Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 19 August 2020

LAST Saturday, I ventured out into Hinckley’s indoor shopping centre, the Britannia Shopping Centre, to see what MaxiSaver, the new convenience store, who have joined the town, had to offer to their customers.

Outside of the unit, the first strikingly similar thing that I noticed is that MaxiSaver’s storefront fascia and interior sport a very similar colour scheme to OneBelow, another British discounter launched back in 2018 from Poundworld’s founder, Chris Edwards.

Upon entering, I sanitised my hands using the in-store hand sanitiser at the sanitising station, as MaxiSaver are encouraging shoppers to do so to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

As I started my walk around the store, I noticed that whilst the store has a similar vibe, feel, atmosphere and look to the ‘one pound or less’ format from OneBelow, many household appliances and homeware goods were priced significantly higher than £1, making the store more like a Poundstretcher branch.

Confectionery, sweets, chocolates, fizzy drinks and energy drinks were all on offer at really affordable prices, with two for £1 deals on canned fizzy drinks.

Shoppers had the choice of purchasing select fizzy drinks and energy drinks from the shelves or from the fridges nearby the tills.

Inside, there wasn’t a varied age range of shoppers. I didn’t see any children or young adults using the new store, mainly mostly middle-aged to elderly-aged residents.

Each shopper inside of the store doing their shop seemed to be rather happy and impressed with the products on offer.

Digital payment methods are in place, which accept contactless, digital card payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay, encouraging customers to go cash-free.

However, cash payments are still accepted at this moment in time.

The staff were friendly and served customers with a smile – they didn’t seem either rushed or bored, so it made me feel like MaxiSaver was a rather welcome new name to our high street.

Inside signage heavily focused towards the fact the chain were opening stores nationwide. At this moment in time, the next two stores officially lined-up and confirmed to open their doors are Erdington and Stourbridge.

Paul Mathers of MaxiSaver explained to the Hinckley Free Press that MaxiSaver were given the keys to Hinckley, Erdington and Stourbridge’s spaces on the same day.

Mathers also mentioned that the convenience discounter are aiming to secure 20 retail spaces by the end of 2020, and 30 by the end of 2021 next year, bringing MaxiSaver’s complete number of stores up to 50 in total to start with.

In my personal opinion, the Hinckley store has started off the chain well as their first location, and hopefully just like OneBelow, the brand will become a much more well-known new household name in the months to come with more locations popping up.

MaxiSaver is a nice new location for shoppers and bargain hunters alike looking to strike up a deal in-store and save money.

However, I feel the visual identity may make it feel like it is owned by OneBelow, which might confuse customers as all of the stock in OneBelow is priced at only one pound or less.

I feel a social media presence and website for the brand needs to be set up sooner than later as it is currently non-existent.

The website and social channels could inform customers of deals, and even see more jobs open up further, outside of working in the stores, but for managing the company’s social media presence, as brands need to be connected to customers in the modern day.