in one of these stores. That’s because we tend to think of cheap goods as being of a low quality.

This encapsulates the problem that faces many retailers, both on the high street and when trading online.

If they discount too heavily then consumers will naturally start to question what is being offered. Are the products going to be safe? Will they last? Why were they so much more expensive to begin with?

Once consumers start to question the quality of products on offer, it’s a slippery slope for the retailer. Before long, customers will start to drift towards alternative stores when it comes to making quality purchases.

In short, the brand will have suffered.

Hitting profitability

But this damage to the brand is not the only danger. The problem with discounting too heavily is that it starts eating into margins. This means that the move is likely to be heavily reliant on a significant uplift in sales.

That uplift in sales may not be as dramatic as expected. Alternatively, it could occur but cause its own problems. A retailer would need to consider, for example, whether they would be able to handle a doubling of sales. Do they have the warehouse capacity, the staff numbers and the necessary stock levels?

If not, the increased costs could actually wipe out any gains that have been achieved through the improving sales. Or worse still, the slashed prices could actually cost the retailer more than is earned.

A failure to maintain the low prices, or to provide the required level of service, could lead to yet more problems. Disgruntled customers are often keen to discuss issues with friends, family members and, increasingly, using internet forums.

Understanding online retailing

The internet has allowed many new entrants to appear in numerous markets. It could be argued that it’s never been easier to open a store. It’s certainly never been easier to reach a wide audience.

This has led to many inexperienced business owners looking to the internet as some sort of cash cow. The reality, however, is often frighteningly different to their expectations.

Attempting to compete with other internet retailers by constantly lowering prices is a hazardous approach. Many larger retailers will have negotiated better deals with suppliers, ensuring that they have larger margins to work with. Sometimes a smaller store simply can’t compete on price. At least, they can’t if they wish to remain profitable.

The key to success is surely understanding that selling online isn’t always about pricing strategies. Consumers are actually willing to pay more if they believe that they are receiving high quality products and a good level of service. As mentioned above, negative stories soon spread online, but positive ones do too.

If a retailer can build up a good reputation online then they can actually charge a premium for what they have to offer. Does this mean ignoring pricing? No, but it does mean taking a realistic approach.

Provide great service levels

John Lewis, the UK department store chain, are famously “never knowingly undersold”. They promise to price-match with competitors. By doing so, they ensure that they are seen as offering a good deal. But they don’t desperately discount products. In fact, they won’t price-match with online retailers.

That’s because they know that some internet retailers are simply offering unrealistic prices. But it’s also because John Lewis don’t need to compete on those terms.

They’ve built up a strong reputation. Their staff are generally knowledgeable and customer-focused. These are the things that consumers will pay extra for.

Building a great business should be all about the customer. We all want to feel like we’ve got a bargain deal. But that’s not just about the price – it’s about the entire shopping experience. That’s something that some retailers are still learning.

Cover of 'The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business'

This post is something of a first for Soult’s Retail View – a proper book review! Before I talk about the book - which is the The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business, by Bob Phibbs – it’s worth just mentioning how I got to hear about this new title in the first place.

After years of LinkedIn feeling like a rather static and worthy business networking environment, the recent growth of its Groups feature has really brought the community to life. I’ve had my LinkedIn account for a while, and now belong to several worthwhile retail-related groups. The largest and busiest of these is the Retail Industry Professionals Group, a community with almost 55,000 members worldwide and many active discussion threads.

Currently, the most popular of these threads – with 100 comments, and rising – is one entitled “Who has a blog re: to retail out there?”, where, as you would expect, I flagged up Soult’s Retail View a few months ago. It was as a result of this post that I got a message from Bob Phibbs himself, suggesting that I review his new book.

Checking out The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business on Amazon, I was able to find out a little more about what I’d be letting myself in for. The book, essentially, is aimed at “the thousands of retailers frustrated by market challenges and looking for ways to take control of your business” – whether they are “a mom-and-pop, chain, franchise, or service business.” In particular, it sets out to help those retailers who are “looking for the advice of an expert consultant, but unable to spend the money” by providing “a step-by-step approach to evaluate your current business practices.”

