RETAILER PROFILE
DENNIS & LINDA WILLIAMS12 ASIAN TRADER 13 OCTOBER 2017 http://www.asiantrader.biz
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Dennis and Linda are delighted with their store and confident sales will thrive despite
the arrival of the Aldi. They said that although they were likely to have made some
changes to the store anyway, they had worked even harder to up their game ahead of
the new competition arriving in town. In fact, looking at this scenario from the outside,
you could say that Dennis and Linda are in a better place now because of the Aldi
store. Dennis paid tribute to Premier who had helped them introduce many of their
low value deals and increase their footfall with the new deals on bread, milk and sugar.
“If you don’t get customers through the door in the first place then you don’t stand a
chance,” says Dennis. “We have been working with Premier for 20 years and have a
great working partnership. We also share lots of ideas with other Premier retailers and
it is about learning from each other. Every day is a school day!”- Make a show
of Food To Go!
The most significant
change in the
Williams store is an
impressive new Food
To Go area. The goods
on offer extend from
healthy sandwich and
baguette options to
more devilish pies and
a wide range of
cream-inspired cakes.
“The pies are from a
local butcher and
they are fantastic
quality,” says Linda.
“The salads do really
well and on Friday the
children have a half
day from school so
there are a lot of kids
in. I have started
cooking them pizza,
chicken nuggets and
chips. We did a £
deal for pizza and a
slush.” Linda says they visited a
number of stores to gain inspiration
for their Food To Go area and were
amazed at how much could be fit into
a relatively small area. Admitting that
they did have a bit of wastage from
their Food To Go, the couple said this
was offset by being able to use fresh
food from the shop when it
approached its use by date. The
cakes are from a factory which used
to own a bakery opposite as
customers had grown up eating the
old-fashioned Scottish favourites.- Be Social!
Linda says customer service is still very
high on the list when it comes to what
customers want from a good shopping
experience. The strong relationship the
couple has with their community is why
they experience few problems from
shoplifting. Another way Dennis and Linda
have chosen to be social is by using
Facebook to promote the store.
“Facebook has been very helpful for us,”
says Dennis. “Lots of people have watched
our videos. You only get what you put in
so people have to understand that for the
next generation coming through social
media is a massive thing.” Linda says
hundreds of thousands of people have
seen their posts and that it was quite easy to get these figures. “A lot of suppliers
want to work with us now,” says Linda. “Heineken asked us to do something around
Amstel where users had to like and share to win a bike. That was very popular – there
are some massive advantages to using social media.”