Amelia
Video transcript
My name is Amelia Dow and I'm an Assistant Store Manager in a convenience store. I joined Waitrose in 2005 as a Retail Management Trainee, from there I did training in several branches to cover my Assistant Section Manager Training and Section Manager Training.
After I'd been appointed Section Manager of several different sections, I moved into convenience as Assistant Store Manager. I knew that being Assistant Store Manager involved many more responsibilities that I was looking for and would give me an opportunity to show what I could do. Working in convenience, you could be dealing with anyone from shop floor Partner to the Managing Director of the company and all of that becomes part of your responsibility.
You never know who's going to walk through the door for a visit and you've always got to be prepared for that. People management skills are exceedingly important within Waitrose and you've got to know how to inspire your team and how to enable them to do the job that you need them to do.
The legal side of being an Assistant Store Manager in a convenience store is a huge responsibility, because it's so important to make sure that our store is always trading legally; we could have a visit from Environmental Health or any external agency at any point, so we must know that everything is always in date, all the scales are working correctly and have been checked daily, the tickets are all correct, the price, the weight, the description. And it's my responsibility to make sure that all of that is done.
To explain Waitrose to someone, I'd tell them about how much faith our customers have in us and the responsibility we have to them as a trusted brand in delivering the standards that we do. Being part of that is really special, I'm really lucky to be part of it.
