Walk around this store and where the aisles were cramped, mean-looking and uninviting, they somehow seem wider than before and everything looks brighter.
Everything is actually brighter, principally owing to the whiter light that has been used and the contrast it provides with many of the black-fronted spanking new fixtures that have been installed.
And nothing is where it used to be, apart from the fruit and veg as you walk in and the bakery at the other end of the shop. But somehow this doesn’t matter, because finding your way around does appear to be a whole lot easier, owing to better signage and improved shelf-level point of sale. There are new graphics too and a series of shop-in-shop fresh food counters that actually make you consider the possibility of browsing.
One of the reasons for this transformation has to be the arrival of a convenience-style Tesco across the road, which opened just before Christmas. Initially, it looked as if Wallington’s modestly sized Sainsbury’s might be redundant. The seemingly open-all-hours nature of the Tesco arriviste seemed to presage bad times for Jamie’s favourite.
But here we are, a few weeks into 2008 and equilibrium has been restored. Sainsbury’s is once more full of customers, with decent ranges and a supermarket that is easily navigated as well as being easy on the eye.
Not far away from Wallington is Purley. This is Conservative heartland – a place where Sir Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher’s erstwhile press secretary (and former Retail Week columnist), lived.
He may still be there, but the point is that this is a distinctly affluent area and at its heart is an enormous Tesco Extra, which has also been undergoing refurbishment and enlargement.
And here’s the thing. After shoppers have negotiated a tricky five-lane junction and then queued for the privilege of entering the Tesco car park, they will find themselves in a branch of the UK’s finest that looks just like any other.
The public face of Tesco, branding, packaging and store interior, has altered little for some years and, when compared with the diminutive Sainsbury’s up the road, it appears, well, a tad dull.
Sainsbury’s appears to have fared rather better over Christmas than Tesco and, although its market share is just half as big, its new and refurbished stores do have a confidence and welcome that Tesco’s don’t.
There can be little doubt that the number one player in food retailing is adept at building very efficient selling machines. But this is not a time for sitting back and saying that nothing else needs doing – a little more interior pizzazz is required.
No comments yet