nickshanagher

Luke Johnson, the entrepreneur behind Pizza Express and former head of Channel 4, is a compulsive reader and he warmly recommended Made in America by Sam Walton. For years I resisted the chance to read the story of the man who made Walmart and boy was I wrong. Quite simply this is a brilliant manual on what you need to do to be a successful independent retailer. In one chapter on thinking small, Walton says: “I always wanted to be the best retailer in the world, not the biggest.” In 1960 in a newspaper article called Success Story of the Year it described how he and his family and managers had built up a nine strong chain of variety stores. He told the paper that nine was as big as it could get as it was as many as he could supervise. Most readers don’t need to worry how he moved beyond nine to become the biggest retailer in history (he did this by hiring and inspiring great people). What they need to recognise is that Walton remained a great independent retailer till...

Hugh Thomson's The Green Road Into The Trees is a remarkable book about his journey across England from Dorset to Norfolk. Tracing loosely an ancient road, The Ickneild Way, Thomson uncovers the hidden local histories of England and the changes to the way we live. He celebrates life. He writes about highs and lows, geographical and human. About law making and lawlessness. For retailers seeking to be at the heart of their communities this is a manual on what belonging is about. The rural memory, he notes, is both very short and very long. This following observation within a conversation with countryman David Hughes in Oxfordshire is typical of the quality of Thomson's thought and writing. "Over his cup of tea and morning cigarello, David talks about the changes he has seen in the countryside. He think it's too easy to make the usual assumptions about how 'it's all commuters now and the heart has gone out of the villages'. That needs to be qualified ...

At 288 pages, Supermarket Shoppology , the new book from retail expert Phillip Adcock, has a feeling of heft and the good news for busy retailers is that you can learn a lot by just reading 24 of these pages. Those 24 pages are worth the full cover price (£1.53 Kindle, £9.79 paperback). Start at page 191, where Adcock explains how to become a smarter shopper by analysing the five shopping missions: impulse grab and go considered experiential inexperienced. All five take place in news and convenience stores and your understanding of why people shop in these ways could help you unlock greater sales and profits. Shoppers switch between modes depending what is on the shelves in front of them. They buy canned foods in grab and go mode and BOGOF tinned tomatoes in impulse mode. A loaf of bread in grab and go, a chocolate bar in impulse, a pint of milk in grab and go, a bottle of wine to take out to dinner in considered! Adcock is self taught and set up his own consultancy in ...

Ed Garner of Kantar Worldpanel reckons he has the best tool for knowing what is happening in the UK grocery market and his data says Tesco's strategy does not work. Nine out of 10 people already visit Tesco regularly and no matter how hard it tries, this number is unlikely to become 10 out of 10. Sitting in a room with 9 businessmen and one environmental campaigner yesterday I mentioned this 9 out of 10 statistic and they simply did not believe me. How many people shop at Tesco, the chairman asked and only two of us put up our hands. The other shopper said he mainly used Tesco late at night when he had to make a distress purchase. Which got me thinking about my visit the previous evening to buy toothpaste. I had caught a train out of Paddington and planned to buy the toothpaste at Sainsbury's busy c-store in the station. Thinking ahead about this purchase and after hearing at the Independent Retailer Conference about how multiples organised their shops around shopper missio...

Bob Gorton's book Boosting Sales  (Bloomsbury, £9.99) available on Amazon,  gives the owner of every business a lasting insight into the simple rules that will help you make more money than you are today. The success of the book is not because it is full of new ideas but because it presents simple business rules in a way that is easy to grasp and easy to follow. "I once tried sport parachuting," Bob writes, "and when I had stopped trembling for long enough to listen to him, the jump master taught me a very important lesson. He said: 'Once you are out there, look at the white cross on the ground, because people generally hit what they are staring at.' So those people who look hard and constantly at the competition...seem to find a lot of it. Look hardest at your customers, you will better understand their wants and needs and find more customers." The book is organised logically. Bob is an engineer and he is sharing the rules for business success, rul...

Fresh Kitchen is a stand-alone sandwich shop under the Sainsbury brand that the FT says is ear-marked for an "agressive roll-out" into the UK if the first site, opened in London's Fleet Street last month, is successful. The paper says that the supermarket chain could open 200 of these outlets, pitching it headlong with Pret-a-Manger and, by extension, with fast food chains like McDonalds. Waitrose, it notes, is already selling sandwiches in some Boots shops and ran its slide rule over the Eat, a coffee and sandwich chain. "Takeaway foods is likely to be the next battleground between the big supermarkets," the paper says. Of course, most local shops with a convenience offer are already aware of the opportunity for food-to-go. This story is further validation of their strategy. While it may be unwelcome to have fresh competition from Sainsbury and others, who are already attacking the c-store market hard, it is still further confirmation that the local gro...

