Budgens Opens to Massive Crowd

Budgens convenience store reopened its doors following a refit, but not until a few teething problems had been ironed out which left customers stood out in the freezing cold. Residents of Abbots Langley started queuing outside the High Street store at around 8.40am, with the shop due to open its doors at 9am. Queues went back as far as the Lloyds TSB bank, but by 9.10am, the doors were still closed and staff still rushing around inside. It turns out that there was a problem with the tills and an engineer, who was due to come and sort the problem, got stuck in traffic, which resulted in him having to tell staff how to solve the problem over the phone. Staff of the store came out and handed out complimentary coffee to those who waited patiently, while some decided it was far too cold to stand in line and chose to leave. Those at the front of the queue felt Abbots was in need of a refurbished store, because the old one “just wasn’t very good.” One customer said: “I think it’s very important to have this new store and hope it will provide more fresh items.” “I’m hoping that the new store will help prevent people from venturing into Watford, and will be especially useful for the older people of the community.” At 9.40am, the doors were finally opened and the ribbon cut by Joan Ginger, an Abbots resident of 81 years who used to work in Creasy’s Bakery. She said: “My husband and I ran Creasy’s for 50 years. I think this new store is absolutely lovely and will help to keep up with the times. I’ve always shopped in Abbots and think it will make others think about doing the same.” Those who had waited patiently were treated to a number of samples, while also gaining the opportunity to shop in a much larger, cleaner and well presented store. The feedback My Abbots received from the customers we spoke to was 100% positive. Not one person had anything bad to say about the new store, with the hot food counter and the increase in fresh food a notable improvement. Entertainment from Pete’s Fun Time band greeted the customers as they walked in, and even BBC Radio 5 Live made an appearance to report on the very first e-Depot to open in the country. e-Depot, as mentioned last month, allows you to have goods delivered to Budgens, who will hold the item for you until you are able to pick it up for a very small fee (See page14). Owner Dary Sweeney, who has ploughed around half a million pounds into the new store, was overwhelmed with the response of local people, and didn’t imagine so many would turn up. He said: “It’s been fantastic if I’m honest. We’ve had a great team come in to put this all together. “We were stunned as we had one guy come at 7am to see if we were open, and people have come along to see what’s going on.” Overall the day was a great success and My Abbots can honestly say that Dary and his team have done a tremendous job with the store. So why not pop along and have a look for yourself.

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