Lidl > Waitrose -All your Shopper are belong to us

[Lucio]

It's hardly a surprising result, there's a lot more people who are struggling to make ends meet, than there are who can afford what is percieved as a luxury brand.

Tell ya something though, Tesco are going to be losing my loyalty, they've implemented a contactless loyalty card scheme (no thank you!) and their new self checkouts appear to be busy photographing your crotch every time you use them, so I'm back to the old fashioned way of checking out.

[spacein_vader]

Waitrose are primarily a London and SE store, in that historically, that's where the bulk of the stores are. The last 10-15 years have seen a fairly aggressive expansion program, heading northwards. They're still primarily London, South, South East and East Anglia and the further north you go, the lower the store density gets.

There is a problem, however. If you are going to open stores in a new area, you need to have the support and distribution infrastructute in place, i.e. warehousing, trwnsport fleets, etc. That takes time and is extremely expensive, and is hard to justify without the necessary number of stores to support it.

The expansion north therefore is something of a chicken and egg problem.

I was a middle manager at Waitrose when the expansion north really began (2005ish?) with the purchase of 40-50 former Safeway stores that Morrisons were obliged by the monopolies commission they had to sell when they took over. Before that the most northerly Waitrose was at Newark.

At that point the company had two depots, Bracknell in Barkshire & Brinklow outside MK. They opened a 'Northern' depot during that expansion which was only at Bardon in Leicestershire. I do recall that the first two Scottish branches had to be served by sending the delivery trucks north from Bardon to somewhere near Newcastle where their drivers would run out of hours. At that point drivers would have come south from the John Lewis depot near Glasgow & use their JL trucks to pull the trailers the rest of the way. I'm assuming by now they've got a more robust solution but it's more likely a fridge in a John Lewis depot than a whole new RDC.

[outwar6010]

All the waitrose near me are awesome and have quite a few people in them....

[peterb]

I'm less than ten minutes drive from a Sainsburys/M&S superstore combination, so the convenience and proximity more than outweighs any cost saving.

I have shopped at Aldi and Lidl, and they do have some very good products but there seems to be poor continuity of supply and a limited range - which I suppose is one way they keep costs down. I don't particularly like Tesco - I have a Tesco express not far away which I'll use if I'm desperate, but Sainsburys fulfills most of my needs.

That said, I tried Amazon pantry the other day, there were some good prices there, and interestingly, some of the goods on offer were Morrisons branded. Amazon Pantry sell mainly long life 'store cupboard' items rather than fresh goods.

[Ttaskmaster]

Based on a number of years in and out of most supermarkets .... well, put it this way, what fresh produce I buy that isn't from a farm shop or a very small local grocer IS from Waitrose.

^ Likewise.
We started going to Waitrose because the quality at all the others was stomach-wrenching. Tesco stuff could go out of date in the time it took to go from the till to the car... and that's just the tinned stuff!

Seriously, we were throwing so much food out. Now, I get miffed if we have to chuck so much as half a lettuce!
Morrisons is OK for a few days, but still risky. Sainsburys is about the same. ASDA... well, I'm banned from there anyway. Aldi is better than Lidl. The Mrs likes M&S, but they won't even let the likes of me in there unless I wave a copy of the Daily Fail at them... which I don't read, so....
Waitrose - Well, you go to throw the stuff as it's been a week past the date, only to find it's still as lush as the day you plucked it from the shelf. It costs a little more, but the quality is far better and they do more free range and organic stuff than the others.
Aside from the ultra srubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishy fancy own brand stuff, everything else on their shelves is priced the same as any other shop.

At that point the company had two depots, Bracknell in Barkshire

Berkshire, if you please... or Royal Berskhire, if you're feeling especially proper.
But that'd explain why our locals have the good stuff.

[Zak33]

We went to waitrose on Sunday, what a load of nearly rotten crap they had in the fresh section, overpriced if you ask me as the quality is shocking. On top of that the old biddies buying something for 50p to get a cheap coffee and even worst are the people with heads rammed firmly up their arse making staff jump through hoops.
Never again.

which store bud?

The area effects it heavily and how well established it is.

[spacein_vader]

^ Likewise.
We started going to Waitrose because the quality at all the others was stomach-wrenching. Tesco stuff could go out of date in the time it took to go from the till to the car... and that's just the tinned stuff!

Seriously, we were throwing so much food out. Now, I get miffed if we have to chuck so much as half a lettuce!
Morrisons is OK for a few days, but still risky. Sainsburys is about the same. ASDA... well, I'm banned from there anyway. Aldi is better than Lidl. The Mrs likes M&S, but they won't even let the likes of me in there unless I wave a copy of the Daily Fail at them... which I don't read, so....
Waitrose - Well, you go to throw the stuff as it's been a week past the date, only to find it's still as lush as the day you plucked it from the shelf. It costs a little more, but the quality is far better and they do more free range and organic stuff than the others.
Aside from the ultra srubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishy fancy own brand stuff, everything else on their shelves is priced the same as any other shop.