Independent retailers who shop at cash and carry wholesale depots are often characterised as less disciplined business people than their peers who stick to the delivered wholesale route. However, hard times are resulting in price wars between suppliers in some areas and this provides some opportunities. One London retailer I spoke to this week says he is selling bottles of a leading soft drink for 99p, compared to £1.19 in the multiples. The cheapest buying price he can find from a delivered wholesaler is 89p, which would lose him 6.5p on every bottle sold at a 99p price point, due to sales tax. But a new cash and carry depot next to two others near his shop means he can buy the product at 69p, which makes the price point achieveable and he is shifting volume at a 19.5 per cent mark up. He welcomes the battle between cash and carry companies to win his business but also reflects that if they can afford to sell it to him for 69p, then the big supermarkets are probably buy...

While the local pub has been faring worse than the local shop, there are signs that operators are starting to think more creatively about how to use their franchise. In particular, pubs are opening at 9am and offering breakfast. This week the 217 outlet Barracuda pub chain announced it will open at 9am and offer Costa coffee to attract breakfast business. "Young people value brands and we respond to that. By putting Costa in, we're perceived as taking coffee very seriously," a Barracuda executive told the FT. "If pubs just remain retailers of alcohol, then that is a diminishing market." While many local retailers fear that unsuccessful pubs might be reopened as Tesco c-stores, they may also find some enterprising publicans see their shoppers as a target. The trick though is in the execution. While pubs may have more comfortable seating areas, will their staff be as welcoming as yours and will the service be outstanding? How will they do this? Pretty mu...

As industry data appears to show that local shops in the UK are resisting the expansion of the multiple grocers, a possible reason for their success may be contained in an analysis of the problems big banks face written by FT writer Tony Jackson. "Most economic activities work best if people on the ground are free to make decisions," he says. In the world of banks, decision making has been centralised, he argues. As training local people is expensive, the banks prefer to build mathematical models of the world that they can control from the centre. This is why they prefer to invest in mortgages, which can be commoditised, rather than in small businesses, where local knowledge is needed. When the world fails to meet the model, problems arise. This is why banks in the US often do not have proper records of the loans they have made. This is why they cannot tell the difference between someone in a secure job and someone who is just about to be made redundant. "Proper...

The owner of this store was surprised when I discussed this sign with him that I would take issue with it...and he may be right. It may be that retailers have to be heavy handed with the public when it comes to people parking all day in spaces that you maintain for shoppers. However, I was suggesting that the type of person who daily abuses your business is unlikely to notice this notice anyway. Instead you should try and send a positive message to your shoppers. How about: Free parking for our customers. You are welcome to park in the slip road outside these shops, which is a private road for the use of shoppers using our precinct. Please do not park here otherwise. Thank you. What is the difference? I think the current sign tells people off. The new wording tells people about the benefit that you provide them with. And it still gives you something to point to if you confront someone who is taking advantage of your parking bays.

My company runs an annual programme for independent retailers called the Independent Achievers Academy (IAA) that encourages them to do a better job for their customers. Last week, we launched the 2010 version by asking last year's top retailer Rav Garcha to speak to a group of shopkeepers and supportive suppliers. I made a note of his thoughts and I think it is useful to share them with you. I am part of a family business that my father set up in 1982 when he bought a small off licence. The Independent Achievers Academy has helped me and my staff to think about how we can achieve more. After college I worked as a financial advisor but I came back into the family business because I wanted to create something for myself. As an independent our first challenge is how we get a customer who is passing by to come into the shop. We started off by thinking about our window and displays. I started working in our second shop, working from 6am to 9pm, seven days a week. Our first Christmas w...

Betty McBride, policy and communication director of the British Heart Foundation, has written to the FT today to attack the food industry for its objections to traffic lights labels appearing on food. Shopkeepers need to watch this pressure for regulation closely. She was responding to an FT column which highlighted discussions in Brussells over what a portion was: one biscuit or three. It depends, the industry suggests. Ms McBride disagrees and is happy to define "realistic portions". "Independent research has shown that a combination of traffic light colours, guideline daily amounts, and the words high, medium and low would be the best way to give shoppers the at-a-glance information they want," she writes in support of labeling. The industry, she suggests, desires to "deliberately confuse people about how unhealthy some of its products are." The danger of her words is real. For example, in Scotland, the government has suggested it might remove confectio...

Ranjan Patel used her first speech as president of London's Newsagents Federation this week to urge independent shopkeepers to use their imagination to win business from shoppers. "We can exploit [our shops] by using our greatest gift, our imagination, ensuring the environments we create are interesting and inviting," she said. On the street in London a day later I passed by an Italian deli, which was beautifully presented and outside had this little sign encouraging shoppers to book an Italian cookery course, under the headline I love Cooking! Make your own Italian dinner £35, it promised. Further up the street, was a Mexican restaurant with fresh oranges and limes in boxes by the window...plus a mass of chilis. It was completed by an A-board outside saying that it was the Observer's best cheap eats in the UK award winner. In between was a newsagent business with a Camelot national lottery station outside. Inside I was greeted by two signs on its magazine rack. O...

