Waitrose is working to elevate the service provided by its deli counters, with a series of new “personalised” trials.
The supermarket began offering hot pies and pasties from the counters in two of its stores, in St Katharine Docks, London, and Farnham, earlier this month. It has also begun trialling a new food-to-order service at two more, on London’s King’s Road and in Andover. The service allows shoppers to request sandwiches, which staff then freshly prepare.
With other supermarkets stripping out their counters – including Morrisons, which this week confirmed plans to remove 100 fresh counters from stores – Waitrose sees the proposition as a key point of difference.
Counter-based offers remain a core benefit of its loyalty scheme. The supermarket has also been increasing the number of dry aged meat cabinets as part of an ongoing store investment programme.
It aims to provide more “personalised lunchtime missions” for shoppers, in work overseen by head of value-added food Rachel Dowsett.
“Our counters are well loved by customers, and we’re looking at ways we can evolve them to offer even greater choice, including more personalised options,” said a Waitrose spokesman.
“We’re running some small trials initially on our deli counters in four shops to help shape our long-term thinking.”
Waitrose recently said it had regained some of the ground lost to M&S, Sainsbury’s and Tesco through three separate investments in price cuts, improvements in availability and a restructure of partner hours in store.
However, analysts have said that restoring and maintaining its reputation for quality customer service, and superior store experience, remains its key competitive edge.
Earlier this month, The Grocer revealed that Waitrose was to fully roll out new “Passionate Partners” customer service training across its estate, having trailed the programme in 58 of its stores late last year.
It followed a restructure of its head office team in July, to create a dedicated store standards team to work across its estate.
No comments yet