How we keep our sales crisp

My brother Pinda and I have designed the layout, merchandising and product range at our convenience store in Tile Hill, Coventry to service the needs of our community. We target shoppers with their differing shopping missions; crisps & snacks have their place in a variety of these trips. Our crisp range has to meet the daily needs of our customers. In the morning they can be a snack on the way to work or something for a midmorning pit stop. Later in the day they sell in our Meal Deal offer. We have many housewives who are looking for multipacks as a value option to top up their children’s lunch boxes.

We have a 5 metre display of crisps and related products; this enables us to offer a wide range of standard & grab bag crisps both for potato and corn based lines. I have noticed that sales for Snack a Jacks are growing as customers look for something different so we have recently improved their visibility on our display.

One of the shopping missions we focus on is the ‘Big Night In’ and for crisps this is serviced with the family/sharing bag range. Products from a number of manufacturers fill our 2.5 metre display with special purchase offers elsewhere in the store.

A 2 metre display of multipack crisps allows us to offer a full range. Our customers show little brand loyalty to these products as they go for value. This means that price and promotion is key to driving volume from this category. To complete the range a 1 metre display of cereal bars is next to the crisps.

Another tool we use to drive sales is the Meal Deal. Customers looking for an easy choice lunch really like the offer and it ties several categories to the same shopping mission. As we have noticed a trend to healthier eating we have recently added Nature Valley cereal bars to the deal.

Our top sellers help us understand the strength we have in the local ‘family market’ with Walker 22 bag multipack, Doritos and Sensations 150g family bags and Snaps at the standard bag end of the market performing best. In fact we find that our customers who are members of the Slimming World boost our sales with the lower fat brands like Walkers Snaps and Snacker Jacks as they can be easily calculated into their diet.

We make the most of the opportunity that Crisps & Snacks offer by:

• Understanding the various customer shopping missions when they visit our store.
• Providing a range that meets our customers expectations that includes a wide range of Standard bags, Sharing bags and Multipacks both for potato and corn based products.
• Always having promotions on offer and recognise that value is paramount in today’s market.
• Keep the display full and tidy.