Major makeovers and more than 100 new stores are symptomatic of a retailer that is moving with the convenient times.

The Co-op’s announcement that it will open a tranche of new stores in 2018 looks almost counter-intuitive when warnings are being sounded about how tough things will be for retailers over the first half of this year.

Yet visiting its Gillingham, Dorset outpost on New Year’s Eve (to buy a bottle of its much-lauded and relatively inexpensive festive fizz at £16.99), what was apparent was that this was a heavily shopped out-of-hours store, and there were queues at the checkouts.

“There is a mild feeling of second best about the presentation and, although the staff were cheerful, considering that they were working on New Year’s Eve, they needed a little more product knowledge”

Also clear is that it serves a need; it’s the last shop on the way out of town towards very rural East Knoyle, and is convenient. It is also probably in need of a makeover.

There is a mild feeling of second best about the presentation and, although the staff were cheerful, considering that they were working on New Year’s Eve, they needed a little more product knowledge (all were unaware about how the drink in question had been generating many column inches).

This is convenience as we used to know it. Most things that would be regarded as basics were there in some form of other, but it was a matter of looking around and there was some logic, albeit not a massive amount, about the way in which the offer had been laid out.

On trend

Hats off therefore to the Co-op for a touch of the carpe diems in taking advantage of the current move towards shopping for now/this evening, but it does need to ensure that its revamp programme swings into action alongside the new stores.

In fairness, were the shopper to visit the Co-op on east London’s Old Street, a completely different proposition would be encountered – more space, better ranging and displays that make you want to buy.

The challenge is to bring others up to this level, even when space may be much more limited.

Convenience will continue to be one of the key themes for food retailers in 2018 as town- and city-dwellers buy the necessaries for a meal on the day in question, rather than making the trip to the edge of town for ‘the big shop’.

With all of this in mind and even allowing for the shortcoming of the Gillingham store, being a convenience operator, rather than a supermarket with convenience as part of its proposition, looks like a good place to be.