Starting August 30, Waitrose will be offering a £5 main course, side dish and drink. Photo: Jamie Lorriman
Which dish would you choose? What do people say about you?
While this may seem like a silly question, you'd be surprised how seriously many people take it. The internet is full of people reviewing and rating various dining options: the Meal Deal Talk UK/EU Facebook group currently has over 40,000 members, and YouTube reviewers can rack up thousands of views.
Waitrose now wants to host participation in the case. The high-end supermarket, which has long avoided offering sandwiches at lunchtime, has relented and plans to launch its first catering deal on August 30.
A middle-class grocer will offer main, main, and second courses. a £5 drink is in line with Tesco's Pret or 'posh' food offering.
The launch seems like a watershed moment not only for diners but also for Waitrose. Long an ambitious brand that customers came to for fun, it now competes with everyone from Boots to Tesco.
Why?
Waitrose says more people are returning to work in offices, which means they are more likely to grab lunch on the go.
«More people are back in the office and more are traveling in search of a fantastic meal option,» takeaway food shopper Jennifer Mocardini said this week.
Sandwich sales are up 40% since 2020. The deal nutrition can boost these numbers even further.
>However, the poor performance of the supermarket cannot be ignored.
Total sales fell 3% last year to £7.3bn, while the supermarket also lost market share with profits down £126m. The downturn resulted in a loss of £234m for John Lewis Partnership, which owns the supermarket.
1502 Waitrose — Discounters
Waitrose is struggling in a highly competitive market as the cost-of-living crisis encourages more and more people to shop. around for groceries. German discounters Aldi and Lidl have benefited by diverting hundreds of thousands of British shoppers away from more traditional supermarkets.
«They were criticized for their low value, so I think it was inevitable,» says industry expert Karen Green.
Waitrose hopes the meal deal will help her regain her magic by getting shoppers back through the door where the supermarket hopes they'll be tempted to buy more than just lunch.
Greene says, “[Meal offerings] increase attendance. When people are forced to return to the office, they ask, «Where can I get lunch?» I'll treat myself to Whiterose. It's not super fun. But I know it's going to be an A and I can get something really good.”
This deal was originally proposed by Boots as a way to move into more mass-produced sandwiches. a corner of the market into a British dining staple.
All four of the country's largest supermarkets offer some sort of offer, and according to Greencore, more than half of all sandwiches sold in UK supermarkets fall under this offer. the world's largest sandwich maker.
However, for Waitrose, which usually avoids the mass market, launching its own deal is far from safe.
Offers and discounts are not part of the supermarket DNA, but a food deal — an egalitarian affair — could tarnish her prestigious image.
Green, however, believes that this will prove to be a successful strategy overall. «I don't think the food is really going to make the offer cheaper,» she says. “One of Waitrose's problems is that it has slightly older customers, so this could lead to more younger attendance.”
Supermarket profits are falling despite rising prices. Total Industry Operating Profit
She notes that the £5 price puts Waitrose at the top of the food market.
“They are competing with premium food offerings – they haven’t dropped to £3.50 or anything that I think would be too painful for them.”
Waitrose has already entered into price war, engulfing the supermarket sector as a sign it is ready to offer a good deal or two.
In January, the company announced a first round of price cuts on a wide range of 'everyday use' products worth around £100 million, for followed by further price cuts for items such as bread, ground beef, chicken and other staples in January. June.
And Richard Hyman, retail consultant at Thought Provoking Consulting, doesn't think the store should worry too much about chasing the bottom end of the market.
«If Waitrose believes its product is superior, it needs to reflect that in prices. It needs to mark its premium prices — shoppers don't expect to have a great shopping experience with great food and pay low prices for it.»
Like the discounters, Waitrose has faced a growing challenge from the recently resurrected Marks & Spencer.
Signs & Spencer, who has spent the past four years shedding underperforming stores and investing in new upscale food halls, is steadily encroaching on Waitrose territory. If a competitor owned by John Lewis goes too far into the market, wealthy buyers may turn elsewhere.
Unsurprisingly, the food offerings at Waitrose are more expensive than the basic food offerings offered by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. , whose main offerings are £4 or less, although competitors also offer a few more “premium” offerings priced close to Waitrose.
The stakes are clearly high – as Sainsbury's found out in 2016 , when she dropped her more expensive Taste the Difference sandwiches from the offer, then £3.
The removal sparked outrage among shoppers, who accused the supermarket of ruining their lunch break.
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“There was a huge stir. backlash because all of a sudden you walked into Sainsbury's and all you could get was a sandwich that was 'sliced and spread', like egg mayonnaise or tuna mayonnaise,» says Green.
“Sounds sad, but it's the highlight. your day if you have a very boring job. If your lunch has failed you, it means it's ruined.»
A lesson for Waitrose: at your own peril, make the mistake of ordering food.
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