
Vigilance: Your Critical Retail Friend
Vigilance is an honest retail coach. Not an audit, not a report — a relationship.
From the team behind the M&S Food transformation.
What is Vigilance?
Vigilance is your honest retail coach. Not an audit, not a report — a relationship. It’s the voice that tells you what others won’t.
The second set of eyes that sees what your teams may have stopped noticing, or at worst, started tolerating.
The support system for retailers who want to be challenged, not comforted.
Vigilance is an immersive service from Grocery Insight, the people behind the M&S Food transformation.
They put their years of experience patrolling the aisles to good use. They immerse themselves in your market, walking your stores, visiting your competitors. To adjudicate where your business stands, where the competition is ahead, and where real opportunities lie.


Turbocharging insights
Opportunities are then turbocharged into actionable items through Grocery Insight’s extensive best practice imagery. Where there’s an opportunity in Bakery, our best practice examples translate it into specific action. We can lay the path to improvements through our imagery, captured by experts and selected for their real-world effectiveness.
The outputs: reports, presentations, and imagery are then shared with you, your executive team, and the teams directly responsible for each area of your business.
There are always surprises, but to establish a baseline of “where are we, really, as a business,” there is no better service than Vigilance from Grocery Insight.
Why Vigilance exists
Because you don’t need another dashboard. You need truth.
You need someone who’s walked the aisles, spotted the problems, and knows how to fix them.
Vigilance isn’t polite. It’s necessary.
Built by people who live retail, for teams who want the best.

Steve Dresser, CEO
"The man supermarket CEO's turn to" - BBC
What you get with Vigilance
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Bespoke Visit Package: We'll travel to you and visit a pre-agreed number of stores; both your own and your competitors'.
You're welcome to suggest stores too, whether they're strong stores one that are perhaps more "challenging." (shush! Don't tell us which is which!). - Store by Store Feedback: One report per store. What we saw, the highs and lows, and where the opportunities lie. Every observation is backed by real-life imagery. "Pictures or it didn’t happen!"
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Rolled-Up Observations: One store with a problem, is one store too many. But when the same issue appears in multiple stores, it’s a pattern.
We consolidate observations across stores to surface systemic challenges. Then we generate the challenges and suggested fixes for your internal teams to consider and develop. - Opportunities: Where we see a Bakery that needs revival, or a better way to communicate in store, we’ll share a better example from elsewhere. Helping you be better for your customers.
- Workshops and Outputs: Workshops and presentations aplenty, aggregated observations, tactical solutions, and strategical support.
- Brutally Clear Coaching:. Direct but never disrespectful. Just practical next steps from someone who’s been there and can help fix things.


“Steve is one of the best retail operators I’ve ever come across. He operates in a level of detail beyond most people in the Retail business.
He’s a truly customer centric leader, magnificent at process and challenges the status quo. He always pushes for improvement with a strong sense of purpose and a high Level of drive.
He’s a true force to be reckoned with and continues to be a good support to M&S and to me as CEO"
Stuart Machin, CEO


How Vigilance works
- You pick the stores (if you like, if not, we will).
- We visit, take pictures, and feedback. (anonymously)
- You get a store by store view on how your stores look.
- We return with aggregated observations, fixes, and strategical support, and present our findings to as many teams as necessary.
- You benefit from an honest, impartial, expert view on your business, where the challenges (and opportunties) lie.

Let us be vigilant across your estate
Vigilance works as a standalone programme or integrates seamlessly into your wider operational improvement programme. Get in touch today to be vigilant.
