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STORE PROFILE CONVENIENCE AND VALUE WAY TO GO This SPAR owner uses his savvy to make the most of what’s on offer, giving customers what they want: convenience and value. DBy Nerine Zoio. omenico Casagrande joined the SPAR brand in July 2019 with SPAR Carina in Brisbane. He tells Retail World he recently converted his second store in the Queensland capital, SPAR Chandler, into a spacious fruit and vegetable business known as Megafresh SPAR. Mr Casagrande says he decided to become part of the SPAR network after owning and managing a fruit and continental grocery store in the Chandler area for around a decade. “I joined SPAR in order to provide a broader offering to my customers through my association with the franchise,” he said. “This enabled me to construct a one-stop Megafresh SPAR where my customers can be assured of getting everything they need in one go.” He says he seized the opportunity when the FoodWorks shop next door to his Chandler store, on Old Cleveland Road, closed. “This was a yay moment, which saw me take it over and combine it with my store \[SPAR Chandler\] and Bob’s your uncle: I had a new shop built up from two previous stores spanning 726sqm, with approximately a 500sqm shopping area,” Mr Casagrande said. “Already customers have given feedback on how much they appreciate being able to get what they need in one store, with one customer pointing out that beforehand they had to visit three stores to get everything they needed. I mean, at the end of the day we all know the value of convenience only too well. “Another aspect that they’re happy with is the pricing. I can’t stress how important it is that a retailer gets that aspect right. If a customer feels ripped off, they may never return.” Store highlights Mr Casagrande says a design highlight of the store is the allocation of double the floor space for the fresh food area compared with a similar store. “This allocation took place because the store’s focus area is fresh produce, and I can definitely say that customers appreciate having this extra space – which is about 25 per cent of the size of an IGA in a fresh food department – to browse for and select their fresh fruit and vegetables,” he said. “This also really helped during the pandemic when we were tasked with hygiene measures and keeping customers socially distanced from each other and staff members.” He emphasises that this wasn’t easy – “with customers being customers” and not “always being aware and taking care”. However, the staff members took safeguarding measures seriously. Mr Casagrande says he commends them for their success in helping to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Other highlights of the store are its 9,000 SKUs with new additions and lines, such as a new bakery and meat deli. “The bakery department is really going well,” he said. “We prepack all our produce in the meat department. Our smallgoods department is a real winner. We pack all the product in trays ourselves, which our customers love.” Changing shopper patterns Mr Casagrande says the pandemic has altered shopper patterns on the ground. “Customers are shopping more, and more frequently, and buying far more foodstuffs they can cook from scratch at home compared with pre-pandemic times,” he said. “This made for good sales of a core line of products.” He notes there has been “no holding back” among consumers for cheaper fruit and vegetables, such as onions, carrots and apples, during the lockdown and post-lockdown. “Overall, I’m really happy to say that the store has been performing very well, and in fact it traded better during lockdown than out of it,” Mr Casagrande said. “I think the increased foot traffic during lockdown can be attributed to the severe narrowing down of retail outlets open to consumers during this time.” The development of the store spanned five months, with challenges mainly experienced around its design, especially in terms of combining two premises into one store. “SPAR gave a lot of assistance to overcome design challenges,” Mr Casagrande said. “Then there was the problem of integrating the work of all the tradies involved in the build. But we got through it all with patience and perseverance. “Eco-friendliness was taken into account in the design stage of the store, which is a no-brainer, and the carbon footprint of the store was always kept in mind – from refrigeration to LED lights utilised.” The store is located about 6km from the Brisbane CBD, in a strip mall shared with a bottle shop, fish and chip shop, coffee shop and butcher. “This makes it very convenient for many shoppers in this metropolitan area, especially taking into account a car park with 60 spaces for the family demographic we serve,” Mr Casagrande said. In that the community is predominantly built on sustainable farming, the store ensures it meets requirements for local produce sourcing, for example stocking Maleny milk. “The milk is a big hit here,” he said. “If we didn’t stock it, we’d definitely run into irate customers, so we make sure we do – as well as other niche products. These are the things we focus on over loyalty programs and the like. Customers know that they’ll get what they need easily at competitive pricing in a friendly and aesthetically pleasing store. “We never forget that customers are aspirational, so we make sure our shop looks good and that we maintain the care required in this regard.” 16 RETAIL WORLD SEP, 2020