The internet will change the way that you operate your local shop and there is little to be gained from fighting this. A requirement for UK retailers to make their sales tax returns on line has resulted in complaints from some that they want to stay in a paper-based world. This is a mistake for any business-owner, surely. The internet and information technology is shaping the competitive world in thousands of ways. For example, Waitrose is using IT so that it can sell its products through outlets owned by chemist chain Boots and petrol retailer Shell - the latter through self-service kiosks. Waitrose has a £40 million IT budget and it is one of the smallest UK multiples. Derbyshire independent retailer Stuart Reddish told members of the Newsagents' Federation at its national council meeting in Newcastle last week that as a business owner you have a responsibility to pay tax in the way that society demands. Separately, he said it was crazy to be in business and not using the int...

All businesses must consider how much value to give their customers and when it ceases to become profitable. Measuring this is difficult and today's idea may make it harder or easier for you. Let me know? In business schools they teach you to do the least that you possibly can so that your profits will be as large as they possibly can. This strategy does not seem to be widely promoted for corner shops. Instead, shopkeepers find themselves being urged by suppliers to do the most that they possibly can to delight their shoppers and win extra custom. Seth Godin says in a recent blog that that the latter strategy is a "crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the least. Radically overdeliver." "Turns out," he says, "That this is a cheap and effective marketing technique." Which is an interesting idea for independent retailers to consider. While big companies may exploit your willingness to overdeliver to shoppers to sel...

Local shops handle a lot of cash and need to do this well to keep shoppers happy. I stopped off to fill my scooter with petrol yesterday and after checking out the pricing of various treat foods I handed over £20 and was surprised to receive change of £10. Shaz, who served me, looked down to the till, where he had already put the note away and he was unsure. I exchanged numbers and names and said I would call back today after he had cashed up. This is the second time this has happened to me in recent years. The last time, the manager in the off licence said I was wrong but agreed to call me if she was £10 over when she cashed up. To her credit, she telephoned later that night after the cash up. Today, I arrived in the garage unsure what to expect. The sales assistant asked me to repeat my story twice and then said that I was wrong. She said she had been present last night at the cash up and the till roll balanced. I urged her to call her manager, thinking second time round and n...

I was lucky to attend this week's Retail Trust London Ball, which included the final of its Search for a Star talent contest open to everyone working in the UK retail sector, which may be as many as 3 million people. The top four were: Nicola, who won; Victoria; Leanne; and Louise. They were fantastic singers but nervous with it. Each arrived with a back story that demonstrated their willingness to put their hand up and take part and despite nerves to perform in front of a panel that includes pop stars Lis McClarnon and Antony Costa and in front of a gala dinner audience including retail stars such as Sir Phillip Green, Sir Stuart Rose and Theo Paphitis. What is great for the retail industry is that it is showing it is prepared to invest in its people and they are responding. The Search for a Star will run again in 2010 and the challenge for local shops is to see if they can encourage their staff to take part too! While there is a chance that you will lose a great member of staff t...

For owners of independent local shops and operators of regional groups, the property benchmark provided by Christie + Co, the business agents, is a good barometer of their asset values, which are now some 16 per cent below the peak achieved in the last quarter of 2007. In presenting the figure, Chris Day, the company's managing director, suggested that the low point had now been reached. Demand for good retail sites remains strong, as is shown by the company's handling of the First Quench administration. It was retained to market 1,200 sites before Christmas and asked for best and final offers, of which it received more than 3,000. Head of retail Tony Evans reported last week that more than 650 sales had been agreed, mostly to independent operators. "The interest from the independent sector has been fantastic," Mr Evans said. The better sites attracted lots of offers, the best receiving more than 30. Looking into 2010, Mr Evans is optimistic about prospects for indepe...

In a recent issue of Retail Newsagent , Henllan shopkeeper Vanessa Griffiths said that she used the Morrisons and Waitrose web sites to compare their food prices so we can "prove to our customers that we're better value". Shoppers will be doing the same thing. Computing magazine estimates that 90 per cent of sales research will be done on line using either the internet or mobile phones and shoppers will "visit fewer web sites than they would stores if shopping on foot"! In the same article it says that most big retailers predict that on line sales will account for between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of total sales by 2013! (Argos, it says, is already 40% on line.) For local shops, this might be an opportunity as people make fewer trips to retail parks and because people may not go on line to buy goods that cost under £10! But as Vanessa Griffiths shows, it also means that your value is likely to come under increased scrutiny. Perhaps you should check out how yo...

Earlier this week Sainsbury published some great sales results but chief executive Justin King was quick to add on a warning that "what is going to happen in 2010 is the reality that people feared in 2009". This is consistent with his comments we previously noted in September. What we don't know is why he is talking down the future - because he is planning for lower sales or because it will make his company's performance look better. On the balance of probabilities, it is likely that shoppers will have less money to spend and how they spend it will be important for local shops. For many shoppers, the problem with the big weekly shop is that they buy too much stuff and throw away food. The obvious solution to this is for the shopper to plan ahead and do a better shopping list and stick to it. The alternative is the local convenience store and top up shopping, which requires less planning by the shopper. If you believe you have a good opportunity to pick up sales from t...