He had persuaded the landlord of two small closed shops to let him lease them, knock them together and provide a full convenience offering including off licence. Nearby retailers led a petition of their customers to oppose the off licence and lost.

“Local people really like the idea of being able to walk to their shop, rather than travel to the supermarket,” Steve told me. I could see this was true with my eyes.
Mr Archer’s message is pretty much the same as the one Justin King, the boss of Sainsbury, told the national media at a City dinner around the same time. Shoppers are going “back to the future”, Mr King said, making more frequent trips and putting fewer items in their baskets.

There is a big opportunity, Ed Garner, communications director of Kantar Worldpanel, told the second Independent Retailers Conference organised by Sweet Charity last week. Mr Garner, whose data is used by the major multiples, big manufacturers and the City to work out what is going on in retail, provided a devastating critique of what the big four are doing.

Tesco’s Big Price Drop has been a success, he said. But it only succeeded in dropping its market share as shoppers bought the same amount of stuff but at lower prices. Tesco’s problem is it already has nine out of 10 shoppers going to its shops and all its new store opening plan is doing is helping existing shoppers to choose a more convenient Tesco to visit.

However, underneath the headlines, Mr Garner’s analysis shows that there is a lot of growth in own label at the bottom of the market and the top. Tesco’s Finest brand, for example, is worth £100m a year and shoppers trade up to it from big brands. Sainsbury’s is successful because it attracts shoppers at the top and the bottom. Its value own label outsells Asda’s, for example.

The message for local shopkeepers is clear. Work out which type of shopper you are trying to attract and change your assortment of products accordingly. The local shops of the major multiples sell far more fresh and chilled foods than independently run shops, Mr Garner observes. On his figures, Tesco and Sainsbury are growing three times faster in local markets than the average c-store. Chilled and fresh food is the big opportunity for local shops.

But is the supply chain good enough? In a frank assessment of the market, Chris Etherington, chief executive of Palmer and Harvey, said the wholesale channel needed to improve its systems to compete with the multiples. “Fresh is nowhere near as high as it should be because the industry isn’t as good at delivery as it should be,” he said.

However, there is a great opportunity for local shops, he said, and wholesalers needed to work hard to help their customers exploit it. The move to shopping locally is being driven by consumers and not the supermarkets. They are following the shoppers into your neighbourhood. You need to get out of your shop and see what the opportunity looks like – before someone else does.

So far we have used the Baker, Butcher, and Greengrocer. There are two butchers, one attracted us and the other didn’t (they offered self made pies etc as well as fresh meat). The one we chose was clean and uncluttered with two modern serve over chilled display counters. The meat on display is well mechanised and on each visit to the store the stock looks fresh and well managed. The butcher is happy to talk about the meat he sells and where can sources his supplies locally, from within Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset. Of course what makes the reputation of a butcher is the quality of the meat he sells and he certainly wins there. On the marketing front he is as uncomplicated as his store, the stock is well labelled, there are clear advertising messages on his window and two swing signs showing the day’s promoted product. The real win is that he appears no more expensive than his supermarket competition.

The greengrocer has a rustic feel with wicker shopper baskets and a traditional style of display. The produce is of good quality as one would expect and as with the butcher their prices are similar to the local supermarkets. They also have a significant ‘whole food’ offering from a wide range of nuts to goats and sheep cheese and yoghurt. A couple of reasons we will return again and again is that they have a loyalty card, spend £5 twelve times and get £3 off your next purchase. The other reason is that they are happy to take special orders for products that they don’t stock.

We have only been to the baker once as it seems to have seen better days (Early Day Motion 2661 – MARKET POWER OF SUPERMARKETS)  . Although it seems to have the facilities to bake bread from scratch the loaf we bought was packed in a ‘bake off’ company bag and had the appearance of a “bake off” loaf. Oh dear, may be we were too late for their normal bake, we will have to try again may be.

The message that I take from our shopping experience over the past couple of weeks is that it’s the retailer’s proposition that attracts us into a shop, then it’s the cleanliness, product and layout. The thing that will keep us returning to a particular shop is the staff and how they react to our needs. After that, although price is important it is not the key decider.

Last year I covered the publication of a research report from the Environment Agency on multiple use of plastic and fabric carrier bags. For the last few months I have been undertaking some unexpected research of my own into supermarket ‘Bag for Life’ (LDEP bag).

