At Londis Gerrards Cross, cigarettes and vape may be one part of the wider convenience offer, but it sits within a business built around being useful to its community.
For Dilmeet Singh Gaba, the strength of the store lies in understanding the different missions that bring customers through the door, from everyday grocery shopping and newspaper collection to parcels, bill payments and age-restricted purchases.
Gaba has been involved with the Gerrards Cross store for around 10 years. The 1,000–2,500 sq ft Londis serves a broad local customer base and combines traditional convenience with services including home news delivery, parcels, PayPoint and lottery. The store handles around 1,000 parcels a week, while its home news delivery operation runs around 80 rounds a day, giving it a regular connection with elderly and less mobile customers.
Within that wider proposition, the tobacco and vape category is clearly a strong part of the store's offer.
The strength of Gaba's store is less about a headline-grabbing vape wall or a huge SKU count and more about how the category fits into a well-established convenience operation.
That makes the broader customer relationship particularly relevant. Gaba describes the store as somewhere customers come not only to shop but because they know they will be recognised and helped. In a category where customers increasingly need to navigate changing products and regulation, that familiarity can be an important part of the retail proposition.
The store's community role is equally central to the nomination. Gaba sees the business as a local service point, with charity and community support developing naturally from the relationships built at the counter. One of its proudest achievements was being recognised through the National Lottery Community Champions award, which enabled £5,000 to be donated to charity.
There is a useful link between the two sides of the business. Gaba's approach is built around being a reliable, professional local retailer whether that means handling parcels, delivering newspapers, supporting charity campaigns or serving customers across its age-restricted categories.
Londis provides the platform, with its branding, promotions and supplier support, but Gaba stresses that the local connection comes from the people running the store every day.