Store: Waitrose Newport, Shropshire
Duty manager: Jo Morehead
Opened: August 2004
Size: 22,026 sq ft
Market share: 26%
Population: 38,546
Grocery spend: £999,047
Spend by household: £66
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 our service & availability report.
Tell us about your career with Waitrose. I’ve been with Waitrose for 12 years. I’ve worked in lots of different stores, but I joined the team here in January and they are such a cracking team. They work really, really hard to ensure that they give the best customer experience they can.
How are you finding the transition? I love it. The partners are just fantastic here and are really driven and passionate about what they do. It’s brilliant to be such a part of the community here as well – I worked here five years ago, so it’s getting back to familiar faces. I’m learning lots of things at the moment, but it’s lovely. I found my feet pretty quickly, and having worked in the partnership for several years is a real plus.
What have been the biggest changes for you management-wise? The store is much larger, and we have a large e-commerce operation. It’s great to be part of that and see the team drive that. Aside from the online home deliveries and click & collect service that we offer, customers can also ask someone to pick their shopping up on their behalf as well, so it’s another low-contact option for customers.
Newport is a small town. Tell us about your local shoppers. Our local community has that kind of family feel. We build good relationships in the community and with our customers. They like to talk to our partners about food and share experiences. They have a real passion for the quality of our food and certain ranges – the Waitrose No.1 range being very popular – and they’re also interested in the provenance and the environmental side of things.
We stock lots of different lines that appeal to a wide variety of customers – the essential range that has the value for money, and we do different price levels such as the Waitrose No.1 range at the other end, so that attracts shoppers from different customer bases.
How were Veganuary-related sales? We’ve seen an increase in demand for meat-free alternatives. Our customers are very interested in our Plantlife range. Sales have gone really well – there has definitely been an increase in demand for it.
What other displays do you have in store currently? We have a Valentine’s Day seasonal display at the front, which has got lots of gifting and different card ideas. People have also been buying lots of chocolates, rosé and fizz lines such as champagne and things like that. We also have some offers across the food counters – there’s an offer on the deli and cheese counter where you can get a bottle of wine, some cheese and an artisanal-style platter. Then we will have a meal deal as we get closer to Valentine’s Day. We’re also celebrating the Chinese New Year, so we’re seeing an uplift in the demand for our Chinese range of food as well as brands. I recommend our chicken and cashew ready meal.
Are you looking to implement any major changes in the year ahead? It’s still the start of a year and it’s a kind of exciting time in the calendar – it allows us to focus our minds after a busy peak. In my view, our priority is continuing to drive the overall experience for our customers through great products, great availability and great customer experience – that’s what the year ahead looks like.
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