srcg senior client director Andrew Phipps pays a less-than-successful visit to his local Sainsbury’s…
In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens contrasts the fortunes of London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, the main theme of the book being resurrection. At the end of the novel a resurrected Paris rising from the ashes is foreseen by Dickens.
What does this have to do with retail, you might ask? My recent shopping experience made me think back to the last time I read the Dickens tome, although the title for my encounter might be better described as a Tale of Two Stores.
I returned from vacation on Friday and as is usual this meant a welcome home from an empty fridge and bare cupboards, so a trip to my local Sainsbury’s was in order.
My local store is a decent size superstore with full clothing range, Starbucks café, separate fuel store and hundreds of parking spaces. The key thing I wanted from the store was to be able to buy all the items on my list, not a big ask, you might think.
Well a big ask is exactly what it turned out to be. The availability in store was not just poor, it was ridiculous. If I wanted Easter Eggs, or any variously hideous gifts for Mother’s Day then no problem, but if I wanted some simple fare to feed my family then ‘core grocery’ availability can only be described as a bit of a joke.
I am not an over-demanding shopper, I wasn’t searching out quince paste or truffle oil and I am happy to move out of my comfort zone to try new variants, but when a simple list of items such as fresh fish, parsley, nappies, sweet potatoes and spinach are all out of stock, it’s just criminal.
In these ‘worst of times’ it seems foolish that a top retailer would shoot themselves in the foot like this. I thought availability was one of the key things that Sainsbury’s was supposed to have fixed; well if so, then no-one has told my local store it’s been fixed!
Contrast this with the ‘the best of times’ at the new B&Q Extra that has recently opened near me. Forgive me, B&Q, for saying this, but my expectations were low, based on past learning experiences of poor service, out-of-stocks and a general laissez-faire attitude towards retailing. So consider my surprise as I entered the store via a well-conceived and attractive interior design section, walking past tens of show kitchens and bathrooms, each well laid out with clear signage and full availability and which would rival anything Ikea has to offer.
Being Mother’s Day my wife had decided she’d rather have long-term satisfaction via plants for the garden, as opposed to the short-term high from a bunch of over-priced flowers. My expectation levels were low, but incredibly a full stock of every variant imaginable could be found in the garden centre and even knowledgeable sales assistants were to be found without too much trouble.
In these times I would strongly advise the Sainsbury’s senior team to get out of their office and visit some of the retailers that are taking the time and trouble to focus on what the shopper wants: the chance to buy the items on their list and to have a trouble-free shopping experience.
If grocery retail has a role to play in resurrecting the country from its recessionary ashes it needs to adopt the mantra of another famous Dickens character and make sure that when shoppers want more, that there is indeed more to be had!
