Luke D.
1/5
Sorry I hate to do this sort of review but Iāve been visiting this store for over a month now since living here and I have to say it is repugnant.
It is constantly filthy no matter what time of day you go in, whether itās 7:30 or 19:30 there will be rubbish all over the floors, dust everywhere, half open packaging, in stocked shelves and empty fridges and freezers. Itās honestly shocking. The staff also are incredibly rude. Thereās a large lady that works there who screamed at my partner for pointing to the vape fluid he needed only resorting to pointing as she was struggling to find the one he was asking for queue full of customers and she literally shouted at the top of her voice āDONT POINT!ā she also rushes through the shop practically barging customers out of the way not saying excuse me but loudly saying āMOVEā
Itās by far the worst retail store I have ever been in. From a health and safety point thereās always spillages or kick stools lying around or single packs of stock cluttered on the floor, not stacked so people actually see it, they push cages rather than pull and almost always nearly hit or make contact with customers. From a food hygiene point of view thereās no hand washing regularly see them switch from till to servers with no gloves on, the fact the floors are never swept or cleaned immediately gives a filthy impression, they blame business but itās not itās sheer laziness. I stop in the spar at fort Augustus which is ten times busier than this store and itās always got an equal level of staff and sure sometimes it can look shopped but it never looks like this! Itās always clean and bright! Thereās no excuse. I see the manager in there all he seems to do is float around fridges putting out stock watching people wait on a self serve for 15 minutes to get a can of monster authorised which the staff just ignore.
Iāve worked above store level in retail and I understand the constraints that can seize an operation because of short staff, budget constraints or turnover problems however I would be implementing the following in stores on my patch with these issues:
1. Reduce services offered in store to focus on the customer - i.e, limit opening hours either beginning or end of day to allow for clean downs and adequate replen so youāre offering on shelf availability and a strong and most importantly SAFE customer journey.
2. Instead of having 2 staff stood doing nothing on tills first thing have them working and cleaning the aisles closest and in view of tills so they can redirect non behind the counter or servery customers to self check outs
3. Extend out of hours operating hours to allow for cleaning or replen.
4. Review the CCTV to ascertain if this is an issue of conduct or poor resource management in the store. 9 times out of 10 ineffective management teams can make a bad situation worse which I suspect strongly to be the case here at this Scot-mid.
Just a few suggestionsā¦ something needs to change as honestly it really is disgusting. High sales donāt excuse poor conduct, customer service, hygiene and safety. No doubt this is a volume turnover site. So it should be manned adequately, ran efficiently and well budgeted. I literally only go in this store because I have no alternative unless Iām going to Inverness or Fort Augustus, if itās before 8am then unfortunately I have to stop there. Same if Iām on an off day and want to stay local. Itās a shame as you can see it has the potential to be a really fantastic store. Just the staff and the standards that are ruining it. Wouldnāt be surprised if that store could boost its sales by thousands a week just through a good replen routine, a strong customer focus with health and safety and hygiene at the forefront and staff that donāt bark and shout at customers. The photos I have added were taken first thing itās disgusting that any store manager would open their doors to the public like this.
