Sampling is the most effective way of generating sales and brand-switching. However, there are basic rules that must be followed to make it work at its best in multiple outlets.

nStuff Primark, H&M, New Look, Mark One and all the rest! When it comes to "fast fashion" at low, low prices, you can't beat George at Asda.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold, and nobody knows this better than the Discount King. For years he's had to endure the taunts of friends and passers-by: "Cheapskate", "Skinflint", "Chav" and the like.

nOne of the toughest parts of keeping your seasonal store maximising its turnover is how and when to change stock levels to fit fickle shopping habits.

nOne of the pillars of our strategy is health and wellbeing. Another is ethics and environment.

Paul Sharpe has worked for Midlands Co-operative Society for 22 years and is manager of its Narborough Road store in Leicester.

In our second article on turning customers into 'fans', we look in more detail at how to establish where your staff are today in performance terms, in order to do an accurate 'gap analysis' on how far you have to go.

QWhy is it that I and my team dread the annual appraisals?

nDo you remember the ABC Card? This month's punter (a comfortably-off 40-something professional living in the South East) does. It wasn't as well-known as the Tesco Clubcard or Sainsbury's Rewards/Nectar schemes; or even, perhaps, as good. But it was a Safeway card. It was Bettabefor's card.

nA defective product that causes death can leave a company open to prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter and Culpable Homicide Act 2007, in addition to any breaches of the General Product Safety Regulations or Food Safety Legislation.

nPoor Tesco Extra woman! She's only in her 40s and she's already hankering for the past: that golden age of supermarket shopping she remembers as a young woman starting her career in the 1980s. She's like a misty-eyed gran, fondly remembering the days when we bashed the Boche, stood up for the national anthem and ate lard gratefully.

Your focus for the coming year may be to increase your differentiation in the marketplace by 'turning customers into fans'.

nBritain in the Noughties is, for the middle classes, a very dangerous place to be. But fear not, there is one place in Blighty where old-fashioned decency still reigns supreme, where fairness and customer service rule - and that's Waitrose. Waitrose has replaced Marks 'n' Sparks as the nation's most beloved retailer, particularly with the middle classes in the South of England.

Hearing dogs provide an invaluable aid for the deaf. As well as making regular donations to the Hearing Dogs Birmingham Branch, staff at the Minworth branch of Asda, near Sutton Coldfield, showed great support in the store, leading it to win an award from the charity.

nFifteen years ago, you only needed three spots on TV to reach 85% of the population. The channels have now proliferated to over 150, and the internet has added a further level of dissolution in the message. It's now very hard for brands to know exactly where their consumers are at any given moment.

QI am leading a project on managing suppliers internationally - we have a business in four European countries. How do we establish preferential terms with our international suppliers?

nWhat a difference a decade makes! Back in 1998 Thatisinthepast was a Haribo-scoffin', Marlboro-puffin', alcopop-guzzlin', kebab-munchin' slapper who lived for pleasure.

Q How was the last decade for you? Have buyer-supplier relationships improved at all over the past 10 years?

nFaitrade, ethical sourcing, corporate social responsiblity (CSR), all very worthy - and lucrative - aims, but how can retail buyers get more involved with helping their customers feel 'in touch' with suppliers?

The first Meet the Manager subject that Multiple Buyer & Retailer interviewed, back in May 2001, was Phillip Kenyon, who was in charge of an interesting London store

Customer service has moved to the forefront of retail thinking, as multiples recognise its growing importance in helping to differentiate their offering.

nThe proliferation of 24-hour opening over the past decade or so has been something of a mixed blessing, the obvious convenience being balanced by concerns over noise, staff safety and energy use. However, there is one social group for whom the all-night convenience store (and especially those Tesco Express-style shops attached to petrol garages) has been an absolute boon - the clubber and/or student.

Q There has been a strong focus on recruitment across our business at the start of the year. How do I ensure that we attract and select the right staff?

nStress has become an integral part of many jobs around the country, especially in the retail industry. Working long hours is becoming the norm rather than the exception, but are retail employees simply coping with working longer hours or are employers sitting on a time bomb?

QI am planning to give some feedback to my team in-store. Could you give me any simple tips to make the session go well for both me and my staff?

Dealing with the public on a day-to-day basis can present its challenges,

nSome people look down on Iceland. Brash, cheap, cheerful and very, very orange, it's hardly Waitrose or Fresh & Wild, is it? However, real mums (as opposed to middle-class women subsidised by an overpaid banker/media worker husband) love to shop at Iceland.

QAt the front of my store is a large area of empty space that in the summer we use to sell barbecue equipment. What kinds of products are going to generate the most income off this fixture and what's the best way to rotate this kind of area?

nWaitrose opened its new 24,000 sq ft store in Windsor in October. However, head office had to find a temporary solution for the existing store before this could happen. Being on the same site, it was impossible to keep the old store open while the site was redeveloped.

Q I've heard a lot recently about coaching and its positive impact on learning. Yet, in a retail environment, with all the problems and constraints of a busy sales floor, is coaching worth the disruption?

nHoodies are easily recognised, dressed in a uniform of jeans and/or American sports gear, topped off with a large fleece or nylon top with a funnel-like hood which serves to completely obscure their faces. This has the disconcerting effect of making their speech - a kind of bastardised version of West Indian patois, as satirised by Ali G - sound all echoey.

Packet of Lambert & Butler, Cheezy Wotsits, 2 Red Bulls, 2 miniatures of own-label vodka, pack of extra-large rolling papers, Nuts magazine

QWhat's the margin for error in 2008? Sitting with a sales director poring over his 2008 business plan for Retail Customer X, I was asked "how can I help my customer to realise that we really do need to increase our prices if we are to continue to provide ongoing support and innovation?"

nWaitrose is well known for having a closer relationship than most with its suppliers, and for having sophisticated and credible sustainability policies. However, in terms of its fish counters, it's going further, in some cases - such as the new store in Marylebone High Street, central London - providing virtually all of the offer fresh, not frozen. How does it manage that?

