People can, alas, be charmless and inconsiderate. Fancy saying that to someone trying to make a living in difficult circumstances. Anyway the key to surviving and competing is to offer something Sainsbury's don't. Typically with big corporates like Sainsburys this is cusomer service, which is usually rather formulaic and anonymous in places like Sainsburys. The HOP Supermarket is always friendly, particularly the young guy. I think really ramp up the customer service, stock less but make it as many things Sainsbury's don't supply or if they do, are the bog-standard things you can get in any Sainsbury's. So HOP supermarket could stock interesting meats, deli items from the Asian sub-continent. Offer advice on Asian cooking and meals and supply the ingredients. As pointed elesewhere on this forum some of the staff in Hills and Parkes can be curiously stand-offish and lacking in warmth, so good customer service is not an innate preserve of small independents. If you can do this sort of customer service naturally, make a virtue of it. Incidentally the HOP shop does a very good range of beers and wines at competitive prices.

This post was last modified: 09-09-2013 10:21 AM by Nick M.