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Sainsbury’s—The Future of Convenience?
C-stores beware! The new Sainsbury’s supermarket in Manchester, England, is making shopping so convenient that it may be the face of competition over here in the not-too-distant future.
by Carole Anne Nelson
Forget the usual grocery store "express lane." Only the most naive believe it will get you in and out of the store with any speed. That’s why c-stores have continued to flourish. But Sainsbury’s Supermarkets has dealt itself into the convenience game, and it’s upping the ante big time.
Sainsbury’s has been putting food on British tables for well over a century, ever since John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury opened their first store during the reign of Queen Victoria. The company has grown to more than 450 stores throughout the U.K. since that auspicious start in 1869, becoming Britain's oldest major food retailing chain. More than 9.5 million customers shop there each week.
Despite its long history—or perhaps because of it—the only thing old-fashioned about Sainsbury’s is the company’s focus on customer service. Everything else is emphatically modern, some might say futuristic, if they’ve had the chance to shop the concept store that opened last June in the Hazel
Grove section of Manchester. Designed on the basis of customer input, the new facility uses an exceptionally effective combination of technology and highly trained staff to offer shoppers an unprecedented level of convenience and comfort.
Quick Choices
One reason the express lane doesn’t live up to its name in an ordinary grocery store is that customers still need to trek all through the store to pick up what they need—and staples such as bread and milk are rarely near the checkout area. Sainsbury’s solved that problem by building its own Quick Shop into the front corner of the structure. Stocked with 2,300 most-often-bought items, it’s serviced by the big store so that shelves are kept constantly filled, eliminating out-of-stocks. Even better, there’s a doorway at the back, just in case a shopper needs an item that can only be found in the main store. Pop in, grab it, check it out through the Quick Shop.
Easy exterior access to the Quick Shop is available with handicapped parking slots and 20-minute slots running along that side of the building. The timed slots have large digital countdowns that begin when a car pulls in. If the customer isn’t back in 20 minutes, an alert goes off in the manager’s office. After a couple of grace minutes, a store employee comes out and takes down the license number. A polite reminder over the public address system tells the car’s owner that the time has expired.
A second solution to the need-for-speed problem is immediately adjacent to the Quick Shop in the building’s front wall. A vending machine with 150 items from bread to batteries is available 24/7 to accommodate customers outside of store hours, although some find it so convenient they use it even when the store is open. One such shopper, Andrea Sheridan, says she uses it often because it’s so easy and the quality is excellent.
Like many grocery chains here and in the U.K., another convenience Sainsbury’s has been offering for some time is a delivery option for a £5 fee (about US$7.50). Customers can call, fax or e-mail their grocery list, charging it to a credit card. Chainwide, Sainsbury's currently has about 25,000 Internet customers a week who get their groceries delivered. However, like others that have explored this service, Sainsbury’s found it had a few "inconveniences": perishables could spoil if customers weren’t home to accept deliveries; popular delivery times might be booked up; and customer schedules were sometimes subject to unavoidable changes.
Sainsbury’s You-Pick-Up service was the answer to all three potential problems. Adjacent to the Quick Shop’s 20-minute parking slots, they built in a handful of canopy-covered slots with intercom boxes. As with delivery, customers phone, fax, or e-mail their shopping list and designate a pick-up time. Within three minutes of pulling in and ringing through on the intercom, an employee will pull the prepaid groceries from the cooler, bring them out, and load them in the car. All for a mere £3.50. Even a last-minute schedule change needn’t create difficulties; there’s no penalty for showing up hours later than a scheduled pick-up, and the groceries are stored so that
perishables are protected.
Easy Does It
Convenience doesn’t always equate exclusively with speed. Sometimes it means simply making life easier. Even before they enter the store’s main doors, some shoppers are greeted with a new level of comfort. Not only are handicapped spaces near the front door, additional extra-wide slots are designated for parents with small children, giving them room to offload tots and strollers with ease.
Any parent who’s ever tried to wrestle a youngster out of the car seat when the door won’t swing open more than foot may find that sufficient reason to shop there, but it’s not the only one. Shopping carts with mini-cars in front are entertaining for little ones and keep them from grabbing stuff off shelves or out of the cart.
But wait, there’s more. For working parents who hate sacrificing what little time they have with their children on the altar of grocery shopping, Sainsbury’s Kid Zone is a practical delight. Mom or Dad can stay with the youngsters while the other one shops. Loaded with educational toys designed by the London Science Museum, this high-tech play land has something to offer youngsters from toddlers to young teens. There’s also story time, face painting, and coloring competitions throughout the week.
While the Kid Zone is staffed with employees trained in childcare, it’s a monitored facility, not a drop-and-shop babysitting service. A parent or guardian must remain with the child, and, for security purposes, adults without children are not admitted. So what do single parents do? They play with their children while a Sainsbury’s personal shopper takes their list around and does the work for a £5 fee.
Personal shoppers are drawn from a pool of 34 "customer ambassadors" whose sole purpose is to improve the customer’s shopping experience. Georgia Jones, who underwent the six-week training program this spring, is typical of the cheerful, enthusiastic crew and takes great pleasure in helping her customers. "I keep an eye out for bargains," she says, "and if I see another brand of an item is on special, I’ll give my customer a ring to see if she wants it." (Personal shoppers are linked to their customers via mobile phone as they go around the store.)
When Jones isn’t engaged in doing a personal shop, she’ll be roaming the store to greet customers, offer assistance, and ask if they’re finding everything they need. Ambassadors also respond to the customer service phones located throughout the store.
