waitrose looking for location

[sawasawa]

Hello,

i saw this on estate gazette interative today. so if anyone thinks they can pursuade waitrose to come to sydenham, here is your chance.....

waitrose looking to open 300 convenience stores in the next 10 years:

Requirements
Units ranging from 3,000 – 7,000 sqft ground floor sales area (4,000 – 10,000 sqft gross)
Storage / back of house can be at first floor / basement level if connected by goods lift
Minimum internal width of 25ft preferred
Leasehold or Freehold
All properties considered:
Existing or converted buildings
New developments including former pubs and PFS sites
Existing businesses
Mixed use developments
All locations considered:
City or town centres in high footfall locations, preferably in or near transport hubs in busy shopping and working environments;
Small towns and local / suburban high streets with quality residential / shopping catchment (some dedicated parking preferred)
Fees
We will offer a competitive fee to non-retained agents introducing a previously unknown off-market opportunity

email rob.fraser@struttandparker.com (for south london)

[Eagle]

I am not sure Sydenham Road matches Waitrose demographics.
To many chicken shops , pound shops and of course street alcoholics.

I hope I am wrong but more likely to attract Aldi.

[Likelife]

This would be good - but then again Sydenham has enough supermarkets: Tesco express, Sainsbury's (one of the biggest in the UK), Lidle and Co-op. Maybe a good fishmonger or a small Argos or something else would be better, but I would support a Waitrose.

[leenewham]

I believe we have the demographics to support a Waitrose. Lots of people use Ocado in this area. A smaller format Waitrose or an M&S would do well here I'm sure. I will be publishing some demographics on the what if blog (I have to make visual sense of them first). It's just what Sydenham needs to bring different people onto the high street.

We don't need an Aldi, we already have a Lidl. Tesco Express is quite expensive compared to normal supermarket prices.

We are getting a Fishmonger and Butcher in the next couple of weeks.

Things are looking up.

[Chazza]

This would be good - but then again Sydenham has enough supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl and Co-op.

None of those are natural competitors of Waitrose, so I think the high street could support the potential newcomer.

[Bovine Juice]

If Waitrose was to come to the area they'd look at Palace first.

[stone-penge]

yes Waitrose! that would be the salvation of Sydenham; an overpriced mini Waitrose at that!I went to Waitrose in Beckenham the other day,and, to paraphrase Martin Luther king:

"I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not be able to afford to shop there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

[Chazza]

Here we go. Just because you think it's overpriced, nobody should have the choice to shop there.

Get over the hair-shirt attitudes. It's holding Sydenham back and, to be honest, makes me want to leave for somewhere up north. Highbury perhaps.

Honestly, I'm beginning to wonder about Sydenham. The local economy seems to positively abhor money being spent in it.

[Savvy]

I'd love a Waitrose. they are not massively overpriced. Its very good quality food honestly priced (as the advert says). We pay too little for our food anyway, if animals were bred in decent conditions we would have to pay a lot more for meat, milk and eggs. Farms are in crisis and selling up at an alarming rate because of the measly sum they are given for their produce. Food should cost MORE not less. If you can't afford to pay £6 for a chicken every Sunday then perhaps you shouldn't be eating chicken once a week. Its not neccessary for good health.

[Likelife]

I agree the quality of food is good but how do you know the 'overpricing' goes to the farmers? Some shops are just expensive for the sake of profit not farmers benefits. I agree that Sydenham needs more high end stores but they should be what the area needs, really how many people will leave a very large Sainsbury's with cheper food and huge amount of parking for a most likely small Waitrose? I'm not against it but some people will be able to afford high prices.

If you can't afford to pay £6 for a chicken every Sunday then perhaps you shouldn't be eating chicken once a week

You say that, but it all adds up. Its not just a £6 chicken but then high priced sides to go with it along with all the shopping for the week and suddenly the person doesn't have enough money, this is increasingly happening as people are making cut backs.

[bigbadwolf]

Firstly. before I address the Waitrose question, I want to make one point very clear. And that is that a great many people who live in Sydenham couldn't give two shiny shites about the prosperity of the highstreet. It's a stark fact that many of us on this message board choose to ignore because alot of the discussion on here is focused on the highstreet and we lean towards the positive so as not cause any bad feeling amongst the people on here who have a vested interest or who campaign on behalf of it.

My position?

It's like a lot of highstreets all over London. It's got a few odd ones, some gems but all in all it's got too much of the same thing. And that is, hairdressers, fastfood outlets, cheap convenience markets, a few banks and not alot in between. The other similarity it shares with other London highstreets is that it's got a group of disruptive drunks that make themselves known and don't care that other people are affected by their behaviour.

That said,

I think that Waitrose would make money if they came to Sydenham. But alot of it wouldn't be from people who live in Sydenham. No, I predict - though I may be wrong - that most locals (myself included) will stay loyal to Sainsbury's, through choice or otherwise. With perhaps a few things from Waitrose on payday or for when they have guests over. But most of the business Waitrose would attract will be from the likes of Dulwich village, east Dulwich, Crystal Palace, some people in Sydenham and further afield.

[Eagle]

I very my food shopping from Marks and Spencer , Lidl , Waitrose and Sainsbury.