With a copy of the 246-page book duly having arrived from the United States, I’ve been delving into it over the last couple of weeks. So, what did I make of it?

Well, even before I agreed to review the book, I did query whether it was being actively marketed in the UK – assured that it was, I felt qualified to critique it from a British perspective. Even so, the first thing to say is that the book is *very* American. The anecdotes are American, the style is American, and the language is American – and some of these may jar with UK readers.

The terms ‘clerking’ and ‘merch’, for example, were new to me, alongside the inevitable references to ‘lines’ rather than good old British ‘queues’. More generally, some might find The Retail Doctor’s tone a little preachy – he knows what he’s talking about, and the book makes sure that the reader doesn’t forget it, to the extent of making slightly comical use of a trademark symbol everytime ‘The Retail Doctor®’ is referred to. Coming across rather curiously to British eyes, this risks portraying the author as a corporate entity or brand, rather than as a real person.

So, there are a few negatives to get out of the way to start with – most of them entirely relating to The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business’s American feel and focus. However, as long as you can look beyond these niggles, it’s hard to dispute the book’s value as required reading for small retailers, whichever side of the Atlantic they may be on.

The book as a whole is pretty easy reading. I read it through from start to finish, which is probably the best way of doing it, though the clear division of topic areas between chapters – such as financials, hiring, selling and training – make it straightforward to also dip in and out.

One of the threads running throughout the book is the importance of understanding how personality types affect a business, with Phibbs introducing the four groups of Drivers, Analyticals, Expressives and Amiables.

Drivers and Analyticals are collectively known as ‘Thinkers’, with both displaying qualities of independence and decisiveness. However, while Drivers are confident and extrovert, Analyticals are more likely to be aloof and introvert.

Similarly, Expressives and Amiables, as ‘Feelers’, share the quality of being dependent. However, just as Expressives are talkers, extroverts and ideas driven, Amiables are introverted, indecisive peacemakers. A successful retail business, Bob argues, needs a combination of all four personalities, with the manager needing to make sure that their employees bring in whatever character attributes they themselves lack.

The Retail Doctor's website

Handily, the book gives the URL of The Retail Doctor’s Personality Quiz – part of a more extensive Retail Doctor website – and urges readers to take the test before proceeding any further. Happily, my test results suggest that I have a pretty balanced retail personality – 17% Driver, 29% Analytical, 21% Expressive and 33% Amiable. The website notes that no matter what type you are, you need to fully understand the other three, so that you can “become a chameleon when dealing with them as employees and customers.”

Progressing through the book, much of what The Retail Doctor says is common sense, yet it’s surprising how much of it needs to be restated – often quite forcefully. The book’s cover promises “no-nonsense” advice, and Bob certainly doesn’t mince his words.

It’s hard to argue, however, with the principle that “you have to take responsibility for the things that you can control” – whether that’s improving store performance, finding new customers or clearing unsold stock – or that “the only thing standing in the way of you succeeding is you.”

Similarly, as early as p.3, Bob is making clear that “you have to be profitable”, with profits meaning that “customers are rewarding you for your efforts in excess of what it costs you to run the business.” In contrast, he suggests, “if you are not making a profit, the market is punishing you for poor management, meagre product selection, inadequate location, or rotten employees.” Harsh, perhaps, but surely the essence of why businesses fail.

Much of what Phibbs advocates is about getting the retail basics right, and ensuring attention to detail. In his chapter on “the anatomy of a successful retail store”, he makes a good point about the best stores being like our homes – “neat, clean and well organised.”

In this context, I liked Bob’s statement that “no amount of promotions, events or buzz can change a store’s unwelcoming exterior, shoddy facility or bored employees.” Indeed, his anecdote of a coffee house with dirty counters, broken lighting, and staff who are more interested in talking to themselves than the serving the customer surely strikes a chord with anyone who has had a similarly underwhelming customer experience.

A point in the book about avoiding unwelcoming signs also resonates, with Bob claiming that signs such as ’No food or drink’ or ‘Children must be accompanied by an adult’ are rarely effective, but convey negative messages that “tell people to stay out” of the shop. He argues that retailers should “put out the red carpet” to grow their sales, not “the red flag.”

