Nearby store profile: Tommy

Tommy Macken from Nearby Cabra was the first retailer to align with S&W when it launched the Today’s brand in the Republic of Ireland. He has recently rebranded to the wholesaler’s latest brand Nearby and tells Fionnuala Carolan why he would highly recommend the brand to other retailers

Uniquely local

“If you look after the customer, they will be loyal to you and I learned that from my father,” says retailer Tommy Macken

Cabra is a very settled part of Dublin with an aging population and a lot of established businesses. Tommy Macken and his wife Debbie have been running an independent shop here for many years and only signed up to S&W’s brand about six years ago.

“We’re here 13 years and were trading as an independent and buying from S&W Wholesale and the BDM approached us a few years ago and said they were launching a symbol brand in ROI and asked if we would be interested in becoming the first shop,” he recalls. “Michael Skelton, the MD of S&W came down and went through the pros and cons of everything and there was a lot more pros than cons. They sold it to us and now I’m well converted and if someone was thinking of joining the group, then they could bring them here or call me and I would be happy to talk to them about the positive experience and the reasons why I am still committed to them today.”

To date S&W Wholesale now boasts over 80 Nearby stores across the island of Ireland. Macken credits the entire Nearby Ireland sales team with the brand’s rapid development and says they have picked great shops to add to the fold. “It’s fairly easy putting a sign over a door but hard maintaining and getting the right people on board,” he says.

The Cuppa coffee and beverage concept is a great addition to the store, and during the pandemic the store offered unlimited free teas and coffees to frontline workers

Leaving his independence behind

Macken had been an independent retailer for over 10 years so joining a group was something he had reservations about. According to Macken, the Nearby brand is a great choice for retailers like himself who are used to going it alone as they benefit massively from the marketing support and the promotions but yet retain their independence due to the lack of restrictions and fees. He explains more about how being with Nearby has benefitted his business. “What they do is put up the external and internal signage and give you the support of the marketing team and sales team and they have a development team that come around the shops and give you advice on the pricing and margins etc,” he says. “If they tell you you’re going to get two deliveries a week, you get two deliveries a week. If they say it will be on Monday, then it will be on Monday. They are so reliable. The backup is brilliant.”

One of the main differences between being a Nearby as opposed to other symbols groups is the lack of a franchise fee and this is a huge consideration for a small business. “They don’t tie you down to contracts,” explains Macken. “What they do is give you the support, give you the back-up and have a marketing team available to do your Facebook and Instagram professionally which is a huge benefit. They also give us a couple of thousand themed leaflets every three weeks for the promotional period.”

Macken says although there isn’t an exact percentage you need to buy from S&W, he buys nearly everything from them simply because the price is right. “They look for a bit of loyalty but that’s easy because the price is

Staff members enjoyed a great day celebrating the store’s first birthday Nearby Cabra features an extensive off-licence range

there,” he says. “I’m at around 95% or 96% as it makes sense for me. Even on the promotional cycles every three weeks, you still get your margins. There are promotions on grocery, frozen, household, sweets, minerals, there’s a bit of everything really. We are selling all the bags of sweets for €1 and two litres of 7up and the likes of Bold pods at really competitive pricing.”

Reared in retail

Macken grew up in Cabra and although his father has passed away his mother still lives in the area. His parents were also retailers and he learned the ropes from them. He says one of the most significant things he took on board was to recognise that every person that comes through the door is paying your wages so you must look after them as well as you can so they will come back. “If you look after the customer, they will be loyal to you and I learned that from my father,” he says.

Macken says that himself and Debbie love coming in because every day is different. “We have a loyal crew here. The staff are friendly and enjoy a chat and a joke with the customers. We have a lot of carers coming in as we are surrounded by houses and it’s an aging population in this area. My customers know they are getting value and in this day and age that is a huge consideration,” says Macken.

There are 15 staff between part and fulltime, all recruited from the locality. The shop is approximately 2,000 sq ft with a full deli and a full off-licence. There is also a busy post office in-store. There is plenty of competition in the area, all within a few minutes but there are a number of unique elements to Macken’s shop that helps him stand out from the crowd.

“We do a free delivery service,” he explains. “I was doing this long before Covid but it ramped up during Covid. Some days we do 4/5 orders and other days we do 25 so we nearly have a staff number assigned to that between taking orders over the phone and fulfilling those orders. Thursdays and Fridays would be our busiest days for this. The average spend is anything from a pint of milk and the paper to €120 for a full week’s shop. We do dinners here and we deliver the dinner free of charge too.”

Another unique element to Nearby Cabra is a savings club that is run all year for their loyal customers. People will put between €5/€10 in a week and then some people use it throughout the year, but the majority of people use it for the Easter and Christmas periods to have some money in the pot for the little extras. Macken explains further: “Another thing we do in our off-licence, is that if any of our club members are having a communion or a party in the house for whatever reason, they can come down and give us an order for drinks and we will give them a special rate on that order. We will take money out of their club account and deliver their order and what they don’t use, we take back and we credit their account back. All these little things make us different from the other shops.”

Customer is king

During the pandemic, they made the decision to give every frontline worker free tea and coffee at any time as many times a day as they wanted. “The marketing team at S&W helped to raise awareness in the local area and we had the likes of the fire brigade come in after a job and they all got a Cuppa and we were delighted to do it,” he says happily.

It’s obvious that Macken loves what he does and he admits to working up to 70 hours a week because he likes to be there when customers come in. “People come in and look for you. It’s the type of shop we are. You walk into bigger shops and they don’t care. A lot of people who come here, it might be their only social interaction in the day and that 30 seconds or couple of minutes you talk to them is very important.” He can add extremely good customer service to the list of unique elements of this thriving business! ■

“If you look after the customer, they will be loyal to you and I learned that from my father.”