NEW MILESTONE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33883, 1 July 1975, Page 11

NEW MILESTONE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

The opening of a modern self-service wholesale warehouse at the corner of Carlyle and Gasson Streets marks a new milestone in customer service for G.U.S. Wholesalers, Ltd.

Customers of the self-service warehouse will be all the commercial users or retailers of food — such as dairies, five-day week grocers, caterers, institutions and boarding houses. There has been one at New Brighton for many years, and there are others at Timaru, Ashburton, Nelson, Blenheim and Greymouth. But with its 20,000 square feet of floor space, the Carlyle Street warehouse is the biggest and most up-to-date self-service warehouse in the South Island.

A feature of the warehouse is its fully computerised check-out system. Customers select their own goods from the supermarketstyle avenues of shelves, loading them into barrows They then pass through to the check-out area, where a staff member takes the goods from the barrow and calls out the items and quantities. A girl selects from a tub file punched cards for each product, according to quantity. These cards are run through a computerised accounting machine, which produces a printed invoice with a complete description of the product, the quantity, the extended price, and its up-to-date retail price. In this way the customer is given a record of the retail price of each item purchased, and is saved the trouble of checking through price lists —■ some of which may be out-of-date — to find the current retail prices of his goods. The computerised invoice also gives the warehouse a running record for stock inventory. The self-service warehouse offers a very extensive range of products at prices below normal . wholesale levels. This is because customers select and collect their own merchandise, paying in cash and the consequent savings are passed on.

As well as the customary range of groceries and dry goods, the self-service warehouse offers a range which includes frozen foods, hardware and giftware, drapery lines, delicatessen lines and even some of the smaller home appliances, such as vacuum cleaners and domestic heaters. One big advantage for customers is that the warehouse provides convenience purchasing. Customers’ own storage facilities can be kept to a minimum, because of the ease of access to the self-service warehouse. The management says a full range of groceries and allied lines will always be available, because the computer enables a continuous and constant review of stock levels and requirements. The warehouse has adopted a policy of offering high-demand lines as specials at rock-bottom prices. This will be a regular programme, and will include both New Zealand and imported lines of groceries, drapery and hardware. BACKGROUND G.U.S’s self-service warehouse division dates back to 1965 when they took over Royds Brothers and Kirk (Christchurch) Ltd. At first there was one warehouse of 4000 sq. ft in Willis Street, but it proved so popular that within two years it w T as transferred to Kings-

ley Street into a building of 10,000 sq. ft. Three or four years later, and to release the pressure on Kingsley Street, another warehouse of 7000 sq. ft was erected at New Brighton. This one is still in operation. In August/September, 1973, G.U.S. took over Self Help in the South Island from Waimate north. That operation included eight supermarkets (which are now all Super Values) and 15 food stores, which are in the main now I.G.A. Premier Stores, plus Self Help’s head office and warehouse premises in Carlyle Street. It is to those premises, which have now been extensively upgraded for the self-service warehouse facilities, that the Kingsley Street operation has been transferred. The ceilings have been lowered, and heating, floor coverings and covered parking facilities provided. There is sufficient indoor parking for about 20 cars. The result of all the changes is a selfservice warehouse very similar to a retail supermarket. Emphasis is on convenience, and the entire facility has been designed to meet today’s requirements, for today’s retailers and commercial users — price, convenience, comfort and speed of servicing. Four years ago, G.U.S. had only two self-service warehouses in Christchurch, but to meet the rapidly growing demand for that type of service, all branch warehouses at Timaru, Ashburton, Blenheim, Nelson and Greymouth, have now been converted to self-service, and nearly all of them are computerised. It is planned now to expand their existing operation in Nelson. Last year G.U.S. took over A. S. Paterson and Co., Ltd’s, grocery interests in the Nelson area.