Sharon’s c-store diary: lights, camera, and action

Sharon Kane: staring role

Sharon Kane, award-winning c-store manager at Spar Cullybackey, part of the Henderson Retail group in Northern Ireland, on key seasonal events and training.

Despite the doom and gloom in the media, chocolates, flowers and bears still flew off our shelves in the week preceding Valentine’s Day, proving that romance is still alive.

And, no sooner had the romantic candles burnt out, then we were refilling the shelves with yet more chocolates, bears and gifts only with a different theme…

Mother’s Day (22 March 2009, UK) would normally be one of our biggest events for sales of flowers, chocolates and gifts and, hopefully, it still will be as everyone makes a special effort to treat their mother on this occasion.

We have some lovely gifts this year, including mugs, bears and candles. They have already been selling very well, so I’m confident we’ll have a successful trading period leading up to this key event.

Staff at Spar Cullybackey have given up chocolate for lent

Time seems to be flying by with seasonal event followed by event. In addition to Valentine’s Day, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday in February and everyone indulged in a variety of pancakes before giving up a luxury for lent.

Most of my staff has chosen to give up chocolate. But with nearly 70 associates, I’m hoping they don’t all stick to it otherwise my chocolate sales will definitely take a dive.

However, with the Easter eggs already on the shelf I don’t think it’ll be too long before they give into temptation.

I had a very different career experience last week. Henderson has teamed up with Skillsmart to record a DVD to promote careers in retailing and I was persuaded to represent the company on camera.

I don’t think I’ll win an Oscar for my ‘acting’ skills and I hope the guys doing the filming are good at editing. It was a nerve-racking experience, to say the least, but quite fun taking part. I don’t think Hollywood will be phoning any time soon, so I’d better just stick to my day job.

March is going to be a very busy month. Firstly, we have our annual awards conference where all our stores are rewarded for their hard work and performance in 2008.

We have been nominated in four categories this year and the heads of each department will be there to receive their awards. This is a great motivational experience for everyone and we are all looking forward to attending the function.

We are also going to the Convenience Retail Awards on 19 March at the Marriott, Grosvenor Square, in London. This is another great night to look forward to and, hopefully, I’ll be able to report back with some news of success next month.

Sharon Kane