For similar reasons, Phibbs highlights ‘Do not touch’ signs as one of his top ‘Merchandising Don’ts’, suggesting that “you might as well put up a sign that says DO NOT BUY.” It brought to my mind all those beds that you see in department stores, too often accompanied with the warning ‘do not sit on the bed.’

An important chapter of the book is that which covers online marketing, giving effective advice on developing a website – something, Bob notes, that about 30% of attendees at his keynote speeches still don’t have. I particularly liked the illustration on p.182 of what Bob calls a “rotten title bar”, where instead of the name of the website and appropriate keywords it simply says ‘Home’. How many times have we all seen that, often on sites belonging to businesses that really should know better?

The book’s newness also means that it’s bang up to date in offering tips on how to use social media effectively – including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, though not, ironically, LinkedIn.

The book ends with another line that really struck a chord, bringing to mind those retailers that grumble in the press every time they face the ‘threat’ of new competition. Bob’s closing gambit to those retailers is “whatever you do, don’t do a story in the local paper about how you can’t compete – because you can.”

Notwithstanding the book’s American focus and tone, this is clearly a lesson that can be applied in the UK as much as the US. Armed with Bob’s book, small retailers should be well equipped to harness the power that they do have over their own businesses – building on their strengths, tackling ther weaknesses, and working to create a customer experience that is distinctive, engaging, and that – above all – sells.

Alworths fascia

It seems that the ‘son of Woolworths’ chain Alworths has two new stores in the offing. Fife Today is reporting that Alworths will be opening up in the former Woolworths store in Cupar, while jobs are already being advertised for a new store in Forfar, in Angus, that is due to open in June.

If confirmed, these will be Alworths’ eighth and ninth stores in total, and its first outside the south of England. [UPDATE, 1 June 2010: The Scotsman has reported today that the Cupar store will open on 16 June and the Forfar shop on 18 June, with plans for another eight Alworths stores in Scotland].

Screenshot of site advertising jobs at Alworths Forfar (31 May 2010)

As blogged about in July, Cupar’s old Woolies, in Crossgate, had been taken over by Glasgow-based value retailer Pound-Mart, alongside other former Woolworths sites in Rutherglen, Forfar and Bathgate. However, the Pound-Mart shops in both Cupar and Forfar closed down at the end of April, after just eight months of trading.

As far as I’m aware (it’s not entirely clear, given that the Pound-Mart website still lists them as open), the closures of the Forfar and Cupar stores leaves Pound-Mart with a three-strong store portfolio in Scotland – centred upon its flagship store in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street – but, according to the website, with continued plans to expand during 2010 and 2011. 

Pound-Mart's Cupar store, prior to closure. Photograph courtesy of Pound-Mart

Alworths, meanwhile, has been steadily pursuing its own growth plans, taking over former Woolies sites in Didcot, Amersham, Evesham, Warminster, Wokingham, Cosham and, most recently, New Milton in Hampshire. To date, however, only two shops have opened in 2010, suggesting that Alworths’ stated ambition to open 22 shops in the 12 months to November 2010 may have been over-optimistic. 

Still, adopting a sensible approach to growth is often no bad thing for a retailer – the collapse of businesses like Vergo Retail and Silverscreen shows what can happen when a retail chain expands too rapidly, taking on new stores before it’s properly got to grips with the existing ones. It will be interesting to see whether Alworths’ first appearance in Scotland signals a shift in pace in its goal to become a truly national, small-town variety store retailer. 

As one of the more interesting retail stories to emerge from the debris of Woolworths’ collapse, I’ve blogged previously about the opening of Alworths stores in Amersham and Cosham, and the launch of its website. I hadn’t, however, had the chance to visit an Alworths store myself, given that there are none yet here in the North East, and none close to anywhere else that I’d been travelling. When I was in London in a couple of weekends ago, I therefore took the opportunity to hop on the tube to Amersham in Buckinghamshire, to check out an Alworths store for myself. 

Sycamore Road in Amersham (14 May 2010)

I’d only once been to Buckinghamshire before, and never to Amersham. Upon arriving at the station, it struck me as an attractive and quite well-to-do market town, typical of those that encircle Greater London. The shops are a good mixture of independents and chains, including high street staples such as M&S Simply Food (in the former Budgens), Costa, Greggs, Waterstone’s, Iceland, and the very first branch of the now 50-strong toy shop chain, The Entertainer.

