Store gallery: Budgens grocery stores – appealing to local customers

There was a time when the name Budgens simply meant ‘c-store’. It still does but, depending on the location, it can mean a great deal more than the traditional image conjured up by the term. That is apparent in the affluent north London suburbs of Belsize Park and Crouch End, each of which has its own Budgens store.

They are, almost above all, stores that are designed to appeal to a local customer with ranges that reflect the requirements of that demographic. And both are owned by Andrew Thornton under a franchise arrangement with Budgens, part of the Cork-headquartered Musgrave group.

Budgens has 191 stores in the UK and all of them are “associated”, as the company website puts it, with Musgrave.

For Budgens franchisees, this means a straightforward arrangement in which stock, shopfit and the look and feel of the stores are determined by the franchisor, while the franchisee is responsible for ‘local’ elements that make a store appropriate to its location.

That’s the theory, and it’s likely this will mean one branch looks pretty similar to another. Yet heading up the long road that is Haverstock Hill and arriving at the Belsize Park branch, it is immediately apparent the shop does not fall into familiar c-store territory.

Attracting local shoppers

For a start, it’s not actually called Budgens. This is Thornton’s Budgens, indicating the name of the owner first and the retailer second. The inference is that this is an owner-operated store - there is even a picture of Mr Thornton on the store exterior - and that it will therefore attend to the needs of the specific demographic in the area.

The latter, according to Jim Maguire, store director of both the Belsize Park and Crouch End shops, means variance from a standard Budgens store.

Outside the branch there is a series of A-boards offering the kind of things that might not normally be associated with this form of food retailing.

Ranging from ‘coffee and croissant only 99p’ to ‘we now have five new fantastic swiss cheeses - tasting is essential’, these are clearly aimed at the cappuccino-loving classes (there is a branch of Costa just across the street). There are also market-style wicker baskets containing fruit and assorted small pot-plants.

The feel is less one of a budget-conscious proposition and rather more of a shop in which customers may be able to indulge themselves. Maguire says that footfall in this 7,000 sq ft store is higher than in the Crouch End branch and that in 2012, that necessitated a refurbishment as the shopfit had past its best. The outcome is a shop that from the outset looks more deli then c-store. Just inside the entrance, further wicker baskets have been arranged at angles to present fresh fruit and veg to the visitor.

It is worth noting that Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Waitrose all have large branches within a mile of this store and that, while Belsize Park may be well-heeled, price sensitivity will therefore be an issue. With this in mind, there are deal-based red prices attached to some of these baskets, indicating this may be a convenience offer, but that does not mean prices will be higher than elsewhere.

As progress is made down the first aisle, it is clear money has been spent in this store on yet more wicker baskets (all of the fresh offer along the left-hand perimeter wall is contained in them - setting it apart from big supermarket norms) and on the chiller units.

The latter are of the kind where the front of the fixture is predominantly glass and they appear almost frameless. This kind of thing does not come cheap, but the effect is that the focus is upon the stock, rather than the equipment.

The eye is then drawn down the aisle towards the back of the shop where the vista broadens. This is where the real deli experience begins and, equally, where the sense of a store that is about products sourced specifically for this location comes into its own.

Maguire says 95% of what is on offer comes from Budgens, but that the remaining 5% is sourced by the store. This translates as goats’ cheese from Hertfordshire, a range of Swiss cheeses (as advertised outside the store) and hot food, among other things.

Time-of-day merchandising

On the morning of visiting it was early, just before 8am, and the hot food counter had sausages on offer. Maguire says time-of-day merchandising is an everyday part of what is done in the store. In the morning hot breakfasts are offered, at lunchtime there are store-made sandwiches and from late afternoon it’s ‘meal solutions’ for those making the trek home from work, or who have done the rounds of the nearby shops and, presumably, are now in need of something quick and easy.

Beyond this, the fresh meat and fish counters would put most major supermarkets to shame in terms of the selection that’s on offer. It’s the details that count, however. On a wooden butcher’s block-style stand next to the non-covered fish display, there is a range of sauces and condiments that will help the shopper turn a piece of haddock into something more than a workaday piece of fish.

Range authority

After this, the displays become more standard in appearance (although the product range impresses - three different types of boxed Turkish Delight typifies the approach taken to covering categories with authority), until the wine department is reached. Once more, it’s the little things that count.

In most supermarkets there are red and white wines. Purchase the latter and the chances are high that it will then be taken home and chilled. In this store, a long chiller unit offers everything from a vin de table to a Pouilly Fumé - the idea being that whatever is bought can be drunk almost immediately. This is standard c-store stuff, but the size of the range is what marks the enterprise out.

Empty wooden cases, of the kind bought at a fancy French chateau, are used as the display vehicles for the surprisingly inexpensive (for the most part) red wine offer and beyond this it’s a Post Office implant and the tills.

Throughout there are reminders that this may be a shop where you can buy yourself a black seabream, but it is also possible to buy everyday items for the kitchen. It is also something of a pleasure to shop - making it a considerable departure from the food shopping norm. This store is about playing with the visual merchandising possibilities of grocery provision and making sure that the offer relates to the shoppers who walk through the door.

The same is true a couple of miles away in the Crouch End branch, where the offer has also been carefully tailored.

The best c-store retailing is about rather more than just ensuring that washing up liquid and some chocolate chip cookies are available - account needs to be taken of the location too.