Few of us have the time to look at the spread
Matthew Hunt, Filco Supermarkets, south Wales
of our store. What do retailers look out for to
ensure every part is as profitable as possible?
Dipak Shah, H&R News, Camberley, Surrey
“Our store is very small, so we have to keep looking at things and moving things around. That’s the only way to do it. You have to keep watching the space and keeping things fresh.
“We’re moving things around in our store almost every day. We don’t move so much that people get confused, but we’ll move a line here and there or increase and decrease some facings depending on the demand. We’ve always got something like a new Prime flavour that’s come to market and we want to sell. So, we always make space for that and it does pretty well, too. Vapes have been selling well, so we increased that space by a few lines, while magazines aren’t doing so well, so we’ve reduced the space there. It’s little changes. The shelves aren’t that high, so everything’s reachable and we have nothing on the floor, so everything looks neat.”
Read more of our store profiles where we visit independent convenience retailers to showcase their fresh ideas and unique insights
Jai Singh, MJ’s Go Local Extra, Coventry
“There are no magic products you can just put in your store and leave to drive profit. We’ve always made sure to look at our shelf space and to scrutinise all areas of the shop. They say the hardest thing is getting people through the door, but it’s getting people to buy something and knowing what they want.
“The most important thing is to keep refreshing your range and where things are. If the traffic of customers is always the same, it gets stale and new products don’t catch customers’ eyes because they are not disrupting their journey. Move things around and suddenly people are aware that we sell Nando’s Spicy Sauce. Don’t be afraid to have products that don’t sell as fast as a can of Coca-Cola because they could still be essential to certain baskets. Not every product is going to fly off the shelf at the same rate.”
Sid Ali, Morrison’s Daily, Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire
“Think about each product as a rental property. Would you let a tenant rent a flat from you and never give you any money? If 80% of your stock is giving a good return, but there’s 20% of stock that’s sitting there and renting space on your shelf without giving you any money, you wouldn’t allow that.
Every item has a price it will sell at. If a product isn’t selling, you can’t let it sit on the shelf because it’s occupying valuable space. Reduce the price and someone will buy it. Bottles of Prime might have sold at £10, but they might now only sell at £1. Reduce the price, and if they’re still yielding a profit at that price, you decide whether you want to carry on with it. Be ruthless. You’ve got to balance the need for margin with the need for cashflow. If you’re selling £1,000 of vapes at 50% margin, that’s £500, but if you’re selling £20,000 of cigarettes at 10% margin, that’s £2,000. What would you rather have?”
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