Harried parents aren’t the only ones who enjoy the benefits of a personal shopper. Unencumbered individuals might enjoy a snack or cup of gourmet coffee in the Cyber Cafe where they can relax with a book or magazine or log on and check their e-mail while their shopping is done for them. A pound buys 30 minutes of computer access. "Sometimes," says Jones, "I get a customer who prefers to pick out her own meat and veg, while I go round and do all the dry goods. Then she’ll have a cup of coffee while I check out and load the car."
For those who don’t mind—or even enjoy—doing their own shopping, but hate to stand in line, Sainsbury’s offers "Easy Checkout." For only £2.50, the customer turns a cartful of groceries over to a store employee who does the boring bit while they relax in the Cyber Cafe or Kid Zone; when the car’s loaded the employee brings the car keys and receipt back to the customer.
The "Wow" Factor
Personal services for a fee meets the needs of certain customers, but all of the store’s customers benefit from many little extras, according to Laura Davies, the store’s customer experience manager, who oversees the customer ambassadors, among other responsibilities. Sampling is one good example.
Throughout the week customers will find sample trays on top of the cases in the prepared foods area, so they can taste before they buy. The deli and bakery also have regular samplings, as does the wine section. Ambassadors undergo rigorous training in hygiene and sanitary handling to facilitate the sampling process.
"On Saturdays and Sundays, we’ll do special celebrations," says Davies, "because there’s such heavy trade. The customer ambassadors take on a party-planning role for that."
But what if a customer wants to sample something other than what’s being offered? Not a problem. The Hazel Grove Sainsbury’s is happy to offer samples on request on any of the thousands of products in the store. Customers can call or e-mail ahead or simply ask once they’re in the store. "If you come in the store and say, ‘I’ve never tasted that. What’s it like?’," says Jones, "we’ll let you try it. It stands to reason someone’s happier to buy something if they’ve tried it and like it."
Another form of sampling can be found in the electronics section. Thanks to a touch-screen computer, customers can see theater trailers of the top 20 films before they pick them out. Potentially offensive material is screened out so the section is child-safe. The selection changes weekly. A similar audio headset arrangement lets people listen to CDs before they buy them.
Customer pampering is only one component of the "wow" factor built in to this Sainsbury’s. The store’s unusual layout is another. "Our customer focus group said they didn’t want just straight aisles," says Davies. "They wanted more of a fresh market feel. Actually they suggested a round store, but we already had the building up, so we worked to make it seem less like a rectangle inside."
Sainsbury’s accomplished this by creating focal points in various sections, such as produce, bakery, meat, fish, and deli, with a central sampling point in each area. The various sections fan out from a semi-circular central information desk that faces customers across a spacious entry as they come through the doors. It’s topped by a multi-screen projection that alerts customers to special store features and upcoming activities. The Kid Zone and Cyber Cafe are immediately above and behind the desk.
The high ceilings and open floor plan are inviting but not directional. "We’re not telling them where they have to shop first," says Davies. "They don’t have to start in vegetables or dry goods. They can wander around or just go to a specific area."
Comfort was a high priority to the customer focus group. One result is a heating and ventilation system tailored to individual store areas. Anybody who has ever shivered going down a frozen food aisle in summer clothes will appreciate the warm air blowing down from above.
Another of the concept store’s high-tech features is new shelving with digital price "labels" that are radio-controlled from the central office. They save manpower and improve accuracy, allowing personnel resources to be more effectively allocated to areas with a more direct impact on customers.
The Aisles Have It
In the end, it’s the employee-customer interaction as shoppers move through the store that contributes most to the "wow" factor. Although there are only 34 official ones, everybody is a customer ambassador, according to Davies. "We’re all selling colleagues and have an important part in the success of the store. We’re empowered to get on with the job." She credits a management style based on Gung Ho by Ken Blanchard for a nurturing work atmosphere where
everybody accepts accountability and encourages each other.
On a day-to-day basis, that can be as simple as rallying around someone who may be feeling down, says Jones. "We share ideas and good things that have happened. It makes us all feel better, and that’s what we want to share with our customers."
How well they do that is closely monitored. Where many stores use a monthly "mystery shopper" to gauge employee performance, there are eight a week here, and the feedback stresses what’s working as well as what’s not. The emphasis on providing a positive experience for employees was underlined last February when Sainsbury’s became the first major food retailer to be recognized for
adopting the Investors in People Standard—a U.K. program that helps companies succeed and compete through improved people performance. Ruth Spellman, chief executive of Investors in People UK, suggested that Sainsbury’s efforts would have far-reaching business benefits: "Initial research has shown that there is a very positive correlation between the Investors in People Standard and increased customer satisfaction. When you think Sainsbury’s has 10 million customers every week, that’s a lot of satisfied people."
While most of these whiz-bang ideas are currently limited to the Hazel Grove store, tomorrow is another story. The various programs and features are being monitored and fine-tuned based on customer comments, and new ones will be introduced in the same way. Those that are successful will be implemented in other Sainsbury’s stores, and it may not take those good ideas long to cross the Atlantic. The head of Shaw’s, a subsidiary of Sainsbury’s based in New England, was over to see the concept store within weeks of its grand opening.
The Sainsbury’s website states, "The founders' principles and values guide us as strongly today as they did at the outset—to be the customer's first choice for food shopping by providing high-quality products, value for money, excellent service and attention to detail." A visit to the Hazel Grove store is a pretty convincing argument that the company practices what it preaches.
Carole Anne Nelson is a freelance writer based in Hyattsville, MD.
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