I'm Running Sainsbury's.

I just watched 'I'm Running Sainsbury's' on 4oD. I was pleasantly surprised at the insight that was given to the running of Britain's oldest supermarket store, which takes £30,000/min over 800 stores nationwide. 

The first episode focuses on 21 year old store trainer Becky's idea, which in theory would save the customer a lot of time in store. Her idea came from the "Feed your family for a FIVER" campaign (made famous by Jamie Oliver). Becky noticed that although customers were informed of the ingredients needed for each meal, the products were spaced out all over the supermarket floor. What if there was a pre-packed bag containing all the items needed? Sounds obvious doesn't it? 

Becky pitched the idea to directors (including CE Justin King - see my post on hearing him speak at the Retail Week Conference) at Sainsbury's "Store Support Centre" (i.e. HQ). They decided to do a week test trial in stores of one of Becky's recipes. The product looked great and the idea seemed a perfect solution! But unfortunately it didn't makes sales targets so the idea wasn't taken forward. I think possibly because it is asking supermarket shoppers to shop in an entirely different way from what they are used to.

Supermarket Sweep

An article on the channel 4 website, describes both the overt and covert signals to customers, designed into the layouts of supermarkets. 

"It’s no coincidence that the sweets are right by the till in supermarkets, nor that the one thing you really came for is at the far corner, past the pet food you don’t need."

Supermarkets interiors are designed to control our movement around the stores. I know that this is something we must take into consideration in my work with fixture placements, key items being in the best sightlines and visual displays reflecting and enticing the customer to the stock.