I can’t claim rigorous academic standards for my observations, but considering that the EA report indicates that compared to a ‘single use’ bag being used just 3 times, a Bag for Life needs to be used 12 times. The comparison that I have notices is between bags that we purchased in the Netherlands from Albert Heijn 5 years ago and others from UK supermarkets. I also have been using a Spar branded bag.

The best performer is definitely the Albert Heijn bags that have now been used hundreds of times and although the bags no longer look as pristine as they did when we paid 20 cents for them in 2007 they clearly have a lot of life left in them. At the other end of the scale are the Tesco bags that we paid 10p for, but during the last 5 months we have swopped 2 damaged bags for new replacements.

It’s quite clear that the Tesco variety are not made of as robust plastic as some of the others in our collection. How good are the bags you provide in your store and how many damaged bags do you replace a month?

Trade has been difficult for Manoj Harji but he took advantage of the closure of Clinton Cards further down his parade to change his product mix. The cards are generating more profit from the space than the magazines were, he says.

I did not have the opportunity to check his numbers and his range is similar to that in Funky Pigeon, which opened a concession in WHSmith, which is located on the far side of the closed card shop.

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Well I do – I watched it regularly in my teenage years, in part because I went to school with the children of the programme’s arch-villain General von Klinkerhoffen, wonderfully acted by Hilary Minster.

Although its lighted-hearted mockery of the French Resistance and German villains may have been slightly wide of the mark in terms of historical accuracy, the programme was certainly much-loved by the British public.

What on Earth does this have to do with retailing, I hear you ask. The thing that brought these memories flooding back was my visit last week to a shop called Lambs Larder in East Sussex. It is a convenience store and farm shop run by retailer Peter Lamb, and situated just next door to Frant railway station.

Before my trip I had a look at his excellent website www.lambslarder.co.uk which includes a video tour of the shop. As a soundtrack he uses the theme music from ‘Allo ‘Allo! – take a look and you’ll recognise immediately the iconic accordion tune.

In the summer he pipes the music outside his shop to create an atmosphere of rural France for the customers enjoying coffee and cake on seating outdoors. It’s a very tongue-in-cheek touch, but it’s also indicative of the way he sets the tone for his shop and creates the impression he wants to give his customers.

“Running a convenience store is all about good will,” he says.

As well as Gallic charm (he stocks exclusively some excellent wines from Chateau La Tour de Chollet in France), he also has a lot of top quality produce from various local suppliers. This includes fruit and veg (delivered daily), meat (lovely pork chops with the rind still on), and quality seafood (think swordfish and enormous black tiger shrimp). This is all differentiates the store from his competition.

And it’s also about a personal touch. The focal point of his shop is the self-service coffee machine beloved of early morning commuters dashing to the station.

He gives regulars and locals coffee at a 50 per cent discount – it still returns a good margin, and yet generates ‘mountains’ of good will because his customers think they’re getting a great deal. By this stage the shoppers are often hooked, he says, because you have given them a reason to come back time and again.

He is full of ideas about how to generate excitement in your convenience store – many of which are included in a book he has just published called ‘So, You Want to Run a Convenience Store’. It’s a handbook of essential do’s and don’ts for rookie retailers starting out in the business.

It’s based on his experiences since setting up the shop from scratch two years ago after a career in television production. It’s a really useful guide and well worth a look whether you’re just starting out or if you’re a seasoned pro.

Visiting Lambs Larder made me think about how the best retailers differentiate their shops from the competition. What makes your shop stand out? And incidentally what television theme tune would best suit your business?

*If you’re curious, Peter’s book is currently available at smashwords.com for the price of $9.95 – or around £6.50 at the time of writing.

Reading George Anders’ inspiring book The Rare Find , published by Portfolio Penguin, a question springs to mind: What is the reward for local shopkeepers to recruit great staff? Anders writes about world leading talent and how it is unearthed. How is this relevant for small shops? And for their potential colleagues?

Thinking about great retailers I have met, I think answers include how local shops help young staff develop, how first-employers keep track of their peoples’ later career success and how shopkeepers nurture local superstars. Superstars with humble jobs like the janitor who President Kennedy met on a tour of NASA in 1961. Asking the man what he did, the janitor said: “Sir, I am helping to put a man on the moon”.

For example, one shopkeeper I know told me about a person that he employed who had severe learning difficulties. Seeing her affinity with the task of keeping the shelves in one department well stocked, he gave her responsibility for buying. Today, that part of his business and the staff member are thriving.