There are also branches of some chains that are well-known to southern shoppers but not seen up here in the north, such as the home shop Cargo and the ironmongers Robert Dyas. The latter, I noted, featured the retailer’s new logo and store design, certainly conveying a fresher and more modern image than the old look, spotted earlier that same day in Harrow.

Robert Dyas in Amersham (14 May 2010)

Old-style Robert Dyas in Harrow (14 May 2010)

Many of Amersham’s stores are clustered along the main thoroughfares of Hill Avenue and Sycamore Road, the latter proving quite a challenge to cross given the volume of traffic passing through the town. Alworths sits in a good location in the middle of Sycamore Road, sharing its building with a new WHSmith store that only opened in April, in a unit that previously housed Halfords.

WHSmith and Alworths in Amersham (14 May 2010)

I’ve no idea if WHSmith’s arrival was influenced by Alworths already taking over the Woolies unit next door, but it’s certainly a positive thing for the town to have two decent retailers occupying a building that was completely empty for the latter part of 2009.

So, what about Alworths then? The first thing to note is that Amersham does seem like a good choice of location, with no other department or variety store in the town. Depending upon the product being sought, WHSmith, Robert Dyas and The Entertainer seem likely to offer the main competition.

Alworths in Amersham (14 May 2010)

Externally, the distinctive purple and blue fascia was easy to spot, while the window display was pleasingly simple. Clutter outside the store was also kept to a minimum, restricted to a display of plants and pots and a freestanding National Lottery sign.

Though there was a steady flow of of schoolchildren and others popping into Alworths, my initial reaction was that the store didn’t seem very busy for a Friday lunchtime. On the other hand, when I visited Superdrug and Julian Graves a little later I was the only customer in both those stores, suggesting that the town in general was having a quiet spell. (Many thanks, incidentally, to Rory in Julian Graves, who was able to offer some useful suggestions of where I might find lunch in Amersham. The Boot & Slipper pub proved to be a good choice!)

Upon entering Alworths, my overwhelming sensation was one of familiarity. Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had stepped into a Woolworths, given the very similar look and feel. At the front of the shop, an impressive (and inevitable) pick and mix selection and a decent range of CDs and DVDs are among the first items that a customer sees.

On key criteria, I felt that the store performed well – it was well stocked, prices seemed reasonable, and the staff were friendly and smart in appearance (the latter something that didn’t always seem to be the case in old Woolworths stores, perhaps due in part to the unflattering red uniforms).

I did feel, however, that there were a couple of important areas for improvement. The first related to navigation around the store, which was more difficult than I expected. Though there was signage (for ‘Toys’, ‘Home’, etc.) around the edge of the store, I felt that the gondola units in the middle of the shopfloor would also benefit from some signage, either attached to the units or suspended from the ceiling above.

My second criticism concerned the slightly tired and dowdy quality of the store interior. This had clearly been retained from the old Woolworths store – hence the quick turnaround in getting the store opened last November. In doing that, however, Alworths didn’t really feel like a shop that had only been open six months. The ceiling, for instance, bore all the signs of having many years of hanging signs and Christmas decorations attached to it, while the floor was patched in several places with yellow and black gaffer tape.

Like many old Woolworths stores, the narrow and deep shape of the unit also reinforces the slightly gloomy feel. Inevitably, this is more difficult to do anything about, but it would make a real positive impact if Alworths was able to get more light into the back of the shop, either by bringing in extra daylight through the street frontage (currently largely obscured by screens), or by using artificial light creatively.

Assuming that Alworths is indeed a success – as I hope it will be – investing in these kinds of improvements will greatly enhance the customer experience, and will reassure shoppers that their local store is planning on being around for the long term. As the Alworths chain expands further – and particularly if it starts taking over shops that were not formerly Woolworths – it will be interesting to see how it develops its own, more confident store interior style.

Newgate Street frontage, Debenhams Newcastle

Though I’d had a wander around several times before, today was the first occasion that I’d actually bought something from Newcastle’s recently opened Debenhams store. However, if the good quality customer service that I received is the norm, it gives me every incentive to go back.

