Mos Patel, who runs two stores in Greater Manchester, has been named as the Impulse Retailer of the Year at the 2021 Asian Trader Awards, the second consecutive win for Mos at the prestigious awards, after winning the Food to Go Retailer award in the previous edition.
Both his stores, Premier Heyside in Oldham and Family Shopper in Ashton-Under-Lyne, made it into the shortlist, and declared joint winners for the Impulse Retailer Award, supported by State Bank of India.
Impulse buying represents between 40 and 80 per cent of all purchases, according to industry research, and the role of sensory experiences in these purchases are well documented. Visual stimulus is key, but Mos strives to stimulate all the five senses of his customers as they course through the stores. In fact, when a customer enters the store, it’s the smell of the food from their in-store kitchen that welcomes and lures them.
Pizza in the making at Mos Patel’s store
“A lot of the customers are working people and they are using the shop for convenience, or they are using the post office. So when they smelt the food, they know we are doing the food, and they could grab food on the go as well. So that helps, basically everything complements each other,” Mos says.
“Then what we did as well is, while they're in the queue, we put the impulse foods, like cakes and all that. So they start choosing them.”
Planning a route
The Ashton store is laid out to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to find what they want but, at the same time, to tempt them to make additional impulse purchases. As the store is located in a low-income area, Mos ensured that price points remained at the value end of the scale. This, coupled with regular promotional activity brings in a high level of repeat footfall to the store.
The Oldham store has a very busy post office counter which attracts a lot of footfall, and during a recent refit the layout was re-jigged with aisles re-positioned to run horizontally instead of vertically – a change which now means that post office customers must now walk past the full food to go offer and promotional bays to reach the counter.
Mos reveals that the refit has been a result of falling sales, which prompted him to look at the shopper behaviour and analyse it.
“We've noticed that the behavior of people has changed. For example, they were using the post office, and they'd go down the queue in the post office aisle. You'd normally think that behavior would be to avoid obstacles and they’d walk down the chocolate aisle but this wasn't the case. So obviously, each store is unique and different to another store, depending on the area,” he notes.
Mos Patel
The change in the layout meant the customers have to queue from the rear of the shop, and they have to walk around to join the queue. Mos has also started selling the post office paraphernalia - letters, envelopes, sellotapes and such - to increase the revenue, placing them near the queue.
On the retail side, their impulse strategy revolves around promotions, putting all the ‘heavy promotions’ on the front end, making it unmissable for the shoppers. A lot of trial and error has also gone in perfecting his merchandising strategy for impulse buys.
“We put chocolate hanging bags, but that didn't work. So we moved the chocolates back and we swapped it for sweets. That obviously helped our impulse sales,” he says.
Playing the margins
For the counter, he decided against cluttering, instead deploying select high margin products like e-cigarettes at the strategic location. “You could put anything in the counter and it's gonna sell regardless. What we did was we emptied the counter, but we put high margin. So when they're in the queue they could get a cake, they could look at the e cigarettes, they could obviously look at some confectionaries which were hanging at the bottom. So the impulse is always there,” he adds.
His food to go operation also plays a major part in driving impulse sales, with the added advantage of providing high margins. He has placed dump bins around the store, putting anything they get on promotion in them. The store also makes great use of signage to flag up offers which in turn drive impulse sales.
“We put signs in, something like welcome and goodbye and little things that they might just see.” he explains. “As soon as you enter, where the hot ready meals and sandwiches are, we put kitchen signs so that they know we freshly make it. It's neon pink and reflects our deliveries.”
Counter display at Premier Heyside store in Oldham
Mos says it’s the customers with limited time who are their target. “In two minutes, if they came in, what can they see? Realistically they might not see all the stuff we offer, but they'll get a certain smell,” he says.
“The smell, that's the one,” he emphasises the appeal of the senses! They promote their home delivery offer in store with a cartoonish display showing one of their staff in a car with the wheels moving, which got a sound on it. “So when he speaks, it's quite funny. We're not trying to sell things, but we're just showing them, ‘look, these are the apps’,” he says.
