Skip to main content

Mad Spanish name, fantastic shop

Local and proud it says on this internal sign in the Gosforth branch of Loco, a new concept store from Nisa, that I visited last week. I am yet to meet the owners of North East Convenience Stores but the brothers have set out their stall with this execution.

When we arrived we were warmly welcomed by the staff, who were pleased that we had travelled from London to look around. It was a Tuesday afternoon and not especially busy. Even so, the shop was immaculately merchandised.

The coffee assortment looks great.
So too the chilled bottled lager...which demonstrates an attitude towards having a comprehensive range rather than profit optimisation. This seems to be in keeping with the whole shop which has a very high quality finish.
Great flooring and lighting plus good signs...
 And still there are some areas for improvement, with this deals end unit looking cluttered...

And this offer doesn't pack a punch.

But this is mere quibbling. Loco as executed in Gosforth is fantastic. Provided you have the correct customer catchment area, this could be an attractive symbol offering for you.

However, I note in this week's Retail Newsagent, that Neil Turton, chief executive of Nisa, suggests that Morrisons is more of threat than Tesco. "It's been proven time and time again that a decent independent can compete with Tesco," he said.

North East Convenience have delivered more than just decent. However, there is a big gap between what it is doing and what the average symbol store operator is doing. Are we raising the bar too high at a time when shoppers' budgets are ever more distressed?

If you are in the north east, a detour to see this shop will pay a dividend. There is a Nisa Local nearby that you can visit as well to evaluate the step up that this shop demonstrates.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Digital disruption in the UK wholesale space

“Twenty years ago I was driving boxes to the post office in my Chevy Blazer and dreaming of a forklift,” says Jeff Bezos in his most recent letter to shareholders. A blink later and he points out that the company has grown from 30,000 employees in 2010 to 230,000 now. But his ambition is the same. “We want to be a large company that’s also an invention machine. We want to combine the extraordinary customer-serving capabilities that are enabled by size with the speed of movement, nimbleness and risk-acceptance mentality that is normally associated with entrepreneurial start-ups.” Amazon is great at disruption because of its customers focus and the fact that the internet means it needs none (or very few) people between its warehouses and the shopper. The threat of Prime, its membership service, is the biggest challenge facing the UK retail market and the wholesale market by extension. It is both a direct threat and an indirect threat in that is inspiring countless numbers of othe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Traffic lights: a fuss about nothing

I am sure that FT columnist Michael Skapinker has written about traffic lights food labelling before and his latest article is provocatively called: The food companies that make people fat. He criticises Coca-Cola and Unilever for sticking with guideline daily amounts (GDAs) when traffic lights work much better. Former Walmart Europe public affairs head Bernard Hughes wrote in to support Skapinker. He said: "There isn't ever a perfect information system flowing with beautiful logic. But traffic lights give powerful direction to the busy consumer." But in this age of smart phones surely this debate over the labelling on the packaging is easily overcome. The government can simply issue an app that when held over a bar code provides shoppers with a traffic light system. The supermarkets could do this on their websites. Surely the whole point about the future is that the internet and limitless data storage means that the shopper is being empowered with the informatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunday trading consultation: fair or fixed? You decide.

My local council, South Oxfordshire, asked me to complete a survey on Sunday trading as a local resident. The deadline is next week. The first question was about the current arrangements and what I thought. There were five options: large shops shouldn’t open six hours is already too long current restrictions are about right large shops should be allowed open for longer no restrictions. My answer was the current restrictions are about right. The next question was about what would happen if the council allowed large stores to open for longer. The menu included 10 options and a space for other. The options were that it would: encourage me to shop more in my local town give me more flexibility impact on my religious or cultural beliefs have a positive impact on my business have a negative impact on my business increase footfall to my business reduce footfall to my business provide more employment opportunities open to me in the local area mean that I need to...
Post a Comment
Read more