I was looking for a nice shirt and tie, and, having decided (for once) to try somewhere a bit more upmarket than TJ Hughes, found myself in the Debenhams menswear department. This is on the ground floor of the store, one level down from the St Andrew’s Way mall, and with an entrance on to Newgate Street.

Like the rest of the shop, the interior of the menswear department is clean, classy and not too crowded, giving plenty of space to browse, and the staff appear uniformly smart and attentive.

Debenhams, Eldon Square. Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Having made my selection, I went to the menswear tills, where both cashiers were serving but I was first in the queue. When a cash desk became free, the smartly suited staff member, Sean, apologised for the wait, though in reality I’d only been left hanging on for thirty seconds so – in many other fashion stores, that would be speedy service. While dealing with my purchase, he was chatty but polite, before holding the bag by the corners when he handed it over the counter – perhaps an old fashioned trick, but one that somehow shows due respect for both the customer and the item being purchased.

Overall then, a positive impression from my first shopping experience in Newcastle’s Debenhams, and one where the attention to detail made all the difference.

Bhs in Newcastle. Photograph by Graham Soult

Its interior may be somewhat dowdy, but I do have a soft spot for Newcastle’s Bhs store, in Northumberland Street.

True, the fashionability of some of the menswear is questionable, with colours and styles that are clearly aimed at an older clientele. However, the retailer’s introduction of trendier sub-brands – such as Trait and Atlantic Bay – aimed at a younger, more fashion conscious market, have gone some way to redress the image of Bhs as an old man’s shop, even if the ranges are rather let down by the less than glamorous instore environment. 

Another reason I like Bhs is that I’ve always found the quality of its clothing to be very good, and, wandering around Newcastle on Friday afternoon, it’s clear that its prices too are competitive against those of H&M, Marks & Spencer or New Look.

However, my Bhs purchase last week was not from the menswear section at all, but from the homewares department. Homeware, and especially lighting, has always been seen as one of Bhs’s big strengths, and I was interested to spot quite a lot of products – including tableware, small appliances and bedding – being marketed under the Maison Essentials sub-brand.

In parallel with Sir Philip Green pursuing his ‘house of brands’ strategy – introducing Arcadia brands into some Bhs stores – it seems quite likely that ‘Bhs’ could end up merely as a label for the overall store environment, rather than for any of the actual fashion or homeware ranges sold within it. When I was visiting Middlesbrough last month, I noticed that the town’s Bhs store in Linthorpe Road has already had the Arcadia makeover, with a smart black fascia and the introduction of Wallis and Dorothy Perkins shop-in-shops.

Revamped Bhs in Middlesbrough

Of course, none of these cosmetic changes matter one jot if the service that the customer receives is poor. Unfortunately, I was less than impressed by the male staff member who served me in Newcastle’s Bhs on Friday (whose name I noted, but will not repeat here). Surely a smile, some eye contact, and a semblence of enthusiasm isn’t too much to ask?

Waitrose Hopwood Park (14 Feb 2010). Photograph by Mark Leaver

Weekly updates on the status of Waitrose at Hopwood Park Services on the M42 have become something of a habit lately, thanks to the regular MMSs received from Mark Leaver.

Mark’s latest pic shows the store now trading, following its opening on Friday. Don’t read too much into it being empty of customers, given that the photo was taken just before the store closed for the night at 10pm this evening!

If you need a reminder, the pics below chart the store’s quite impressive transformation over the last three weeks:

A week ago... (7 Feb 2010). Photograph by Mark Leaver

Three weeks ago (24 Jan 2010). Photograph by Mark Leaver

The John Lewis Partnership’s latest weekly update for Waitrose notes that Hopwood Park is its “first Welcome Break franchise of the year”, with others due to follow on the M11 at Birchanger Green (February) and the M3 Southbound at Fleet (March). Previously, I remarked upon the importance of Waitrose’s Welcome Break franchises “replicating as far as possible the excellent customer experience and stock availability offered by its regular shops”, and was curious, I guess, about whether the staff at those stores would still be John Lewis Partners, or whether they would be employed by Welcome Break.