Berkshire, if you please... or Royal Berskhire, if you're feeling especially proper.
But that'd explain why our locals have the good stuff.

Apologies I forgot they were berks.

[GoNz0]

which store bud?

The area effects it heavily and how well established it is.

Nottingham NG8, stuck between basically a slum and £300k+ houses so a mixed bag of clients.
Only time we use it is click and collect stuff but Sunday I needed fuel, we passed it, spent 30 minutes attempting to find food for the night, after rifling through the salad to get something that didn't go out of date that day the stuff we got was binned after dinner as it wouldn't last the night. I did get a banging pizza that was on offer but the normal price took the pee, I could get a fresh 12" delivered for that price from my local not a chain pizza takeaway.

[Ttaskmaster]

Apologies I forgot they were berks.

Only in the council...

[Jowsey]

We do the majority of our shopping at a Lidl which is an extra 45 seconds drive from a very large Asda, which in turn is only a 4 or 5 minute drive at most.

I can't tell the difference for a lot of stuff and I feel that as the Lidl is smaller and regularly has 'seasonal' offers that the stock turnover is quite high, lowering the chance of a sitting lettuce.

There'll always be the odd pack of strawberries that has been picked up and put down by everyone and is looking the worse for it but that's life!

Apart from that we'll do bulk stuff at the before mentioned Asda, for loo roll and personal bits and bobs, etc. and then small on demand stuff is serviced by Sainsbury's just around a 3 or 4 minute walk around the corner.

[Zak33]

Nottingham NG8, stuck between basically a slum and £300k+ houses so a mixed bag of clients.
Only time we use it is click and collect stuff but Sunday I needed fuel, we passed it, spent 30 minutes attempting to find food for the night, after rifling through the salad to get something that didn't go out of date that day the stuff we got was binned after dinner as it wouldn't last the night. I did get a banging pizza that was on offer but the normal price took the pee, I could get a fresh 12" delivered for that price from my local not a chain pizza takeaway.

the best Waitrose I've even been to is just outside Cambridge.

the worst is is Aylesbury, where nearly everything is within 3 days of shelf life.

[Ttaskmaster]

the worst is is Aylesbury, where nearly everything is within 3 days of shelf life.

Including the people doing the shopping!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Lidl becomes the seventh largest supermarket, pushing Waitrose down one

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41011259

Tesco (27.8%)
Sainsbury's (15.8%)
Asda (15.3%)
Morrisons (10.4%)
Aldi (7%)
Co-op (6.3%)
Lidl (5.2%)
Waitrose (5.1%)
Iceland (2.1%)
Ocado (1.4%)

Watch out Waitrose... that german beach towel on your deck chair was a real thing!!!

So a bargain basement retailer has taken this long to just pip probably the most expensive large chain out there??

If anything that shows how strong Waitrose must be as a brand. I mean it has over 2.5X the share of Iceland!! Even M and S is nowhere to be seen.

I mean look at the Co-op too. They are not cheap and yet between Waitrose and them they have MORE share than Morrisons??

[Smudger]

Don't Ocado only deliver Waitrose goods as well?

I know they were going to team up with Morrisons, but didn't think that had come to pass yet...

As a former checkout chick at Waitrose 166 St Albans (1991-1993), I prefer a Waitrose, but there are others closer, which my wife prefers to go to.

[adidan]

We shop at whichever is cheapest for what we need and/or wherever we have vouchers.

The odd shop in Waitrose is in there, well, you do get a free coffee

[Saracen]

I was a middle manager at Waitrose when the expansion north really began (2005ish?) with the purchase of 40-50 former Safeway stores that Morrisons were obliged by the monopolies commission they had to sell when they took over. Before that the most northerly Waitrose was at Newark.

At that point the company had two depots, Bracknell in Barkshire & Brinklow outside MK. They opened a 'Northern' depot during that expansion which was only at Bardon in Leicestershire. I do recall that the first two Scottish branches had to be served by sending the delivery trucks north from Bardon to somewhere near Newcastle where their drivers would run out of hours. At that point drivers would have come south from the John Lewis depot near Glasgow & use their JL trucks to pull the trailers the rest of the way. I'm assuming by now they've got a more robust solution but it's more likely a fridge in a John Lewis depot than a whole new RDC.

Even the JL warehouse link is (was) only a temp fix thouh, as the warehousing systems (software) and processes are different, designed for different problems.

Depending on what store you were at, it's possible were even crossed paths, as I was involved with the IT upgrade that was going on at about the same time, when the old checkouts (the ons with the spirit level in the scale unit) and physical keyboards were replaced with new Magellan scales and touch-sensitive screens.I spent a LOT of hours in varioys WR branches, probably 150 or more of 'em.