Well, after more than five years of waiting I am thrilled to announce that last week we finally had a Camelot lottery terminal installed in the store.

Obviously, I will continue to innovate and move with the times, but I really feel that this is now the final piece in the jigsaw. Despite being a modern, award-winning 1,200sq ft store, we have never been able to offer the National Lottery, and I’ve always felt that there was a vital piece missing in the service that we provided to our customers. For me, it was akin to not having a soft drinks chiller; an absolutely ludicrous situation for a modern-day community retailer.

Even our local Camelot representative conceded that it was crazy. Yes, we offered the Health Lottery, but quite honestly, that has never really cut the mustard for us.

So last week we couldn’t believe our luck when our shiny new terminal finally appeared – and in what was to be a rollover weekend, too!

Our customers are almost as thrilled as we are with the new addition. They don’t have to make a nine-mile round trip to the town to get a ticket, and we can finally stop having to make the complicated explanation for why we didn’t have a terminal.

The training and support have been excellent so far, and just one week in our staff are already very successfully upselling tickets at every turn.

We definitely noticed the uplift in footfall on our first draw night last Saturday, and I look forward to continuing to make the most of this most valuable and welcome service in the weeks to come.

There is no doubt that it will boost our basket spend and help our profits, so it really is a rare win-win in these challenging times.

So, credit where it’s due to Camelot for following up on its promise of these extra terminals. My terminal will definitely herald a positive change for my business.

But it’s not just great news for me. With about 6,000 of the new terminals earmarked for the independent sector I’m sure there are many others out there who are feeling as happy and complete as me right now.

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