Happily, I think I’ve found the answer. Back in April last year, Waitrose’s Commercial Director, Richard Hodgson, explained^{[broken link removed]} that “while the non-management team will be Partners, they will be overseen by non-Partner Welcome Break managers who have expertise in operating in this environment”.

As you would expect from John Lewis, this seems like an eminently sensible approach. Hopefully it will make sure that the Welcome Break Waitrose stores can be responsive to the distinctive environment in which they are operating, while maintaining those core Waitrose values that are at the heart of its employee-owned, partnership model.

Waitrose products

A few days ago, in talking about the closure of the adjacent Oil & Vinegar store, I referred to the Eldon Square Waitrose shop as “often busy, though rarely thronged”. Scrub that – visiting during the afternoon on Saturday just gone, the store was very, very thronged indeed.

My hunch is that the snowy, icy weather may well have encouraged shoppers to abandon their cars, and instead stock up with supplies by bus, by Metro or on foot. That’s certainly what we did, walking into Newcastle city centre rather than trying to go somewhere further afield by car. Indeed, there was a report on BBC News at the weekend suggesting that convenience stores and local supermarkets were among the few retailers doing well during the ‘big freeze’, and Tim Danaher of Retail Week makes similar observations in his own blog today.

When a supermarket is very busy, there’s always potential for the customer to have a very poor and stressful shopping experience. I was pleased, however, to see Waitrose doing all the right things. First, all thirteen tills were open – which is always a good start. Even then, the queue stretched all the way from the front of the store to the back, with maybe 25 people ahead of us. Consequently, a staff member went along the queue, apologising for the wait and handing out Celebrations – a small gesture, but a thoughtful and welcome one. As it happened, the eventual length of wait – at less than 5 minutes – was no worse than I quite often experience in some of the larger supermarkets.

Still, it’s always a pleasure to see top customer service, and it’s easy to see why the John Lewis Partnership has built a reputation for being so good at it.

Co-op supermarket, Newgate St, Newcastle

An occasional feature in the print version of Retail Week is ‘Good shop, bad shop’, where a retail commentator writes about two contrasting stores that they have recently visited – one that offers a superb store environment and customer experience, and another that – for whatever reason – leaves a less positive impression.

Nipping out into Newcastle at lunchtime yesterday I had my own ‘Good shop, bad shop’ experience – or, more precisely, one bad shop and two really good ones.

Starting off with the negative, the bad shop was the Co-op supermarket in Newgate Street – a wholy disspiriting experience. Formerly the food hall of the adjoining department store, the supermarket seems to have had no money spent on it since the department store closed down two-and-a-half years ago. What’s left on the site just feels unloved and behind the times, with bored-looking staff, long queues (as usual), and numerous broken light fittings that create an overall feeling of gloom.

Co-op supermarket, Newgate St, Newcastle

With the nearby Sainsbury’s Local in Gallowgate and Waitrose in Eldon Square having opened in the last couple of years, and a new Tesco Metro due to open in nearby Clayton Street in February 2010, it’s difficult to see, going forward, what role this particular Co-op store is going to have. Certainly, it needs to do much better than this if it’s to stand a chance against its newer, shinier competitors and have a longer-term future. Indeed, given that the rest of the iconic Co-op building is unlikely to be brought back into use while the food hall remains in place, it might be best to put it out of its misery sooner rather than later.

Malgosia's, Newgate Shopping Centre, Newcastle

Thankfully my trip into town was not all gloom and doom. Along the road, the otherwise dismal Newgate Shopping Centre boasts a hidden gem in the form of Malgosia’s – a food shop that badges itself as a ‘Polish, Czech and Lithuanian’ supermarket.

The interior has few frills – perhaps as well given the shopping centre’s proposed redevelopment - but the shop is quirky and interesting, and certainly seems to be popular among Tyneside’s large Polish population. Moreover, it has an impressive range of east European groceries, deli items and newspapers, served with a smile by its friendly Polish-speaking staff – that’s certainly more than the Co-op manages to offer.

