Like the end of the Generation Game (dinner service … fondue set … cuddly toy) the atmosphere is tense in Argos's Romford store as customers clasp their receipts, waiting for their household item to roll off the conveyor belt.
Under the watchful eye of managing director Sara Weller, a rotary washing line, a pair of wellies and a set of dumbbells roll off the conveyor belt. "People are always surprised by how heavy the weights are," she says, eyebrows raised.
But, like the nation's erstwhile favourite gameshow, Argos – with its betting shop-style counters, laminated catalogues and clunky calculators to punch in stock numbers – looks dated today. It has woken up to that fact and the Essex branch is one of 130 stores that will be revamped this year as part of a £70m investment to make the shop fit for the internet age.
Weller looks relaxed as she settles into the charcoal-coloured corner sofa (a snip at £399.99) that forms part of the window display and sips a cup of tea. It is a surprise the former Sainsbury deputy managing director doesn't need more caffeine. She rises at 5.45am to begin her commute from Basingstoke to Argos HQ in Milton Keynes, a necessary evil after deciding not to uproot her teenage children. She spends the one-and-a-half hour trip analysing sales data and answering emails from her chauffeur-driven company car, but in recent times the figures haven't made comfortable reading. Last year overall sales in the sectors Argos operates in - which includes TV, computers and toys - shrank 6% as consumers battened down the hatches. The picture looked worse when parent Home Retail Group (HRG), which also owns Homebase, updated the City at the start of the summer. Argos's like-for-like sales were down 8.1% in the first quarter with TV and video gaming – which account for 15% of its turnover – down by a fifth.
HRG chief executive Terry Duddy has blamed Argos's problems on the fact that working-class families are bearing the brunt of the recession: "The Argos customer is mass market. They are younger and less affluent and don't have more money to spend than a year ago." The implication being that the average John Lewis shopper has more to spend as a result of rock-bottom interest rates.
With its market leadership in categories from furniture to toys and homewares, Argos's role on the high street goes far beyond the knocking it gets for being "jeweller to the chav" (it is the market leader by sales volumes) – thanks to the infamous Elizabeth Duke range named after the wife of a former chairman. It also owns a handful of household brands having acquired Schreiber, Hygena, Alba and Bush and plucked the toy brand Chad Valley from the wreckage of Woolworths. The latest catalogue, published last month with 20,000 products, is expected to make its way on to 18m coffee tables.
Weller is ringing the changes at Argos, which last had a makeover at the millennium. "We have been out of Elizabeth Duke for over 18 months," she says as we survey the glistening new display cabinets, a sea of white that holds something for everyone, from a £70 gold sovereign ring to a JLS charm bracelet – which at £15 are going down a storm with fans – to a range by Coleen Rooney. The counter, meanwhile, has diamond rings costing the best part of a thousand pounds under lock and key.
Even if you are in the market for a ring, few would say that shopping at Argos is glamorous. However Weller bangs the drum on three counts: value, choice and convenience. On her watch it has expanded from 500 to 700 locations, with more planned this year, while it continues to innovate with add-ons such an iPhone app and courier delivery within 90-minute slots.
Over the next five years all 700 stores – at a cost of £100,000 each – will be revamped, putting extra pressure on Weller at a time when sales are going backwards. The new stores have touch screens rather than chunky calculators to check if they've got your item in stock and more products on display, including a wall of flat-screen TVs.
"It's saying we're still Argos, we're still friendly – but we are modernising," she says. The old layouts "made it feel like a betting shop ... with customers standing shoulder-to-shoulder to look through catalogues".
To pay their way, the refurbished stores need to deliver sales increases of at least 1% – no mean feat for staff as the latest round of cost-cutting hits. To offset declining sales, Argos aims to cut £20m from its budgets this year – a complex formula for even an Oxford chemistry graduate such as Weller. The cuts follow a similar exercise last year which resulted in redundancies at head office, the removal of middle managers in stores and staff having their hours cut.
Much is made of the ambitions of big supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda to eat Argos's breakfast, but Planet Retail analyst Bryan Roberts says it is not a sitting duck. "People talk about the supermarkets trampling over Argos but I think Weller has done a good job of defending market share in very dangerous times. Argos had the potential to become an obsolete business model but she has promoted new technology and built a large internet business." However, he says: "The investment in stores is long overdue; shopping there is a fairly joyless experience in many locations."
Given the growth of the internet, Weller knows that for many customers the only contact with a staff member is a snatched conversation as they heave their goods off the counter – and this at a time when John Lewis and Currys are majoring on customer service. But Weller says mystery shopping exercises and other feedback from customers have been positive. "I don't believe we have a problem with service," she says. "We have been working hard to make sure that colleagues understand what we are trying to do. They don't get much time … so they need to be engaged."
Weller, who turns 50 next year, is one of a handful of senior women retailers. At Sainsbury she was tipped for the top, only to be seen off by Justin King, who was in the same graduate intake as her at Mars in 1983. She spent 13 years at Mars before jumping ship to Abbey National, where she is credited with developing the well-received "Because Life's Complicated Enough" campaign featuring comedian Alan Davies.
In a sensible black suit, Weller is a sober figure but is noticeably warmer when the subject turns to domestic matters. She met her academic husband Mark, now a materials chemist based at Southampton University, at Oxford and, having hired Jamie Oliver at Sainsbury, lists baking as one of her hobbies.
She does take her work home with her though and claims to have kitted out her house almost entirely from Argos (with a little help from Homebase). Her daughter is a Saturday girl on one of the jewellery counters.
It is now Weller's sixth year in the job – a long time for anyone to stay in an Argos store – but she insists she has more to do. "I am still invigorated by it," she says of the role. "The Argos model is a unique way of doing business."