While these are little things per se, Mos reveals a lot of thought has gone into designing each of the elements, particularly taking a critical look at their layout. And, that reflects in the sales. “We know our layout is working, because our sales have increased. So what we try to do now is to improve,” he adds.
They also analyse products that are not selling in the impulse category, and constantly move it around to keep it fresh. “We got a local sweet supplier, we tried his, and that worked, but then they got bored, you see, so we are changing it like every six to eight weeks,” he explains.
“Same with cakes. We will get five, six cakes. Then a month or two later, we will make another six type of cakes, different coloured ones. It's not a matter of just keeping the same trend, we are consistent about it.”
Moving along
Mos notes that standing still is not an option in the sector, “if you stand still, you're gonna go backwards,” and you always have to innovate, even if you get things wrong sometimes.
“You got to believe in yourself, you know, because how it is. And even if you get it right, doesn't mean you've done it, you still have to keep changing it,” he says.
As an example, he points to the Cadbury promotion they have launched last month. “We sacrificed one of our promotions. Now, six months down the line, we might say, ‘you know what, cancel the contract, although it’s a 12-month contract, if there's an exit fee, we'll pay, it doesn't matter.’ If it’s selling and it continues to sell, fine, we'll keep it. But you got to be ready to make that sacrifice,” he says.
Mos also gave away the ‘dead stock’. “We reduce as the first step, and then we give away. Yes, it hurts to give it away because you've invested money. But what's the point if it's not selling? Give it away and never buy again, because you need space to put new products in a new trial,” he says.
The food to go section
He notes that the biggest challenge in the impulse is the plenty of options available now. “Look how many Lucozade flavors are there. And they launch new flavors every three months! So that's where you have to jump on the bandwagon,” he says.
His approach is to stay on the new products, discontinue some of the mediocre products, and always keep the core in. “What we do is we work with the reps, and this is how we get our margin. So when it's a new product, the prices are low. We'll try it, we'll sell it, and we'll get rid of it. If it's an exceptional sell, if it's worth keeping, then we'll keep it,” he explains.
Another method is to buy the new products in bulk, though it’s a risky proposition. “When there was Cadbury Twirl Orange launched, we bought pallets. So we were ready. And then there was a shortage. So you have to put the money where your mouth is, although it's a risk. For example, a pallet of chocolates, what you're talking is £900 to £1000,” he says.
Mos has done the same with AU Vodka during its launch, buying in pallets. “It does tie a lot of your money up. And it's quite scary,” he admits. “Sometimes you could make a loss. So when the AU got common, everyone knew about AU, then we didn't bother with it.”
He observes that the cost of living crisis is impacting shopper behavior in many ways, and impulse is particularly affected. And, this is clearly evident in their online sales.
“Customers that are going for the deliveries tend to go for larger packs. But now with the challenges of the utilities, the larger packs have started to reduce in sales. They're going to revert back to the single packs. So, looking at three months down the line, we're quite hesitant,” he says.
Free stock is now the centerpiece of his online business, buying a pallet of a product from the wholesaler and give out free as long as they can negotiate a deal. “People no longer got that spare pound. They're being very fussy and choosey,” he notes.
In the store, he focuses on high margins to tide over the crisis. “Anything that's low margin, we don't even bother selling it, even if it's popular, because we've got so many people working for us. Our overheads are high. So we have to look at the average spend,” he says.
Light-fingered
He adds that the crisis has been a double whammy, as theft has now gone up. “It’s probably doubled, in fact. We all know that the criminal picks 20 bacons and they'll run out. But they come in once in a blue moon, they're gonna do it regardless of what we do, but the general customers are now increasing. So that's affecting us. But we can't put prices up because they're under stress,” he says.
Two other issues that compound the problem is the share of price-marked packs they sell, which got squeezed in margin, and the product availability at the wholesalers. And, above all the energy bills are hitting the business hard. He is now switching off his refrigerators intermittently.
