OPINION: Kay Patel shares how he’s preparing his store for summer

Summer usually means it is busier in store, so it’s always a good idea to complete any major cleaning or maintenance jobs before it starts.

From jet washing the yard to cleaning out cellars – these are all things you tend to not have time for in the summer months.

Now is also a good time to give all the fridges and freezers in the store a good clean down.  Keeping condensers dust-free is not only good practice, but it also helps keep running costs down too.

You may want to bring the barbecue products closer to the alcohol section or dual site sauces with meats to capitalise on any incremental sales

Defrosting freezers is another one of those tasks done best before summer. The last thing you want is an empty or broken-down freezer on a hot summer’s day.

We tend to make and implement our own planograms around this time of year on the more profitable categories such as soft drinks and beers, wines and spirits.

Certain lines are harder to sell in winter and therefore we like to discontinue them or cut back on their range extensions and then bring them back in the summer along with any new products available.

Customers tend to shop differently in summer, with higher footfall in areas like soft drinks and alcohol, so it can sometimes be worth looking at moving bays around.

You may want to bring the barbecue products closer to the alcohol section or dual site sauces with meats to capitalise on any incremental sales.

You could also look to capitalise on impulse purchases by dual siting mini refrigerators and freezers for products such as ice cream, ice cubes and soft drinks. You would be surprised how many people will pick up an ice cream or drink while waiting in a queue.

We either add additional freezers for impulse ice cream or, where there’s no space to dual site, swap our smaller multi-tiered freezers for larger ones in the summer.

During the summer we tend to modify our big night in gondola ends and make them more summery by merchandising them around one of the big summer sporting events.

We also stock them with more summery lines such as barbecue charcoal, flavoured ciders and refreshing beers. It not only creates a bit of in-store theatre but does really help increase basket spend.