Following Monday’s news that John Lewis has launched a new store concept featuring ‘experience playgrounds’ that host some food & drinks products from its sister chain, it has been revealed that Waitrose has launched a similar trial at its outlet in Lincoln.
After the John Lewis Partnership announced in October that it plans to closer integrate its two retail businesses so it can reduce costs and improve its offer, the new Waitrose concept gives shoppers more access to products and services from John Lewis.
The chain also hopes to tempt shoppers to visit the store by offering free and paid-for courses on skills such as wine tasting, photography, calligraphy and floristry. A new community room has been installed at the store to host such events.
The revamped supermarket also offers a range of more than 1,600 John Lewis products including, gifting, home making, kitchen gadgets, cookware, dining and seasonal lines. These are available through integrated displays around the store alongside relevant Waitrose lines, as well as in a dedicated John Lewis area.
As part of the store’s makeover, Waitrose has introduced a new look cafe, refreshed service counters, including meat, fish, cheese and deli, as well as a new bakery.
A second trial of the format will launch at Waitrose in Lymington on 29 November to see how it might be adapted for smaller shops within the retailer’s estate. This shop will stock about 750 John Lewis lines.
If the trials prove successful, Waitrose stated that it has identified up to 50 of its stores which have the space required to potentially introduce varying scales of the concept.
Simon Burdess, director of customer experience for Waitrose & Partners, said: “Our ambition is to bring both the John Lewis and Waitrose brands together to drive a stronger combined proposition for our customers and give shoppers even more reasons to visit our shops.
“The trial has huge potential to elevate the Partnership offer and our Partner expertise to change how both Waitrose and our customers see visits to the supermarket in the future.”
NAM Implications:
- Given that many large space retailers have up to 20% space redundancy…
- …retailers will welcome innovative space-usage in store.
- JLP are making creative use of store-offering overlap…
- …but they and other retailers may be more responsive to novel proposals from NAMs…