“We've had to resort to that because at the moment my bills are almost 14.9p per unit kilowatts, works out about £1700 a month right now, but the cheapest I've got – I have been shopping around, I've got brokers involved – is 31p. Everyone else has been quoted me 35p. So that means that bill now is going to be hitting £3200 a month,” he explains, posing the question: “So, it means I'm working for the electrical company, right?”
Of course, he’s got a point there, and he is now even telling his staff to show the bills to the customers if they complain.
“I'm coaching my team and say ‘look, if customers complain, you just got to say to them. If you go to a supermarket I'm sorry, your drinks are not chilled, and we have to now earn a living.’ I've left a copy of the bill downstairs, to say, ‘look, this is every month, how can I afford to do it?’,” he says, matter of factly.
It sounds bit of a departure from last year, when Mos enthusiastically explained his award winning food to go operation. Make no mistake, impulse is still a wining category at his stores, despite the crisis, but at present he is focused on sustaining the sales.
“I think the next 12, 24 months will be disruptive. We don't know exactly how our overheads are going to go, what's going to happen with the market. It's not within our control. So I think this is the time where you'd be reactive,” he signs off.
Local shops will face significant new pressures as a result of today’s Budget, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has warned.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves' budget's impact will be felt unevenly across the UK’s 50,000 convenience stores, with some measures such as business rate relief and the increased employment allowance mitigating costs for smaller independent stores, while providing no help for chains and larger independent businesses.
The key measures for local shops announced by the Chancellor, and the costs for local shops associated with them, are:
National Living Wage to increase to £12.21 per hour
National Minimum Wage (18-20 rate) to increase to £10 per hour
Cost to the convenience sector next year: £7.739bn (increase of £513m)
Employers’ National Insurance Contributions to rise to 15 per cent
Threshold for Employers’ National Insurance contributions to fall to £5,000 per year
Employment Allowance to rise to £10,500 a year
Cost to the convenience sector next year: £397m (increase of £85m)
Retail and hospitality rate relief reduced from 75 per cent to 40 per cent
Small business multiplier frozen for 2025/26
Cost to the convenience sector: £267m (increase of £68m)
Total cost of main announcements (year-on-year difference): £666m
ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “The cold hard facts are that the measures announced in the past 24 hours have added two-thirds of a billion pounds to the direct cost base of the UK’s local shops. At a time when trade is tough and operating costs are stubbornly high, this will be challenging for our members to absorb and there will be some casualties on high streets and in villages and estates across the country.
“Not all shops will be impacted the same. The smallest retailers, with low NICs bills and lower rateable values for their shops, will benefit from the welcome increase in the employment allowance and the retention of 40% of the retail, hospitality and leisure business rates relief. Retailers with a larger store, a number of sites or those operating a chain will receive limited benefit from these mitigations, and this will impact their ability to invest and to continue to offer services in the communities they serve.
The following additional measures were announced by the Chancellor in the Budget speech today:
Flat rate levy on vaping liquids from October 2026 of £2.20 per 10ml
Fuel duty frozen and the 5p cut extended for another year
A new commitment to tackling shop theft and funding directed to tackling organised gangs
Lowman continued: “The Chancellor’s commitment to tackling shop theft will be warmly welcomed by our members, but they are interested only in action and in crime against their stores and their colleagues being tackled effectively. We stand ready to help implement a new, and better-funded strategy to stop shop theft, abuse and violence against our members.”
Parliament is to launch an inquiry into delays in compensation settlements for sub postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal.
The newly-formed Business and Trade Select Committee will call ministers, subpostmasters and their lawyers to give evidence next week with a second session to follow in mid-November. The Committee’s chair, Liam Byrne MP told ITV News that there was “definitely a delay” in people coming forward for payment.
“What we’re hearing from subpostmasters is that if there is an argument about how much should be paid out, the first offer is made quite quickly but if there’s a negotiation, that negotiation is dragging.
“We on the committee are going to batter away at this, week in, week out, until it is job done. All of us on our committee are frankly horrified and outraged by how long this has taken and we’re just not going to give up, ” he said.
