What makes a good newsagents?

AEH1984

Everybody has a local newsagents, but is it any good? If so why? Is it the staff? The prices? The variety of products? Would you be willing to pay a bit extra for items knowing that you would be getting a decent service from the staff or would you rather just pay and leave?

ttm

Its the word local that does it. They know you and make that extra effort as you're a regular customer. If they don't then there not your local newsagent there those robbing bunch just down the road.

AEH1984

But do you feel that it's only the independant stores that make an effort or do you think the Chains make an effort to get to know their customers?

Shelflife

define what a chain is, im part of a group but still consider myself an independent local grocer.

AEH1984

Well I'd be talking about any shop that is under a symbol group (Spar, Centra, Londis etc) by being under a symbol do you find yourself restricted as to what products you can source yourself? From my opinion it seems like the independents seem to try that little bit harder to keep their customers happy. I'm not saying that the Symbol Retailers are in any way less helpful but when it comes to independents, the owner of the business is generally always on site, dealing with customers and looking to find out how he can help his customers. It seems like the independent retailers have to try that little bit harder to keep his clientelle up because thye have no backing. If you walk into your local corner shop you would know the owner, the same cant be said for your local Spar etc

ttm

Its the management that makes the difference and nothing to do with who owns it. If the staff know they'll be respected for doing the best for the local (any) customers by the owner or manager then they can get on and be as helpful as they can, sometimes this works because the manager is on hand all the time and can just give a nod to the member of staff to be extra helpful in others staff are expected to use some initative.

If on the other hand there are so many rules and regulations the staff can't move without permission then theres no incentive for the staff to even talk to the customer so no "relationship" can develop.

I'd almost go as far as saying our local Lidl is getting local just on the bases of the staff being able to get on and be very helpful as they seem to share responcibility for running the shop, feck knows if they have a manager there as I've never seen one.

Bottom line is its not an effort that a company can make as you can only be successful in managing local relationships by providing the enviroment for staff to make them. Its the way you provide the retail enviroment for your staff and customers. If its us and them managment v staff then the war goes on staff v customers. The smaller the shop often the easier it is to get this right.

ttm

AEH1984 wrote: »

Well I'd be talking about any shop that is under a symbol group (Spar, Centra, Londis etc) by being under a symbol do you find yourself restricted as to what products you can source yourself? From my opinion it seems like the independents seem to try that little bit harder to keep their customers happy. I'm not saying that the Symbol Retailers are in any way less helpful but when it comes to independents, the owner of the business is generally always on site, dealing with customers and looking to find out how he can help his customers. It seems like the independent retailers have to try that little bit harder to keep his clientelle up because thye have no backing. If you walk into your local corner shop you would know the owner, the same cant be said for your local Spar etc

Its no different for Spar, Centra, Londis even Super Value, local managers can provide the enviroment that makes their store local. I suspect the more expensive local Spar makes more money than the much bigger Super Value as the is shop is 100% providing what the locals want.

thirtythirty

The newsagent from the end of our road got turned into a Centra a while ago, and if anything, the ridiculous amount of traffic in and out of it now demonstrates how much was lacking before.

Before - dark, dingy newsagent that had old-skool shelves with a couple tins of that here, maybe a rubbish toaster + flashlight for sale there, newspapers, and some guy who would manually type the prices of things into the register.

Now - bright and clean, with offlicense, deli, basic grocery + 'items' shopping, atm, massive freezer section housing everything from all possible softdrinks, to fruit drinks, to ice cream and pizza. There are two tills which keep things moving when the local crusty old coffin dodger stalls one line counting out change, and most importantly it holds an element of hope...i.e. you're somewhere and you need something kind of obscure like loads of plastic cups, wood for a fire, or some spicy sauce, and you get that dismay of having to trek to the nearest supermarket/DIY store...but then you suddenly think "ACTUALLY! Centra might have it..."!

That's what makes a newsagents for me :pac:

AEH1984

ttm wrote: »

Its the management that makes the difference and nothing to do with who owns it. If the staff know they'll be respected for doing the best for the local (any) customers by the owner or manager then they can get on and be as helpful as they can, sometimes this works because the manager is on hand all the time and can just give a nod to the member of staff to be extra helpful in others staff are expected to use some initative.

If on the other hand there are so many rules and regulations the staff can't move without permission then theres no incentive for the staff to even talk to the customer so no "relationship" can develop.

I'd almost go as far as saying our local Lidl is getting local just on the bases of the staff being able to get on and be very helpful as they seem to share responcibility for running the shop, feck knows if they have a manager there as I've never seen one.

Bottom line is its not an effort that a company can make as you can only be successful in managing local relationships by providing the enviroment for staff to make them. Its the way you provide the retail enviroment for your staff and customers. If its us and them managment v staff then the war goes on staff v customers. The smaller the shop often the easier it is to get this right.

