Waitrose opens its new Shrewsbury store
Thursday 12th May 2011, 11:29AM BST.
Upmarket retailer Waitrose opened its doors in Shrewsbury this morning.
The former Burger King in Pride Hill and the old Post Office site in St Mary’s Street has been empty for several years.
The shop opened its doors at 7am and Barbara Parker, store manager, said there was a real buzz.
She said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have opened today.
“It’s very positive and in the recent weeks lots of people have been telling us how they couldn’t wait for the store to open.
“We’re all very excited here and the partners have been training for a couple of weeks, so they’re fresh and raring to go.
“We’re inviting everyone to come in and explore. This is a convenience store as opposed to a supermarket, but we think it will be a great success.”
Sandra Hannan, 46, of Mardol, the first customer through the doors, said: “I’ve been waiting for a store like this to open in the town centre for years. I’m very excited its here and I will be visiting every day.”
Fellow early riser Mandy Horvath, of Meole, said: “It’s very reasonably priced and I think there will be a real buzz in the store later today. I think it will be a great success.”
Brendan O’Sullivan, site construction manager, said: “It’s been an amazing transformation.
“When we started work it was a very old and run-down building and compared to how it used to look the change is remarkable.
“A lot of hard work has gone into the project and we hope the people of Shrewsbury enjoy it.”
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Can’t wait to blow a fortune in there!
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Ridiculously small store, I walked in, around and out in less than 1 minute.
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The clue is in the name! “Little Waitrose”
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I think the clue’s in the store’s name ;-)
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Good luck to them. I’d love to shop there but what a stupid choice of site. Shrewsbury needs a Waitrose, but why couldn’t they put it somewhere where we didn’t have to lug a pile of shopping about half a mile to a rip-off car park? How on earth do the their HGV’s bring goods in to such a congested site?
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They order stock online and Ocado deliver it from the Newport store in a Transit van :o)
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‘but why couldn’t they put it somewhere where we didn’t have to lug a pile of shopping about half a mile to a rip-off car park?’
Not all of us do; I live 5 minutes away in the town centre so it is perfect. Until now I have had to drive to a supermarket to buy anything decent. It’s not all about you :)
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Anyone so concerned with car parking charges should be shopping in Lidl, anyway.
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Waitrose store prices in my view are not bad at all . However parking at £3.50 is not value for money and to keep money you do not throw it away on such things.
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Well if the Shropshire Star calls it an upmarket retailer there really is not much hope. Just because it’s clean, tidy has friendly staff and sells a good range of quality Peovision doesn’t make it upmarket. I bet the waitrose PR folks are well pleased with your title.
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Brilliant store, very clean and welcoming.
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I would be, its new
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Let’s hope Waitrose attracts food shoppers into the town centre. Appleyards, Mad Jack’s, Christophers and the covered market all sell high quality products.
Kat, Wyle Co
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great news, much needed, and the building looks slightly better already
i hope they expand to other parts of shropshire too, ludlow would be good with the foody reputation
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I don’t think other supermarkets and the market hall need to worry. It is a Little Waitrose I know and it is little. The width of the isles between the shelving is so narrow anyone with a pushchair would find it hard going to squeeze past a customer browsing. In fact if two customers were browsing back to back no one could get past and would have to wait. The produce they sell is ok but I noticed that there is only a small amout of each item on the shelves – this is especially noticeable in the ‘vegetable’ section which is very cramped indeed. I’ll still go to the market hall when in town otherwise it’s Sainsbury’s. I wonder if any of the staff have seen the alledged ghost of a soldier in the basement.
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It was not put there for the young with children etc but the older members of the Town residents society .so I think you will find the isles are just big enough to accommodate a zimmer frame , I would suggest a few seats at the end of the isles also and adjust opening hours 10am-3-30pm will be sufficiant.
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Edward, tell us about the ghost of a soldier. You’ve made the hair on the back of my neck tingle! Did you know that Juliet Chilton’s shop, on Wyle Cop, has a malicious ghost called Bertha.This worries me slightly as our buildings are back to back! :)
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