When floods devastated Safeway's store at Lewes, East Sussex, in October, the retailer turned it to its advantage by trialling its new supermarket concept in the refurbishment. Now the store has become the model for 50 other supermarkets in the south east which will be refitted over the next eight weeks. A new concept superstore at Woking and a hypermarket format at an undisclosed location will follow in the spring. The Lewes store incorporates some of the features unveiled at the hybrid c-store/supermarket at St Katherine Docks in London (The Grocer, December 16) such as the new signage, pizza counter, a patisserie and low level units for ready meals and chilled. But the 17,000 sq ft store in Lewes also features meat, deli and fish counters and strongly promoted offers. A spokeswoman said the offers were more prominent in the supermarket format because they were more relevant to its customers than at St Katherine Docks, where convenience was the priority for shoppers. {{NEWS }}

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