I really appreciate your feedback. Regarding your quote there, would you not rather see a figure head on site, in charge of the whole operation rather than it being left to staff? Like if you had a complaint and there was no manager there, who would you complain to? If the staff all have equal responsibilities, they could just pass you onto someone else without the customer getting a definitve response to their problem

jmbkay

One that sells winning scratchcards.

AEH1984

spottyelephant wrote: »

The newsagent from the end of our road got turned into a Centra a while ago, and if anything, the ridiculous amount of traffic in and out of it now demonstrates how much was lacking before.

Before - dark, dingy newsagent that had old-skool shelves with a couple tins of that here, maybe a rubbish toaster + flashlight for sale there, newspapers, and some guy who would manually type the prices of things into the register.

Now - bright and clean, with offlicense, deli, basic grocery + 'items' shopping, atm, massive freezer section housing everything from all possible softdrinks, to fruit drinks, to ice cream and pizza. There are two tills which keep things moving when the local crusty old coffin dodger stalls one line counting out change, and most importantly it holds an element of hope...i.e. you're somewhere and you need something kind of obscure like loads of plastic cups, wood for a fire, or some spicy sauce, and you get that dismay of having to trek to the nearest supermarket/DIY store...but then you suddenly think "ACTUALLY! Centra might have it..."!

That's what makes a newsagents for me :pac:

Have you noticed a difference in the way the shop approaches its customers now?

ttm

AEH1984 wrote: »

I really appreciate your feedback. Regarding your quote there, would you not rather see a figure head on site, in charge of the whole operation rather than it being left to staff? Like if you had a complaint and there was no manager there, who would you complain to? If the staff all have equal responsibilities, they could just pass you onto someone else without the customer getting a definitve response to their problem

Quite agree thats why I mentioned Lidl never having an obvious manager, but while the staff work very hard and with very strick rules they do seem to have automony to help the customer and can deal with any customer problems. Take a recent issue I had. My fault I dropped a bottle of wine in the car park. I went back to the shop and asked for a dustpan and brush to clean MY mess up, a member of staff wouldn't hear of me cleaning it up came out did it herself (with my help) and then came back out with an unexpected replacement bottle of wine, no hesitation and no contact with managment she just got on with it. Now thats service thats worth mentioning. So in this case you have an enviroment that doesn't need a manager. Now the customers might feel they need one but as a retailer you've probably lost the cause once a customer demands to see a manager. Go to Dunnes and its the otherway around, mangers prowling around and staff that will/can do nothing for you.

The figurehead is probalmatic, it often can't be the main manger in a larger store a they have serious work to do (maybe?) so its often a tainee manger and that can defeat the point of the figurehead espescially if they are a bit weak, so if the person you are dealing with even if its a shelf stacker can respond to you problem/requirement then you might be better off without a figurehead who the more obviuos they are the more likely they are going to be drawn into problems. Who knows it might be Lidl policy not to have a manager on hand as customers dealing with members of staff who are there on hand is a less explosive situation than a customer waiting to talk to a manger.

btw this is the customer from hell responding here, if I think something is wrong I will let someone know and keep doing so untill its put right.

dudara

@AEH1984, if you are going to use the Consumer Issues forum to engage in market research, you should first contact the moderators of this forum to obtain approval.

Thread closed until we hear from you.

dudara

the_syco

Good location: near a bus stop or train station, near a school, and near where people live.

English speaking staff, who understands the local dialect.

Good prices. Just because there may be no competition nearby, doesn't mean you can charge a fortune

thirtythirty

AEH1984 wrote: »

Have you noticed a difference in the way the shop approaches its customers now?

To me personally, it's not about friendliness and knowing the person, it's ALL about efficiency and selection of product. And where this newsagent is setup (adjacent to main road), it definately benefits from those attributes. Cars dart in and out on their route, knowing that "quickly grabbing a..." will indeed be a quick grab. So far as staff go, I think there's a couple foreign staff working there, and a couple "youngsters" (15 / 16 yr olds.)!

But, i would add that the newsagent is also adjacent to a housing estate, so all the old regular people still come to it, and the guy who used to work in the old rubbish shop still works the till a few days a week in the new Centra, and he gives a bit of chat about weather / news / etc. etc. But see the beauty is if he starts having a chat with some old biddy, the foreigner/teenager checkout is still flying through the other customers, so people like me don't get p1ssd off standing behind the needless conversation.

You really got to assess what your primary customer will be - normal, modern person, or is the shop going to be in the middle of an old housing development and primarily deal with slow moving, chatty locals. Or a bit of both, as is the case with my Centra!