Olive and Bean, Clayton St, Newcastle

Good shop #2 is the splendid Olive and Bean in nearby Clayton Street. Opened about 18 months ago, Olive and Bean is truly a delight – an upmarket delicatessen and coffee shop in a unit that used to be occupied by a Barnardo’s charity shop, and that really lifts what has recently been the rather seedy back end of Eldon Square and the Grainger Market. The interior is clean and fresh at the same time as being warm and cosy, with simple metal shelving and wooden flooring providing a suitable backdrop to the array of chutneys, jams, coffees and oils that are on offer. Meanwhile, the deli counters feature an appealing range of cooked meats and cheeses.

Interior of Olive and Bean, Newcastle. Photograph courtesy of oliveandbean.co.uk

The shop was certainly thronged when I visited at lunchtime yesterday, with the seating area completely full of people enjoying coffees, cakes and paninis, and a steady queue of customers – me included – waiting to buy sandwiches to take away. All sandwiches are made to order, and my mozzarella, tomato and pesto baguette – while not cheap – definitely ranks as one of the tastiest sandwiches I’ve ever had.

It’s great that Newcastle has all the big names stores such as John Lewis and Fenwick, but it’s the individual, interesting shops like Malgosia’s and Olive and Bean that really give a town or city centre a distinctive character.

MetroCentre logo on empty unit

I popped over to MetroCentre this afternoon, and spotted a few things that seemed worthy of blogging about.

Millets: Following on from my post last week about Blacks Leisure announcing plans to shut 89 loss-making branches, I noticed that the MetroCentre Millets store is already having a closing down sale. However, the nearby Blacks store looks like it’s safe.

I’m yet to come across a list of the stores being closed (there is nothing, as far as I can see, attached to the official announcement), but I imagine that a good few will be in those locations where Blacks and Millets are competing with each other. To be honest, I’ve always struggled to understand what the difference between the two is supposed to be.

Woolworths: MetroCentre’s vast size – there are 330 stores – means that it has suffered from having a larger than usual number of nationally defunct retailers. Rosebys, Zavvi, The Pier, the Original Shoe Company and, inevitably, Woolworths were among the prominent voids that I spotted today.

Former Woolworths at MetroCentre

Woolworths took over the old two-level C&A unit at MetroCentre in 2000, following that retailer’s decision to move out of the UK. However, there’s no sign as yet of anyone coming in to take Woolworths’ place. I struggle, in fact, to think of a retailer that might want to occupy it. Most of the potential tenants for a unit this size – Bhs, Primark, perhaps New Look – are already represented at MetroCentre, while other possibles, such as Wilkinson, don’t seem to make a habit of opening stores in large regional shopping centres. Any thoughts, anyone?

Waterstone’s: MetroCentre’s Waterstone’s illustrates the point that I made here about retailers not bothering to upgrade certain stores within their estate. Not only does the store’s frontage still feature the old, upper case logo, but its apostrophe appears to have fallen off (credit where it’s due, however, for Waterstone’s including the apostrophe in its name in the first place  – most retailers would have got rid of it long ago).

Inside it’s a similar story, with rather worn carpets and a sad looking store directory – the kind that has certain categories covered up with card, and other ones stuck on afterwards (I spotted a similar design crime in WHSmith). Surely it can’t be that hard to come up with a store directory format that is able to accommodate retailers moving stock around from floor to floor?

On the plus side, the store did have the book I wanted, and the person who served me at the till was friendly and helpful – always one of Waterstone’s strengths, in my view. Still, applying a bit of TLC to the store itself definitely wouldn’t go amiss.

HMV: Over in Waterstone’s sister store, HMV, the shop looked generally better but the customer service was less satisfactory. The first hurdle to buying something was getting around a display bin of blank CDs, pointlessly positioned directly in front of the counter. Second, I didn’t really appreciate the glaring downlighter, set above the counter, that was seemingly designed to blind (and cook) any customer that approached. Third – and most irritatingly – the person who served me spent the entire duration of the transaction continuing her conversation with a colleague, despite my best efforts to engage in friendly eye contact.

This habit of taking the customer’s money but otherwise ignoring them is one of my biggest pet hates when shopping, and HMV is by no means the only culprit. I did, at least, get a “see you later” – however, if that’s the level of customer service I can expect, seeing me later is probably unlikely.