One day I was waiting at Woolworths for papers and transport to arrive and observed for quite some time the work that these two were doing to provide an excellent food service.
Mercury Bay is fortunate to have Woolworths and New World. We are well served and there is a terrific 4 Square down the end of Whitianga’s main street. I decided to interview Keith and Raylene asking them the same questions. The day had been wild with stormy weather, and it was a time when there were distribution and supply problems affecting the country.
Meet Raylene – Assistant Manager Customer Services
What are the 3 things you sense are important to customers?
Value for money. Good customer service. Customers feeling valued.
What is important to you at the end of the day?
Feeling valued and enjoying working with our team.
What gives you the most pleasure about this job?
Making our customers feel welcome and appreciated.
What is a challenge in your work?
Customers taking their bad day out on staff.
Have you noticed any changes in shopping habits?
We are getting more and more daily shoppers, instead of everybody doing a weekly shop.
We have customers asking for Keto, Organic and Health Foods, when this didn’t happen 10 years ago, when we opened.
A lot of our customers use self-checkouts, which didn’t exist when I first started in retail 23 years ago.
Most of our customers now use the Everyday Rewards App (digital EDR card), instead of an actual Everyday Rewards card. They also get individual boosts, to help them get their $15 voucher quicker, either through the App or emails. People work hard at saving their dollars.
Interviewing Keith, Store Manager
What are the three things you sense are important to customers?
It’s very important that we have good quality products on the shelves. People need to have a good shopping experience, and a big part of that experience is getting value for their money
At the end of the day – I ask myself three things:
• Was this a good place to shop for the customers today?
• Did we serve the community well today and how did we do that?
• Did our team feel safe and was there a positive sense of wellbeing as a team?
A lot of things about this job give me pleasure but to summarize two:
• Team development and watching team members succeed and learn in their roles.
• Having a store that provides well for the community needs.
Keith reflected on the challenges in his job and on the changes in shopping habits.
A challenge is keeping the team safe with a tendency towards acts of violence increasing. I am talking about the situation in retail across the country l. While some of our stores in other larger cities may have seen an increase in violence and aggression, we are very fortunate to have a very supportive and safe community here in Whitianga
There are changes almost every day. But the most noticeable changes are the moves to more convenience and the trend to seek after ‘better for your health’ foods as well as an increase in the uptake of dietary requirement foods like gluten free etc.
Our customers are also looking for the faster shopping options such as online shopping, direct to boot or milk run.
In the end we want to provide what they need with the least hassle at their greatest convenience and my hope is that they enjoy the experience.
◾️Note: I am aware that Foodstuffs and Woolworths New Zealand have received criticism for dominating the market and for price monopolies. However, the human service and the variety of food we are able to purchase easily in the major centres on the Coromandel and in Hauraki is very customer focussed and many of our neighbours work in these stores.
