Tara’s News has had an exciting journey. It started 18 years ago with my parents as an independent newsagent, having a stint with Mace, before joining Premier and steadily establishing itself as the focal point of our local community.
After I’ve come in and had an exhausting three years learning the ins and outs of the industry, I’m thrilled to announce the next step of our journey will be taking place with Londis as our new fascia. I want my customers to benefit from a greater fresh and chilled offering, but still have access to their favourite Happy Shopper and Euro Shopper brands – one of the benefits now that they’re backed by Booker. This is a positive step in the right direction; my decision to be patient and do my homework has paid off and I’m excited to see what the future holds with a new, yet very familiar, partner. I’d like to thank Premier for providing us with a solid service over the years and would thoroughly recommend any retailer thinking of joining to make the call and get involved.
Londis understands my challenge: to create a simple yet functional, modern and mission-led c-store within a newly-extended 800sq ft footprint. I want to take customers on a journey away from seeing us as a corner shop and encourage them to fill their baskets with healthier products. I believe it’s now become a retailer’s duty to offer them that choice regardless of your store’s location or demographics, rather than just a trend for the cities or more affluent areas.
We recently lost half of our car park to redevelopment and realise how much we took it for granted. Increased competition and a decline in traditional categories such as news and tobacco means recent months haven’t been pretty. Coffee and food to go will hopefully change that.
Given how advanced the UK’s coffee culture is, I’ve been frustrated at the lack of options out there for retailers with limited space. So I’m pleased to be working with a well-known international brand to introduce a new, quality coffee solution at a value price that will shake things up. It should be arriving to test over Christmas before we extend and refit in the new year. I look forward to telling you about how it has been received by customers.
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