Lidl are great for dark chocolate and mackerel etc. Niche products
Waitrose best overall. Always have many special offers, as long as happy to try new things then can be cheap.
I guess most who complain about Waitrose have not been in often enough to study prices. Also far more acceptable environment , few chavs and felixstowe words.

[Savvy]

I suppose it comes down to each person's priorities and budget (but I will say again, Waitrose are NOT excessively expensive and they do good offers just like any supermarket). When I was a youngster it was fags over food any day of the week. Nowadays I don't smoke and would prefer to buy a 'happy' chicken once a fortnight than frozen thighs three times a week.

[bigbadwolf]

Waitrose are NOT excessively expensive and they do good offers just like any supermarket

O.K, perhaps I wrote the latter of my previous post in haste. Or simply didn't think it through enough.

Granted, Waitrose isn't charging through the nose, but it is undeniably a bit more expensive than other big chains. Nothing wrong with that. But in todays climate, and to a great extent the one before that, people will often base their decision on where to shop on value for money. And the saving doesn't have to be that great in order to influence decision. Alot of the time £10-15 can be the deciding amount. It would be for me.

Which coincides with my next point. Waitrose enjoys a reputation - that allows it to charge more - for catering to the upper classes, or those who fall into a higher wage bracket. Which wont help it attract a broader customer base because the average Sainsbury's or Tescos customer will - without investigating because the reputation feeds assumption - think 'that's where the toffs shop, no point in me visiting'.

And it's also worth pointing out that Waitrose doesn't have a reward point scheme that local shoppers take for granted at Sainsbury's and Tesco. And the absence of such scheme could discourage them from shopping there.

[Rachael]

I do most of my shopping in Sainsburys, but there are a few key items that I go to Waitrose for because the quality is better or I just can't get the item elsewhere. I tend to nip into the Waitrose in Beckenham when I'm driving past (which is several times a week) and I can't see that changing.

Whether or not I would use a Waitrose on the high street would be dependent on what else changes on the high street. There is very little else I go to the high street for, so shopping there is a planned trip. There isn't a critical mass of shops I want to use on the high street that would make shopping there time-effective for me. However, with the butcher and fishmonger opening and the Other Half's love of surf and turf, that might change.

Anyway, going back to the OP, this is all pie-in-the-sky speculation anyway.

[bigbadwolf]

Anyway, going back to the OP, this is all pie-in-the-sky speculation anyway.

Really? I thought the OP was a bit too detailed in their opening post for it to be regarded as mere speculation. If it were just speculation, the OP would've just drawn enthusiastic attention to the possibility that Waitrose were interested in opening a branch in Sydenham.

Not list required floor space, legal requirements and a personal email address for an agent of a national, commercial property consultant. Even if it was supposedly lifted from an industry ezine.

No, I might be wrong, but I suspect that Waitrose may actually be interested to hear what Sydenham thinks with regard to opening a branch here. But - quite sensibly - went through a third party to investigate local interest and market potential.

[Big Ben]

Waitrose would be a tremendous addition to the high street and the fact that it's a different chain to all the others within a mile or so (the Coop, Sainsburys, Tesco) means that there would not be any competition issues. The station is now incredibly busy as a result of the Overground and those leaving the station in the evening would, I'm sure, welcome a new small format supermarket. Issues to do with the sourcing of Waitrose's food and their support for small farmers (together with the John Lewis 'mutual' model) have been written about extensively in the press and can be easily researched. I look forward to Lee's figures on the demographics of the area.

[SMOKEIT]

i think it would be very handy having a mini waitrose or m&s near sydenham station...the new retail space behind the greyhound would be a good suggestion if its going to be big enough.
I used to use the m&s at london bridge on the way home for food and bottle of vino but now that i use the east london line i dont have a quality supermarket on my way home anymore....it would be expecially useful for those on the upper side of sydenham station...the co-op is too much of a schlep down the hill for me

[leenewham]

Surely it's good to have more variety of shops catering for all tastes?

If you want to know how supermarkets compare look here:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/Content/ ... ecker.aspx

Ocado is (obviously) Waitrose, Tesco is for the big Tesco stores, it's smaller metro stores charge a premium.

It's worth looking at if you are a small independent shop too to see how you compare on price wit the big guys. Often smaller independents are no more expensive than the big multiples.

I've worked with most of the large supermarkets. Waitrose have their own farms and generally have better standards for foods. They do things differently partially because they know who they are and they don't have to cater for shareholders as they are essentially a mutual company. Most food for all supermarkets are made by the same companies to different recipes and cost of ingredients. Waitrose generally spend more money on ingredients than the other stores, their own brand is the same (and often better than) Tesco Finest (I've been to some blind tasting sessions. They support a lot of smaller British farms and don't squeeze suppliers like other supermarkets.

Personally, I'd like more of a choice. I'd probably get some meat or fish from Billings, some hardware stuff from Musti's, some Tomatoes from Istanbul down near Kent House Road, veggies form Fresh and Fruity and other bits and bobs from Waitrose (they do good bread) and the Co-operative. It would encourage me to shop in the high street more, although PLEASE let there be a proper art shop/business supply shop here soon!

[Rachael]

As someone who works from home, I'd second that business supply / stationery shop.