OPINION: Customers are looking for convenience

We’re looking forward to the summer as soft drinks and confectionery are already quite strong for us.

I want to promote our alcohol range more, although they’re quite strict here in Scotland, we’re not allowed to put any posters out and promotion has to be in the alcohol section and you have to watch what you’re posting online and on Facebook.

I want to open up the range a bit more. There are a few lines I’m going to take out of the fridge and put on the shelves and double or triple face the stronger brands.

I want to do more on multipacks, have a focus on them and try and keep prices consistent, at £10, £15 and £20, with some PoS. Football and the Olympics will help, maybe I’ll do something around that as well.

I think people are looking a bit more for convenience and there’s not a huge difference in value between us and the big supermarkets. 

Crime is a hot topic at the moment, but we’re not really in a high-crime area.

We have a lot of elderly people live in our area, although five minutes down the road there’s an area with a higher crime rate.

We don’t have many incidents that are worth reporting where there’s been any damage.

We’ve only had to call out the police about three times since I’ve had the shop. If you get abusive customers we just ask them to leave.