SOURCE — stock.pixlr.com

So do you remember back in the day when you needed to do the weekly food shop? This would require you to head down to the local high street where you would be confronted with the butcher, greengrocer, baker, hardware store, general store etc. Each of them would have a solid niche in the market for the items they sold and with that a solid customer base for the town it served. With this niche came the personalised customer service they offered. The business owner would know each customer that walked in the door, make recommendations to them and perhaps even source speciality items that they requested. This made the town feel more integrated and a community would thrive.

Fast forward to the introduction of the supermarket. A one-stop-shop for everything that you need. Sound like a fantastic idea right!? Wrong. As time has passed we have lost so much of the personalisation that once was. Instead now when you visit one of the mega stores you walk in and no one knows your name, there is an overwhelming array of options on offer that causes cognitive overload for anyone. There is no customer service present because staff are too busy working to productivity targets to even stop and ask a customer the basic questions. Where has customer loyalty gone?

We now live in a space where the price is the main thing that drives our shopping habits, rather than service and quality.

And what happens to that lonely butcher, greengrocer, baker or hardware store on the high street? Well over time their business footfall drops, they cannot keep up with the price matches of the bigger players and so business slows and slows to the point where the rent becomes too high that they need to sell up and move on. Where a pillar of the local community once stood, is now an empty hole in the community’s heart.

Depressed yet? Well, I am and I think it is time to change this!

There are many examples where independents can thrive. Just take a walk around London’s Camden or Manchester’s Northern Quarter and you can see that independents have adapted well to a new way of working. They embrace technology to suit their needs with online stores, omnichannel offerings (such as events instore that have been publicised online) and a small brick and mortar store that forms the centre of their community. Then as each community of stores, restaurants and bars have grown, so has the community reputation as well. The places listed above are world-famous for some of the best spots in the city and have the bigger chain players wondering how they can compete.

So what do they offer different?

It’s simple. They offer REAL personalisation. None of this fake stuff that is solely designed to get you to come in the store so that you can buy something else on offer. If an independent is having a promotion on herbal tea for example, then the only thing you will find in the store is TEA! A great example of this is Bird & Blend Tea Co in the Northern Quarter in Manchester. They only sell tea and are experts at being able to tell you all about it. When was the last time you was able to walk into ASDA and find someone that can tell you the difference between Green, Black, White and Oolong?

So where does that put us in 2022? The big players are never going to leave us but the independents want back into the game!

For me, the solution is a hybrid model.

Proposed layout of a supermarket’s fresh produce section

Let’s take the example of a big player supermarket within the UK (ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons) and let’s reimagine their grocery and fresh produce department.

FIRSTLY

These areas are no longer controlled by the supermarket. Yes, they still own the building and can control floor space in the same way that a department store works. IE they can rent out the area to a company. Think the Gucci department within Selfridges.

The theming and interior design is owned and maintained by the supermarket.

However, that is where the control ends.

Rough sketch of a department layout for greengrocer within a supermarket.

NEXT

Each space is rented out to independents that can offer something different to the customer which can vary depending on the region.

For example, XYZ greengrocer operates in the northwest of the UK and so could gain a spot within the North West Stores. But ABC greengrocers operate within the south-east of the UK and so would be able to cover their stores. This allows for local companies to grow and boost the local economy.

This also allows for regional delicacies to become a staple within the stores, rather than the idea that every store should look and stock the same items.

HOWS DOES THIS LOOK FOR THE CUSTOMER?

Well very similar to how it looked ‘back in the day’. A customer could walk into the store and visit this area to see what local independent businesses have on offer that fulfils the department’s needs for the supermarket. They can build up a relationship with the business owner and even allows the business owners to better provide for their customers with ideas such as special orders. They can wander through the department in order to get all of the items needed much as they would do currently within a supermarket.

HOW DOES THIS HELP THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER?

Well, simply they can take advantage of the large footfall that the supermarket can bring in. It can leverage on its marketing, advertising and brand credibility. It can also work with the supermarket’s checkouts to eliminate additional costs for payment methods.

HOW DOES THIS HELP THE SUPERMARKET CHAIN?

Well, it allows their business efforts to be more focused on other areas of the business where they can deliver on quality. They can capitalise on the rent for the space that would be used by the small business owner. It would make the supermarket good in the eyes of customers for trying to do better for the community and local area. It would also allow customer satisfaction scores to increase due to the interaction with customers by the small business owners.

TO CONCLUDE

So the playing field may have changed for small business owners, but people still value the contribution they make to the commercial world. I think it is time for them to gain a spot in the limelight once again and to make a bigger mark on their community.

As a passionate small business supporter, here are some of my recommendations to visit when you are next in Manchester.

FOOD

DRINK

SHOPPING