Store: Waitrose Newport, Shrops
Duty manager: Jo Morehead
Opened: August 2004
Size: 22,026 sq ft
Market share: 25.9%
Population: 38,860
Grocery spend: £1,007,539.12
Spend by household: £65.80
Competitors: 7
Nearest rivals: Aldi 0.8 miles, Asda 4.9 miles, Co-op 4.5 miles, Iceland 7.3 miles, Lidl 0.6 miles, M&S 0.6 miles, Morrisons 5.8 miles, Sainsbury’s 6.8 miles, Tesco 6.4 miles, Waitrose 6.4 miles
Source: CACI. For more info visit www.caci.co.uk/contact. Notes: Shopper profiling is measured using Grocery Acorn shopper segmentation. Store catchment data (market share, population, expenditure, spend by household, competition) is within a five-mile radius.
For CACI’s shopper segmentation of the other stores we visited this week see the online report at www.thegrocer.co.uk/stores/the-grocer-33
Tell us about the store: We’re right in the heart of the market town. We’ve got an amazing group of 160 partners here, who really go the extra mile to create a family feel. We have a really loyal customer base. Our customers are food lovers, they often have a passion for food. They’re interested in provenance and are generally environmentally aware.
Being in the centre of a market town means there’s lots of competition. How do you stand out? We are really driven on getting things right for our customers. The team really focus on driving the overall experience through showcasing our great products. Then just going the extra mile to ensure they have the best shopping experience. The team here are really on board with delighting our customers and are empowered to use their judgement in how they go about that.
Have there been any significant changes in store since you last spoke to The Grocer a year ago? Our new lower price investment we announced last week with the 200 prices on every day and on favourite products, whether that’s tomato ketchup or British butter. That’s quite different from a year ago. Customers have really welcomed it here. Our customers love our food and the Essential Waitrose range gives that high quality, high welfare and strong sustainability credentials that are really important to our customers.
Have you seen a change in what customers are buying over the past year? There is more appetite to shop for offers and we do have more as a result of the lower price investment. When we do meal deals, they always go really well. They allow our customers to shop those higher end lines, particularly the No 1 range, which is that restaurant quality but also serves the dine in market as well.
Can you tell us about some of those offers? Recently we’ve had our offer which is the Very Best Dine In for Two, which is three courses from our No 1 range. However, this week we’re launching a new Pizza Night Dine In meal deal, which will have two Waitrose pizzas and two extras. That’s together with a 25% off Rosé and Roses, which will be at the front of the store. It’s Waitrose-wide as we head into the summer.
Our shopper commended the store’s availability. Have you experienced any of the shortages seen at some Waitrose stores of late? I can only speak on behalf of my branch, but we’ve been running to our standard delivery schedule with good availability for our customers. Our team really do work around the clock to drive that.
What has been the biggest challenge facing the store over the past year? We’ve really been working on driving that overall experience in our shop and showcasing the great products we have. Just ensuring we’ve got the best customer experience we can really.
What makes this store so successful? I joined Waitrose 14 years ago and I’ve been fortunate to work in lots of different parts of the country and in lots of different stores. I joined this store in January 2022 and the team are just brilliant. They really want to deliver for our customers. I think we have that family feel and that supports us to be part of the community. Honestly, I couldn’t be prouder of all the hard work the team did here and that they’ve been recognised for it.
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