Sir Alan Bates, the Post Office campaigner and chair of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, is expected to be invited to give evidence. Earlier this month, Sir Alan states that his own claim had not been addressed and that he had written to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer asking for his intervention.
“Like many of the groups, my claim has not been completed. It’s ridiculous. I am one of just many in this position. This is why I wrote to the Prime Minister at the start of October, asking that he instruct the department to ensure that all claims – and I’m talking about in the GLO group, the original 555 – have been completed by March next year," he said.
This comes weeks after the Post Office's outgoing CEO agreed the government is using the company as a "shield" over compensation schemes. Nick Read, who resigned last month, was giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry for the second day, with a focus on delays to victims' financial redress.
He also admitted that the compensation process has been "overly bureaucratic" and expressed "deep regret" that the Post Office had not lived up to delivering "speedy and fair redress".
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Bacup Wine and Convenience shop, 34 Burnley Road, Bacup.
A Rossendale shop has had a licence bid rejected after repeatedly selling vapes to children and having illegal products on its premises.
Management at the Ibra Superstore at 34 Burnley Road, Bacup, have shown ‘no regard’ for children’s protection and safety, and have insufficient controls for licensing, Rossendale councillors have ruled.
Ibrahim Mohammad, director of the Ibra Superstore, had recently applied to Rossendale Council for a new premises licence. But the borough’s licensing sub-committee rejected his bid after a meeting which heard allegations from the police and trading standards officers.
The Burnley Road shop has been subject to various licensing changes and concerns in recent years. In the past, it was called Bacup Wines.
Ibrahim Mohammad, the applicant, attended the Rossendale licensing sub-committe meeting with his father,Amin Mohammad. Also there was PC Mick Jones, of Lancashire Constabulary, and Jason Middleton of Lancashire Trading Standards. Councillor Bob Bauld attended as an observer.
Mr Mohammad wanted a premises license for alcohol sales and opening hours from 8am to 11pm, seven days a week. He already had a personal licence. He said the Bacup shop would install a CCTV system, keep an incident log and a refusals record, check customers’ ages, display information about staff and give them regular training.
Trading standards officer Jason Middleton said Ibra Superstore Ltd was incorporated as a company in April 2023. Since then, trading standards had received 11 complaints about under-age sales and carried out visits.
Breaches included non-compliant vapes being found which broke a 2ml limit on the quantity of nicotine-containing liquid, no age checks and no information on display.
During one visit, Amin Mohammad tried to leave with a bag containing 10 illegal vapes. In test purchases by trading standards, an ‘Elf Bar’ vape was sold to a 14-year-old by Amin Mohammad and an illegal Hayati Pro Max vape to a 13-year-old by Ibrahim Mohammad. The shop claimed a phone call distracted staff during the 13-year-old’s purchase and illegal vapes came from ‘a man in car’.
Councillors heard different speakers, looked at written reports and also some video footage from the applicant. But they rejected the premises licence bid.
Giving their reasons, they stated: “There was a repeated history and pattern of behaviour regarding under-age sales of age-restricted items, such as tobacco products and vapes to children. You must not sell vapes to anyone under the age of 18. This is a criminal offence which the council takes very seriously.
“It is clear you breached the law by failing a test purchase operation in which you sold an illegal vape to an under-age child. The sub-committee feels that you have no regard to the protection and safety of children.
“The sub-committee feels that there is insufficient management control at the premises. There is no credible system to prevent under-age sales of age-restricted products and no measures in place to avoid harm to children and to prevent crime and disorder
“Therefore, given the number of incidents, the circumstances surrounding the incidents and the fact that the matter involves safeguarding issues relating to young, vulnerable minors, we consider that the seriousness of the incidents and the crimes committed against young children undermines the licensing objectives to prevent crime and disorder, and protect children from harm.”
The shop has the right of appeal to a magistrates court within 21 days of the date of the notice.
SPAR North of England retailer Dara Singh Randhawa’s family store has been awarded £100,000 of free stock after hitting all his targets since moving to the symbol.