Reading Anders’ book will help you work out what to challenge your people to do. It will also challenge you to do better. A former Wall Street Journal staff writer, Anders has access to some of America’s greatest leaders. Good to Great author Jim Collins endorses Ander’s book, which provides great lists of what to do to hire good people. These lists also help you understand what could make your business successful.

The reason for this is that Anders finds that success is built around Peter Drucker’s famous advice “to think through the assignment”, which means working out exactly what needs to be done and what skills your people need. Using this as a foundation stone, Anders endorses several good habits and explains how they work.

For example, he shows how the concept of “what can go right” – as practised by Dave Packard and Steve Jobs – works. This is about giving people a chance to show that they can succeed rather than worrying about failure. But there is a discipline.

For entrepreneurs the £14.99 cover price will be rewarded by reading the chapter on how venture capital works, particularly the comments of local business people who backed Jeff Bezos when he looked to set up Amazon.

And character is ever important, memorably illustrated by the success of singer Taylor Swift, who as a young teenager was promoted by Scott Borchetta because he liked her attitude. Blagging a visit with a local radio programme director in Knoxville, Tennessee, for a quick visit, she played one of her songs.

“That’s very nice,” the director said, ready to escort out his visitors.

“Thank you,” Taylor Swift replied. “Can I go on the air and play it right now for your listeners, too!”

The manager, Anders writes, was powerless to resist. This book will help you think about who you hire and how you contribute to your local community – and beyond.

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Our store is in the middle of a working class, owner occupied housing estate with a big housing association estate about a mile away. We operate our business to cater for both types of customer and notice that the house owners who are more likely to be employed in monthly paid jobs plan their spending across each month and use us accordingly. The customers from the other estate are valuable to us as they tend to visit more often, but spend in a much less planned manner. Our top selling categories reflects our catchment area and are alcohol, service, tobacco and chilled food.

We see our store as a major community hub and we go out of our way to make a difference. Each year we have a Summer party with a bar-b-cue and product tasting and a Christmas party in front of our store for the community. We get great support both from suppliers and manufacturers for these events. At last year’s Christmas party Heinz supplied a soup kitchen, the local council supplied a marquee and we also had a Santa who distributed gifts from a supplier who couldn’t attend. With over 300 people carol singing, dancing, a sound and light show, it was a great event.

Our community is at the heart of what we do. Apart from my brother and myself, our wives and Mum and Dad we employ 6 full time and 10 part time staff all of who live locally. We believe that employing young people is important so when a lad who had not been able to find a job since he had left school asked if we could offer him a chance we took him on for a two week trial. We were able to keep him on with the help of the local council who helped fund the first six months. We now have him as a permanent member of our team and he is undertaking NVQ training.

We like to use the chance of running our shop to raise money for charity. Last year we and our customers supported the local air ambulance.

I have to say I feel very fortunate to be in the ‘job’ I have. I get a buzz out of being a retailer everyday, and a bigger buzz from being part of a business that is the center of our community. I also like the opportunity it gives me to get out of my store to go to meetings with other retailers, trade associations and with suppliers and manufactures.

For a supermarket like Tesco, with 3,000 places on its in-house apprenticeship scheme, it is about developing its people and building team spirit in its stores. It’s oldest apprentice is 67, says UK personnel director Judith Nelson.

For a discounter like Aldi, it is a great way of attracting talented people to join its company with the promise of becoming managers in the future. “There are people who want a career in retail,” says finance director Matthew Speight.

For an independent c-store operator like Rav Garcha, it is a way to build the self-esteem of his team and to get his staff delivering on their mission to make “a difference locally”. Unlike education that is designed to get a class of students to a median level, the apprenticeship scheme helps people become all they can be, says Mr Garcha, who owns four stores under the Nisa Local badge.

As a local independent employer, you need help to know what to do next and Skillsmart Retail’s web site gives you the details.

Michael Scott, who was the apprentice of the year in 2009, spoke at a conference in London last week and his words should motivate you to invest in your team.

At 16, I was at school and wanted to earn some money and got a four hour Saturday job working in the stock room of a shoe shop. Then I learned how to cash up and to do a refund and the manager asked me to work some Sundays.

At 17 I passed my driving test and I wanted a car and needed more money and I saw this job advertised for a supervisor at 16 hours a week. I thought that because I knew how to do a refund that I would get the job. The manager told me I had no experience. However, the person who did get the job did not last so I applied again. I had done a bit of research and suggested that I could do an apprenticeship to learn about retail. The manager said OK. I found out that retail was about so much more than doing a refund.

