Waitrose is rethinking its open kitchen concept after quietly shelving the trial across three of its four test stores.
The supermarket said it was “continuing to explore how we might evolve the concept” in its Haywards Heath store, which is the only branch that continues to have a Kitchen.
The Kitchens at its Twyford, Chandler’s Ford and Barbican stores were quietly removed last year, despite Waitrose MD Rob Collins previously championing the concept.
Collins branded the Barbican open kitchen, which served freshly made hot and cold food to go, a “success” in 2017. “We’re still developing that offer and if you compare the Twyford branch with Barbican, the concept has moved on and I suspect in our Chandler’s Ford branch it will move on again,” Collins said at the time.
Waitrose declined to comment on why the Kitchens had been scrapped, and simply emphasised that it was a trial.
Conversely, M&S is rolling out hot food-to-go counters across 100 of its stores. The Hot Hold counters will offer dishes including a chicken tikka masala, Supergreen protein box and a jumbo sausage roll.
A survey by IGD at the beginning of the year revealed 41% of food-to-go shoppers would like a larger selection of hot products, beating demand for cold food (32%) and vegan (25%) offerings.
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