Dobbies Garden Centres, the UK’s leading garden centre retailer, has marked its partnership with Waitrose by opening its first foodhall in Edinburgh.
Featuring the supermarket’s wide range of high-quality food, grocery products, and everyday essentials, the Waitrose foodhall is one of more than 50 that are to be launched at Dobbies’ stores across the UK and which will bring Waitrose to 20 new towns and cities.
Shoppers at Dobbies’ Edinburgh can choose from an extensive selection of products including the essential Waitrose range, which is the biggest value tier of any supermarket, plus its premium range – Waitrose No. 1 – and Waitrose Duchy Organic. Ready meals, free-from and vegan ranges, prepared fruit and vegetables, snacks and cupboard staples will also be available.
Graeme Jenkins, CEO of Dobbies, said:“Through a shared commitment to great value, quality and sustainability, Waitrose was the natural grocery partner for us as we continue to build on the success of our foodhalls in recent years. I am sure our first Waitrose foodhall at our flagship store in Edinburgh will prove popular with our customers.
“Our foodhalls are integral to our garden centre ranges and the experience of our customers, and we look forward to introducing Waitrose’s offering across our network of UK stores.”
To find out more about the partnership, visit www.dobbies.com.
Marks & Spencer yesterday opened its largest M&S Food store in Scotland, in Straiton. The store’s 100-strong team welcomed customers, helping them get everything they need whilst enjoying the new M&S offer.
Located in Straiton Retail Park, the new 15,000 square foot store is home to a large greengrocer-style fresh market, offering an outstanding range of M&S Select Farms produce, lots of which is locally grown in Scotland, including Inverness-grown Rainbow and Baby Carrots, and Arbroath-grown sweet Strawberries. The store also offers a pick your own eggs station where customers can self-select any number of eggs, tailoring their box to their preference according to egg size, type and yolk colour.
The store will be led by Store Manager, Thomas Tierney, alongside his team of 100 colleagues. Now open, the M&S team will be working hard to offer the community the very best service, drawing on M&S’s 135 years of serving the British public.
To help celebrate the opening and relaunch of Sparks, M&S’s customer loyalty scheme, the team will be treating seven customers over seven days to their shopping, totally for free. One recipient will be chosen at random each day, and whatever is in your trolley will be complimentary!
M&S’s previous location in Straiton will close the day before, in line with the new opening, with colleagues moving across to the new store. The relocation to a larger site will provide customers with a bigger and better Food offer to enjoy.
Store Manager, Thomas Tierney, said yesterday:“We’re delighted to open our new store in Straiton today. The last few weeks have been spent putting the finishing touches in store and making sure all our measures are in place to support customers, so they can shop with confidence.
“It’s brilliant to now be open in time for the festive season – chatting with customers today it’s fantastic to see them get excited about our new Christmas products, as well as shop for all the essentials. Our new store also offers Click & Collect, which means customers can shop for the full Clothing & Home collections via M&S.com.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to the team, who have been amazing getting the store ready. We’re all so excited show the community all that Scotland’s largest Food store has to offer.”
Local customer, Lisa Whigham from Loanhead, was one of the first customers through the doors. She said:“I’ve been an avid shopper at M&S for years and I now feel spoilt for choice with all that my local M&S has to offer.
“The pick your own eggs station is particularly exciting – I love that I can now choose my perfect yolk for poached eggs, and know which ones are best for frying!”
M&S Straiton offers thousands of M&S’s quality and great value food products, from daily essentials and fresh produce, to dinner favourites and ready-to-go family meals.
The new Food store also has everything customers will need for a truly delicious Christmas meal, along with all the trimmings. Shoppers will be able to pick up M&S’s sweet and savoury showstoppers, from the Our Best Ever Mince Pies to the Scottish Salmon Pastrami.
M&S Straiton offers the full range of M&S Clothing & Home products via its Click & Collect service. Customers can opt for next day pick up if they order online by 10pm the night before on M&S.com and the store will also offer hassle free returns. With over a thousand free car parking spaces, the store is ideal for convenient Clothing & Home collection.
The store is located at Foodhall Unit 2B, Straiton Retail Park, Loanhead, Scotland EH20 9PW, and is open Monday – Friday, 8am – 9pm, Saturday 8am – 8pm and Sunday 9am – 7pm.
M&S Straiton will offer extended shopping hours which will gradually increase up until Christmas and from the 21st – 23rd December, the Food store will be open until midnight.