Working for Shoe Zone, he next worked as a “go-for” for his area manager, helping to turn around under performing branches. Then he applied for a manager job and was put in charge of his first shop. Today he manages a large branch in north London. He is 21.

What his story shows is that people that you employ may have no real idea what the purpose of retail is. You may think it is self evident but people can still get the wrong idea about what is important. The second thing it shows is talent can walk through your front door at any time. Are you looking for it? And what will you do with it when you find it?

If you have read this far, then I recommend that you watch a five minute video of April Bell and Abbey Fenton, both 18 years old and both thriving after getting backed by the independent owners of local shops.

After a gap of perhaps eight months I revisited Roli Ranger’s Ascot Londis store last week. The wine section looked pretty good. Roli told me what had changed – a big new chiller section. I think his promotions were pretty good too.

A floor display in an attractive wicker basket helped to give the section authority. While not every retailer will be in a location that can display £30 plus bottles, I think this is a neat touch as it helps shoppers to think about spending more. It works similarly to the really expensive item on a restaurant menu, nudging people to trade up.

I thought back to some of the retailers I have met over the last year. I wondered what their brand would be and how it affects the atmosphere of their shop and how customers feel when they enter it. The first retailer I met when I started this job was Budgens store manager Steve Johnson in Yeovil (pictured, having a laugh). He told me the overall mood he wanted to create for both his staff and his customers was the ability to come in and ‘have a laugh’. It was true – his staff were all good natured and enjoyed talking while they worked –both to each other and to their customers.

If you’re going to work in a job with long hours like retail, then why not at least make it a fun place to be? This was a definite brand that Steve had created for himself and the store, and it worked for him. On a visit to Market Harborough I met Best-one retailer and IAA winner Vipul Pabari. As well as the fact his shop is obsessively well-presented, one of the first things you notice is the emphasis on serving customers quickly and making sure no-one is kept waiting. You might say this is just good customer service, but I would say Vipul’s brand is definitely ‘immaculate and efficient’, which creates a great impression.
So what three words would sum you and your business up? Would your staff describe you as ‘determined, fair and enthusiastic’, or are you more ‘maverick, unpredictable, creative’? What do you think – how important is it to create a brand for your business?

This year Newtrade Publishing are the Media Partners for Pro-retail s0 betterRetailing went to the launch party to find out what suppliers and retailers think of the country’s biggest retail trade show.

The bar at Vanilla is “entirely done in eyeball-searing white”. Hidden underneath an anonymous office block, the  trendy London meeting place is accessed via entryphone and subterranean staircase, like some illegal drinking den, the reviewer for the Independent newspaper noted.

It was the perfect space for leading wholesaler Palmer & Harvey to launch its 30th Pro-retail exhibition, which takes place on April 24 and 25 this year and will include a dedicated future zone, showcasing upcoming trends for independent retailers.

Seeing Vanilla was part of the attraction of coming to the event for Pindar Cheema, a Coventry retailer, who was wowed by the ideas showcased in an exclusive preview of the future zone. It gets you thinking about what shoppers are looking for, he says.

Martyn Ward, commercial director of Palmer & Harvey, demonstrated how mobile technology might drive sales by inviting leading suppliers and retailers at the launch to take part in a simple text promotion. In a flash, the 100 attendees were typing seven letters into their smart phones.

As well as new ideas, Pro-retail will also offer inspiration, with the government’s special retail adviser Mary Portas returning for a second year.

“We’re collectively championing the spirit of the independent retailer and the unique role you play in meeting  consumer demands,” said Mr Ward.

In addition to showcasing the exciting plans for the show, Palmer & Harvey is promoting the fact that all retailers are invited to attend. It is a big investment by the wholesaler and the major suppliers who support it in putting on Pro-retail, the UK’s biggest show for independent retailers and now in its 30th year.

Dean Holborn, a Surrey retailer, was happy to recommend attending Pro-retail to local shopkeepers. He remembers that the first year he went he missed the bus and failed to arrive. In year two he was on the bus and left carrying plenty of free stock. In year three he realised the free stock was not the important thing – the important thing was seeing new products, meeting suppliers, meeting other retailers and learning about what works.

This year it is a key diary event for Mr Holborn. He puts the dates in his diary and makes sure he attends for both days. Pro-retail is an investment in your future and the only way to take advantage is to turn up.

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