Craft New USP’s Out Of The Smallest Of Changes

Supermarkets are at war. Cutting prices left, right and centre. This appears to be better for the consumer, but is price really the only thing that draws people in?

I don’t enjoy parking whatsoever. It causes me great anxiety. 

No matter the car I drive I am very conscious of where I park in fear of someone opening their door onto mine or worst; not being able to get in my car, because someone has parked too close… 

(Breathe James, Breathe)

So to avoid the panic attacks I search for an end space, where my driver’s side or my son’s door can be easily opened. I also avoid going to supermarkets especially at peak times where their parking spaces are likely to be busy – yes that’s me you’ve seen late at night pushing my trolley around 15 minutes before closing!

However I made a trip to my local Sainsbury’s the other night (8:45pm) to notice that they’d relaid the car park and created EXTRA WIDE PARKING BAYS!

Oh my, how I was bowled over. You can actually open your door fully and yet and are not in touching distance of the car beside you.

This is such a big deal for me.

I would usually go to Morrisons on a Saturday purely for the fact they have a large car park and it’s never full. (Loads of end spaces too).

The following Saturday I made my trip to Sainsbury’s instead, parked 15 feet from the entrance and did not suffer any anxiety whatsoever.

Moral of this story is that, by not trying to cram more spaces into their car park and focusing on giving customers more space, I now want to shop there.

I couldn’t tell you what the prices are like, but I know they have a great range of FreeFrom products. This along with the wide spaces is enough for me to want to shop there.

Small changes can make a huge difference and sometimes be used as a vital selling point or competitive advantage.

I’m not sure about other Sainsbury’s, but I would hope they roll this out Nationwide and maybe some of the other supermarkets will catch on, but in the meantime i’m sure they’ll remain to fight over who’s the cheapest.

If you are fighting a price war, what small changes could you do in your business that would make a big difference? 

You’d be surprised on what people would value more: price or customer experience.