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Pete Bevington
4 July, 2008
TESCO hope to open the extension to their new Lerwick superstore
before Christmas, the company said yesterday (Thursday).
The country’s largest retailer submitted its planning application
for the extension to Shetland Islands Council last week after
carrying out a ‘retail impact assessment’ at the authority’s
request.
Tesco will open its Shetland store a week on Monday, one week after
opening its new store in Orkney and eight days before opening new
premises in Stornoway. All the island stores were purchased from
previous owners Somerfield.
Scottish corporate affairs manager Douglas Wilson said the extension
would make the store just over 40 per cent bigger. “We would always
be looking to develop our site to the maximum that was available and
obviously that is what’s available,” he said.
The extra space will allow them to increase the range and quantity
of goods they stock, which would be especially useful during bad
weather when freight boats are unable to sail from Aberdeen, he
said.
“If the ferry is not sailing for a couple of days it will allow us
to have full availability for our customers.”
Since acquiring the store, Tesco have been busy recruiting extra
staff, meeting Lerwick’s small retailers and carrying out market
research about local shopping habits. |
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About 20 people were
randomly invited to a research forum at Lerwick’s Kveldsro Hotel on
18 June. Each one was paid £30 to attend the ‘Customer Question
Time’ session during which they were asked their opinion of their
shopping experience.
Emma Williamson, of Lerwick, said she was approached in the street
and invited along. “I asked if they were going to offer mainland
prices. They said any of the offers on TV that Tesco is doing the
shop in Shetland would get, but they didn’t say yes or no that
prices were going to be in line with the mainland,” she said.
About the £30 offer she added: “It didn’t really bother me. I might
have gone along anyway even if they hadn’t been offering any money
out of sheer nosiness.”
Mr Wilson said they carried out Customer Question Time sessions
throughout the country to get a handle on people’s retail habits.
“We invited people along to give us their comments about their
shopping experience in Lerwick and what they felt could be improved
upon, to allow us to tailor our range of products on our shop floor
to meet the needs of our future customers.
“The £30 is just a goodwill payment. It’s absolutely standard and we
carry this out across the UK.”
Four local suppliers will provide stock to Tesco: Shetland Dairy
Products, McNab’s Fish, Mainland Produce and Valhalla Brewery.
Tesco have invited a group of Shetland VIPs to tour their new store
next Thursday. |
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