A landmark anniversary has given one of SPAR’s longest-serving independent retailers the chance to reflect on five decades of serving his community, as well as the evolution of convenience retail.
David Gregson, who has owned the family’s SPAR store in Kirkby Stephen for 50 years, recently marked the milestone moment of his store with nostalgic celebrations, special offers at 1970s prices and community events.
The Gregson family acquired the SPAR store from the Woodcock family in 1976. The store had converted to SPAR four years earlier, in 1972, in association with James Hall & Co. Ltd.
To mark five decades of serving the Kirkby Stephen community, customers were treated to birthday cake and invited to spin the SPAR prize wheel for the chance to win prizes.
As part of the celebrations, the store also sold selected product lines at 1970s prices, including a four-pack of SPAR toilet rolls for 72p, cans of SPAR cola and lemonade for 13p, Easy Non-Bio washing powder for 71p, custard creams for 16p, a 1kg bag of flour for 39p, and Dolly Mix and Smash for 23p each.
A cheese and wine evening was also held, where customers sampled products from Clayton Park Bakery and Fazilas while the Kirkby Stephen Silver Band performed outside the store.
The milestone prompted David to reflect on the keys to success in retail and the Gregson family's much longer history of shopkeeping, which stretches well beyond the 50 years of the SPAR Kirkby Stephen store.
He is the sixth generation of the family to run stores locally, with the first Gregson shop opening in nearby Warcop in 1829. The Warcop store operated as a SPAR from 1974 to 1996 before closing in 2007 when David’s father, Michael, retired. His mother, Valerie, also ran a ladies' clothing and babywear store in Kirkby Stephen.
Andrew Hall, chairman and chief executive of James Hall & Co. Ltd, visited Kirkby Stephen during the celebrations to present David and Valerie with a framed photograph of the Gregson family in recognition of their 50-year partnership.
David said: “It has been wonderful to be with SPAR for so long. We joined when the supermarkets started to grow. My family believed they would be better off as part of something bigger and that has proved to be the case.
“My family has always had shops. I think we have always enjoyed helping people out and accommodating their needs. My dad had a view that ‘if we haven’t got it, we’ll get it’. His SPAR store in Warcop had everything, and I have tried to follow that with the SPAR in Kirkby Stephen.
“I have some great memories. On one occasion, when we stocked household items and clothing, I was advised during a visit by my SPAR representative to focus solely on grocery products. He had taken a particular interest in some checked shirts.
“Within the same minute, a farmer’s wife, who is still a regular customer to this day, came into the store and bought three of them right in front of him. He was totally convinced it was a set-up! For me and my family, it was about knowing your customer, which is why we stocked them.
“It has also been a story of great progress. Our three-day full refit eight years ago was outstanding. My store has also benefited massively from the solar panels installed through my Harvest funding via James Hall – they now generate 70 per cent of my annual electricity use.
“More recently, SPAR’s Price Locked campaign has been positive, my younger customers have really taken to SPAR Rewards, and the gamification campaigns have been major drivers of footfall. Having a single-pick option on some ambient lines has been very helpful too.”
Fifty years in business has also meant David has enjoyed remarkable continuity among his staff while witnessing significant change and challenges across the convenience sector.
David said: “I have been very lucky to have had a brilliant team of staff over the past 50 years, many of whom have been with us for decades. One of them, Brenda, worked here for nearly 40 years, while two of my current team, Carol and Judith, have both served for well over 30 years. I also have a couple of others who have been with the store for more than a decade.
“The move to later opening hours and SPAR’s ‘Eight Till Late’ slogan in 1989 was a huge step for the business, including Sunday opening at both Warcop and Kirkby Stephen. We would never have made that change without the encouragement of SPAR and James Hall.
“My dad was a religious man, and I remember that on the first Sunday we opened we took £600, which was a fantastic day's trade. The first customer through the door was a vicar. My dad could not believe it!
“Having the support of James Hall during the pandemic was amazing. Who started the rush for toilet rolls? I will never know, but whoever was doing the buying at James Hall was superb. I filled the room above the store with them and still had to restrict sales. I even had people ringing from as far away as Sunderland asking whether we had any in stock.
“The pandemic also meant I was down to three members of staff because others were shielding, at a time when the store was busier than it had ever been. I was receiving 38 cages of stock on my main delivery day, in addition to daily fresh food deliveries, which was unheard of.
“I was taking orders over the phone and volunteers were delivering them. I hired a couple of 15-year-old lads because I simply could not manage on my own, and one of them, Jacob, still works at the store today. The camaraderie was amazing and that support was invaluable. Convenience retail had its moment, and the whole community pulled together.”
James Hall & Co. Ltd is a fifth-generation family business that supplies a network of independent SPAR retailers and company-owned SPAR stores across Northern England six days a week from its distribution base at Bowland View in Preston.