Q We regularly implement new initiatives in store which involve staff training. How can I ensure a consistent customer experience - with no drop in service levels - is maintained during the training period?

nWell, we finally got round to it - the Store Manager. That hassled inhabitant of the back office and sometimes shop floor, an unsung hero of retail, pulled three ways by the demands of customers, staff and head office. The long-suffering Arkwrightus is perceived - and expected - to wield power and influence without actually having very much. The creativity and ambition of Managers is stymied by the twin horrors of central office diktat and health and safety regulations.

QI want to make the best use of the display space at the checkouts. I already have confectionery on a couple of them, but don't want to put it on every checkout - what other impulse items could I put there and what kind of sales uplift might I expect?

n As the nation continues to struggle to achieve a work-life balance, the Government's latest steps to assist this have been welcomed by parents. However, the Work and Families Act 2006, which came into force on 1 October last year, has also had a significant impact on employers.

Retailers are brought up on the principle that 'the customer is always right". Yet customers are abusing the system - making unreasonable demands outside company policy which we cannot afford to meet. How can my staff say 'no' to a customer yet still keep them?

n Of all the visitors to Supermarketland, the Tosserus is the most likely to get up everyone's nose. As he strolls nonchalantly down the aisle, gabbling into his slim, glossy black state-of-the-art mobile phone, it's not hard to see why.

Q'Time-of-day' merchandising, as described here last month, is all well and good, but some managers don't have the resources or space to change the store around regularly. However, they may be planning to target evening shoppers who need quick and easy ideas for evening meals with a 'meal solution' fixture. What's the best way of creating this?

A First, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the types of customer coming in. Information from central marketing will be especially valuable in defining those sectors of the market that your company is targeting.

Of all the visitors to Supermarketland, the Blimp is perhaps the noisiest, emitting a low rumble of spluttering and grumbling interrupted by loud and indignant "harrumph"s.

ATime-of-day merchandising is based on understanding the key sets of products that are purchased for specific occasions or shopper trips, at different times of the day. Some stores, such as the new Waitrose in Marylebone with its Time of Day counter, are seeing the benefits of changing the offer through the day.

A Taking the numbers first, you now have your list of suppliers to decide how to achieve your volume, revenue, investment and margin. You are bound to have your usual suspects: the supplier in growth with you; the supplier that has had its day; the supplier whose brands are tired; and the supplier with a new box of tricks and a great history of NPD.

Zedlista will stroll down the aisles, swinging her basket showily and gabbling ostentatiously into her mobile phone to make her presence known. She'll loudly drop references to former housemates, trashy London nightclubs, lower-league footballers and other micro-celebs. Her appearance also draws attention - gusset-exposing short skirt, heels, revealing top (boobs spilling out obligatory) and caked-on makeup. An outrageous hairstyle complete with cheap 'n' loud jewellery complete the look. Should any passing shopper register vague recognition, she'll fix them with a stare and flick back her hair. Most shoppers move on swiftly, none the wiser as to the identity of the tarty interloper.

AIn many retail outlets part-time staff account for more than two-thirds of total staff employed, so the issue of how to put in place suitable induction, training and coaching programmes is critical in ensuring a uniformly high level of customer service throughout the store.

For the past four years, Sainsbury's champagne buyer Melissa Draycott has worked in the Bury St Edmonds store during the run up to Christmas. Melissa (pictured above) started her career in this store, on the beer, wines and spirits aisle, so she knows it well and can relate to customers.

Life is good for the estate agent. As he strolls around the supermarket, choosing the best a modern retail mega-shed has to offer, he is justifiably pleased with himself. He's grown fat on commission in the past few years, and the ludicrously overheated housing market means that he will be living off the fat of the land for a good while yet.

QHow can I get my suppliers to recognise that my business strategy, fascias and customers are different to my competitors? When they come to sell their ideas and new products, why don't they see the points of difference between us supermarkets?

QI've two big promotions in my store next week and have just had shippers, signage, extra product and shelf-edge labelling delivered. Is it necessary to follow promotion instructions to the letter? I don't have the time or manpower to keep promotional shippers filled and the signage looks messy. It feels like I'll be going to a lot of trouble without seeing any more return than if I put the promotional packs onto the usual fixture.

While the retail environment can enhance selling, the ability of in-store materials to communicate effectively has grown difficult as the sheer number of these materials has increased. That's according to a recent report by shopping research company Shoppercentric.

Joan Houghton, 56, has been working at Sainsbury's, Redditch, Worcs, for 11 years.

The lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) organisation Stonewall has recently published its third workplace guide regarding prevention of bullying and harassment of LGB staff.

Not many supermarkets can boast that they've got a sixth generation greengrocer working in their fruit and veg department. But Waitrose in Worthing is one that can.

QHow do I select the best range to meet the needs of shoppers?

The policeman (or woman - let's be fair, ladies have their part to play in actual policing these days, rather than just making coffee and fetching bourbons) is one of the most diverse species to visit Supermarketland. And there are hundreds of sub-species all vying for dominance.

QMy half-year review suggested that I need to develop my leadership skills before I can get the next big promotion I am looking for. Any tips to get me started?

QThe devil is in the retail. Some time ago a store manager wrote an excellent article (that we featured on our website), talking about the real importance of shelf trays. In theory, they of course mean that shelf-stackers move so much less product, and can as a result do so much more. So why is it that whenever we have looked at how stores actually use these trays, we don't find 100% enthusiasm on the ground?