nickshanagher

The backdrop to my visit to Paul Cheema and his family at their Costcutter in Coventry last week was a deathly drumbeat from the supermarkets as weak trading conditions continued for another month. "How are you finding things," Paul asked me. I said that during January and February, retailers had been saying sales were very tough. during March and April, independents had been more positive. While the Cheema family is achieving sales growth he advised that the pattern was good week, good week, OK week, very bad week. What he is finding is that shoppers are running out of money, which is why week four is so quiet. While I was at his shop, trading was brisk. What are the supermarkets saying? "I have been doing groceries for 28 years now...and this is the toughest it has ever been for consumers," says Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury. "If you look forward...we see this persisting for the rest of the year." His like-for-like sales in the first qu

Jeff Pearce was just about to pull the steel shutters down at the front of his store when he noticed a young girl sitting on the ground with a blanket around her shoulders. It was 24 December and cold and Jeff was looking forward to two days off with his family before the sale started at 9am on 27 December. "Are you all right," he asked her. "I'll be all right if you've got a black pair of size 10, leather pants for just £1," she said. Jeff's first thought was that the Liverpool Echo had printed the wrong date for the start of his sale. His small shop in Church Street was doing OK and Jeff thought it could do better, hence the £1 leather pants offer. As an independent retailer, he was experimenting with marketing. He could not believe this girl was planning to spend two days camped outside his shop. He suggested that she could go home. She declined. Later that night, after talking with his family, he decided to drive by to see if she was still t

Walking towards Kings Cross station last Friday evening, I decided to buy a lottery ticket as part of my Plan Z for improving my life. The c-store was inviting, with no door, clear windows and a clear landing strip to the counter. Two people were behind the counter, one standing by the lottery machine and another by the till. Neither looked at me. I stood at the counter and they continued to ignore me. I pulled out two pound coins and put them on the counter. They continued to ignore me. I waited for what felt like a minute but was probably only 10 to 15 seconds and then picked up the money and left the shop. One called "Sir" as I recrossed the threshold to the street. What went wrong? As they are immediately next door to at least three c-stores of similar standard, it cannot be that they have too much business. Perhaps they each thought that the other staff member would serve me. I reckoned that I would pass another Camelot outlet on my journey home. The lottery as com

Read through Sainsbury's annual report and you can find some good statistics to use in checking how your shop or shops is/are doing. One figure I like is measuring sales per square foot. For Sainsbury in 2010/11 it was £20.04 (including VAT, for which is has made adjustments). If you have a 400 square foot shop, then you would need to be selling just more than £8,000 a week to match them. A thousand square feet and it is just more than £20,000. But Sainsbury also publishes its figures for the past five years that show it has moved from £19.30 up to a peak of £20.42 in 2009/10. Meaning its sales fell by 1.9 per cent in the latest year but are up by 5.8 per cent across five years. But remember, this is an average across 934 outlets in the latest year and 788 five years ago so its best shops will be doing much better. And its worst...perhaps they will be on the market? At the same time its sales area has risen by 21.6 per cent to just more than 19.1 million square feet. Obviou

IGD senior business analyst David Shukri has struck a warm note in his latest briefing on the conveninence industry as regards the performance of independent shops. Combing through the data, which is widely used by major packaged goods companies in planning their route to market in the UK, Mr Shukri observes that average sales per store increased across all segments of conveninence in 2010 "showing that those who remain...are becoming more efficient and effective operators." For the first time, the non-affiilated retail sector gets a warm review, with the IGD noting that is still accounts for 20 per cent of sales (more than the multiples). However the stars are the symbol group operators, with sales up 9.2 per cent in the past year, which highlights "how compelling their offer is, both for unaffiliated independent retailers and the shoppers they serve." The impact of Waitrose and Morrisions will be a further emphasis on fresh food, suggests Mr Shukri. Overal