Dara and his family, who have their SPAR store in Patrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, joined SPAR through its association with James Hall & Co. Ltd in August 2023 having taken the decision to maximise the store’s potential.
It is a decision they have not looked back on, with sales increasing by up to 25% and margins also showing significant uplift in the last 12 months.
Key to the store’s improved performance is the complete overhaul of products available in-store, particularly the fresh food range, to better support people who live in Patrington and the surrounding area.
A new store layout and refrigeration, better Food To Go and meal deal options, a coffee machine, and a Calippo slush machine were also installed during a major refurbishment prior to launch.
Dara said: “Our move to SPAR has been excellent. We have seen fantastic sales uplift and the support from the team at James Hall & Co. Ltd has been brilliant. The £100,000 of free stock is the cherry on the cake.
“We have been very impressed with the Price Locked promotions, in particular. These give customers confidence to do bigger shops with us as they see value on our shelves and the products at the same prices for longer.
“At times over the summer when tourists and visitors to the area add trade, we have seen sales £6,000 a week higher than our average. This is against a backdrop of the popular caravan park in the village being closed almost all year.
“We are really pleased with the position we are in, and we will be looking to achieve more in 2025.”
Peter Dodding, Sales Director at James Hall & Co. Ltd and Chairman of the SPAR Northern Guild, said: “Congratulations to Dara and the Randhawa family on hitting their targets and earning £100,000 of free stock.
“We recognise switching brand is a big decision for a retailer which is why this isn’t a gimmick, and we offer this to all retailers who join the SPAR family with James Hall & Co. Ltd.
“As well as our £100,000 incentive, we also offer retailers the chance to achieve up to an additional £5,000 of free stock if they successfully refer a friend.
“These opportunities provide additional motivation to retailers alongside the comprehensive benefits that joining the SPAR brand brings with it.”
James Hall & Co. Ltd is a fifth-generation family business which serves a network of independent SPAR retailers and company-owned SPAR stores across Northern England six days a week from its base at Bowland View in Preston.
The government has on Wednesday announced its acceptance of the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) recommendations on the rates of the National Minimum Wage (NMW), including the National Living Wage (NLW).
The rates which will apply from 1 April 2025 are as follows:
NMW Rate
Increase (£)
Percentage increase
National Living Wage (21 and over)
£12.21
£0.77
6.7
18-20 Year Old Rate
£10.00
£1.40
16.3
16-17 Year Old Rate
£7.55
£1.15
18.0
Apprentice Rate
£7.55
£1.15
18.0
Accommodation Offset
£10.66
£0.67
6.7
The recommended NLW rate is expected to equal two-thirds of median earnings and to have the highest real value in the history of the UK’s minimum wage. The increase in the 18-20 Year Old Rate narrows the gap between that and the NLW, in anticipation of the adult rate being extended to 18 year olds in future years.
“The government have been clear about their ambitions for the National Minimum Wage and its importance in supporting workers’ living standards. At the same time, employers have had to deal with the adult rate rising over 20 per cent in two years, and the challenges that has created alongside other pressures to their cost base,” Baroness Philippa Stroud, chair of the LPC, said.
“It is our job to balance these considerations, ensuring the NLW provides a fair wage for the lowest-paid workers while taking account of economic factors. These rates secure a real-terms pay increase for the lowest-paid workers. Young workers will see substantial increases in their pay floor, making up some of the ground lost against the adult rate over time.”
Stroud admitted that the data show some signs of employers finding it harder to adapt to minimum wage increases.
“The tightening of the labour market since the pandemic has unwound, but the overall picture is similar to 2019. The economy is expected to grow over the next year, although productivity growth remains subdued,” she noted.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
Good work and fair wages are in the interest of British business as much as British workers. This government is changing people’s lives for the better because we know that investing in the workforce leads to better productivity, better resilience and ultimately a stronger economy primed for growth.
The recommended increase in the 16-17 Year Old Rate restores that rate to its original value relative to the adult minimum wage. In line with previous recommendations, the Apprentice Rate will remain equal to the 16-17 Year Old Rate.