When I was a young lad, I worked for M&S at the weekends - warehouse, emptying lorries, collecting trolleys etc. It was about eight years ago now, but anyway they had a butchery counter at the store I worked in called "Butcher's Shop". I think some other Scottish stores had them too.WillPS wrote:And from what I've seen so far, completely unused. M&S shoppers like their packet food!!
Anyway, the 'butcher' just stood there all day in a green apron and daft straw hat waiting for people to come and buy some overpriced meat.
No need to worry about a lack of packet food though. The meat, of course, arrived in the store pre-arranged on little black trays covered in sealed clear plastic wrap filled with nitrogen. As a warehouse boy, the best bit was to split the pack open as quickly as you could and try to get enough nitrogen wafting in your face to take your breath away for a second or so. Of course BOC (the distribution company - now called Gist) put big labels on the packs telling you not to do this.
Good business idea: the supplier (ScotBeef) just took the same fillet steaks and put them on a tray instead, BOC already had all the gases ready to pump into the packing to keep it looking nice and pink, and the store simply laid it out in a pretendy 'just cut up' fashion and charged the customer 10-20% more for the same product that was sitting on a shelf in the next aisle.
Except no-one really fell for it, and the waste levels were high. They scrapped that, put in an oven/'bakery' instead - which just warms up frozen baguettes and muffins - but it did a lot better. Oh yes, and a rack of greetings cards too. They always seemed to sell very well and got plenty of space as a result.
Nothing's changed enough for me to think people want interaction at food counters now. Isn't that the point of supermarkets - getting what you want without having to speak to people?
