Winner: Spar Boswell Park, Ayr
The Dairy Award (for managed stores) 2016 – sponsored by Müller Milk & Ingredients
Interview with Debbie Nicholson, manager.
Winner details
Size: 1,000 sq ft, Symbol: Spar, Staff: 18, Hours: 24 hours, seven days a week
• Debbie has worked at Spar Boswell Park for 11 years and has been manager for three. Her mother was previously manager of the store and her sister is supervisor.
• Spar Boswell Park has previously been highly commended in the soft drinks and city store categories of the Scottish Grocer Awards, but this is its first win.
• Based in the heart of Ayr’s town centre, the store is surrounded by pubs, restaurants and nightclubs, making it a busy place in the evenings. It is also close to the Mercure Ayr Hotel and the Gaiety Theatre.
• The store has operated 24 hours a day ever since it opened 20 years ago. During Debbie’s time as manager it has never closed – not even during refits.
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SPAR Boswell Park was nominated in two categories at the Scottish Grocer Awards 2016, but store manager Debbie Nicholson, who attended the event at the Glasgow Hilton with her sister and supervisor Janie, did not expect it to win.
“Janie was really afraid of having to go up on stage but I told her she wouldn’t have to,” said Debbie. “I told her it would be fine, that we’d just be getting highly commended, which we were happy with. But then dairy was the first award to be announced, and when they said Boswell Park I thought ‘oh no’. I could see her table from where I was sitting and her face was like thunder. It was hilarious.”
Janie did make it onto the stage to collect the award, which is the store’s first from Scottish Grocer. Judges praised the store’s “immaculate” dairy display, which makes excellent use of limited space to ensure that fresh milk is available at all hours of the day and night.
Partly that’s down to a micro refit the store underwent last year – managed by Debbie – and to excellent standards of cleanliness and overall presentation.
“I love nothing better than a refit,” said Debbie. “It’s a blank canvas to basically rearrange the entire shop. It used to be that milk was in the first aisle for customers when they came in. That meant that regulars could grab milk and bread quickly without having to traipse all over the store.
“But it’s now at the back next to juices, which is our busiest section. Since we moved it, it hasn’t made much of a difference for customers – they still find it easily enough – but some will pick up a few extra things on their way back to the counter, so that’s good.”
Presentation, says Debbie, is very important, in dairy and all other categories. At Spar Boswell Park it’s a constant priority. Operating 24 hours in an area with a high concentration of pubs and clubs brings the added issue of inebriated pranksters rearranging products and POS when nobody’s looking.
However, for Debbie and her team, it’s not too difficult to maintain standards.
“We’re all hard workers and several of us are a bit OCD, even the night shift staff,” she said. “Everybody hates gaps and bottles off the shelf. They all have to come up to the edge like a row of little soldiers.
“I do it in my sleep now.”
Though its not without its challenges, Debbie, who has worked the night shift herself – selling milk, dairy products and much more all through the wee, small hours – describes it as “fantastic”.
“It’s like being on a night out except you get paid for it and you don’t have a hangover the next morning,” she said. “Most of the time it’s just the best fun.
“You know when you come into your shift what kind of night you’re going to end up having, from the atmosphere and different things you learn to pick up on. You know when you’re going to get grief.
“We have five girls who’ve gone through security training. They had to go and do a full week’s course to basically become bouncers.
“They’re very good at reading situations. They can sense when something’s going to happen and they defuse it very quickly. They would only very rarely have any real conflict or serious issues with anyone,” she said.
“We’ve got panic buttons linked to the police station as well. At most we’ve had to push them three times in a year, and for a 24-hour store that never, ever closes that’s pretty good.
“It’s actually very relaxed,” she said. “I’d never expect any member of staff to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. If work’s needing done it’s as much my responsibility as theirs. On the shop floor we all muck in, we all get along great and we have the same respect for each other.
“Be serious about your work, but don’t be too serious, that’s what I say.”
