Trailers for Waitrose? « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Trailers for Waitrose?

(21 posts)

Started 14 years ago by chdot
Latest reply from Kim

Tags:

Waitrose trailers

chdot
Admin

TEXT BELOW FROM ANOTHER THREAD

Kim

Aye we need to start reminding Waitrose that they "were" going to provide a cycle trailer for customer use. There was a big thing made of it at some of their other stores a year or so back, but then it all went quiet. Now that would be a useful service.

POSTED 16 HOURS AGO

chdot

"we need to start reminding Waitrose that they "were" going to provide a cycle trailer for customer use"

Don't know about that proposal. Tesco had BikeHods when they opened in Corstorphine - not sure how long that lasted.

POSTED 3 HOURS AGO

cb

Waitrose press release

Also,
Deliveries by bike

POSTED 2 HOURS AGO

chdot

Thanks.

Not planned for Edinburgh (yet?)

POSTED 2 HOURS AGO

Kim

When Waitrose first introducing cycle trailers down south, there were a number of customers who asked would they be coming to the Edinburgh stores. At that time it was suggested that they may be, depending on how things when down south. Well a year on things have gone a wee bit quite, may be it is time to start asking again. If you don't ask, you don't get...

POSTED 9 MINUTES AGO

chdot

See if this gets any response -

"Do you use Waitrose cycle trailers?

Will they come to Edinburgh?

http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=239#post-1872 "

http://twitter.com/CyclingEdin/status/8191473743

POSTED 4 MINUTES AGO

SRD

I've emailed the press officer email on the release, and asked "I wondered how the bike trailers worked at the stores listed, and if any further thought's been given to trialling them in Edinburgh? "

Posted 14 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

A not-very-helpful reply:

Thank you for your e-mail.

Waitrose is introducing cycle trailers to help customers transport their shopping home by bike. Equipped with large canvas shopping bags, the trailers are loaned out free of charge to customers who wish to use them.

The loan of cycle trailers is an environmental initiative to encourage and assist our customers who want to use their cycles to transport their shopping. The service is available at selected branches and only available to customers over the age of 18. We would require you to register your details before the initial loan. There is no charge for this service and no deposit required and each loan is for up to three days.

Please speak to the welcome desk of your local branch for more details.

I hope this information has been of assistance.

Posted 14 years ago #
spytfyre
Member

would be great if I ever shopped at a Waitrose...

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

So maybe it is coming then. If one shop starts it others may follow...

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

I have just received the following e-mail from Waitrose:

Thank you for your query regarding the cycle trailer scheme

Please could you kindly advise which branch you are referring to in Edinburgh so that they can look at introducing this scheme.

Regards,

Charlotte Vincent

Waitrose Customer Service.

Regards,

Simon King

Waitrose Customer Service.

[THREAD ID:1-DYT4W]

I seem to remember that Waitrose introduced a cycle trailer scheme to
stores in England about a year ago. At the time I asked if this scheme
was to be introduced at my local store in Edinburgh, as was told that it
might happen, but I have heard nothing since then. Is there any chance
that the scheme will be rolled out across all Waitrose stores or was
this just a wee bit of green wash?

Cheers,

Kim
***********************************************************
This email is confidential and may contain copyright material of the John Lewis Partnership.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately and delete all copies of this message.
(Please note that it is your responsibility to scan this message for viruses). Email to and from the
John Lewis Partnership is automatically monitored for operational and lawful business reasons.
*************************************************************

So dropping an e-mail to Customer_Service@waitrose.co.uk can be worthwhile ;-)

Posted 14 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

That's a much better reply than the one I got. If you're talking Morningside, please tell them you know other prospective users!

Posted 14 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

Spytfyre - what I like about our funny little corner of south Edinburgh is that it is roughly equidistant between the farmer's market (meat, fish, eggs & veg), waitrose (fruit, milk), and ASDA (cleaning products, toiletries, and cheap real ale), with the latter accessible by cycle path. Not to mention the local scotmid, asian shops, and dalry/gorgie road, and Shandon food group. All walkable/cycleable. This is what makes Edinburgh such a fab place to live.

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

No harm in people dropping them another e-mail, generally the greater the number of different e-mails the better ;-)

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

I think a few more e-mails and some in-store follow up, and we could get free trailer loan from Waitrose. If one store starts other will follow if they see the trailers in use.

The other benefit of this is to make cycling normal. After all if people sitting in cars see a cyclist who has been shopping at Waitrose, they will someone who is like themselves, rather than someone who is other.

Posted 14 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

It has been pointed out to me that my use of the term 'asian shop' may be a misnomer and/or offensive. Obviously, no offence intended, and I wasn't speaking so much of the proprietors as the products on sale. The shops at the end of the street stock mainly Asian spices, vegetables etc. We cook lots of African and Middle Eastern foods, and can usually find equivalents in the 'Asian' shops, but most of the product is from the sub-continent, rather than what we call 'the region' :)

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

I came across this paper about how retailers overestimate how many of their customers arrive by car, which make interesting reading.

Posted 14 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Not seen that one before.

But yes, talking of Waitrose/Morningside, most shops would be better off with wider pavements - rather than fighting to retain as much parking as possible.

Posted 14 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

Interesting. In terms of the Edinburgh example, though, I wonder how important 'how we get to town' is? My suspicion is that the shopkeepers are less concerned with 'how we actually get there' (ie making existing shoppers happy) and more concerned with 'getting more shoppers who drive' (ie who go elsewhere) into the shops. I'm not saying it is logical, but don't you think they assume that people with cars have more disposable income? faced with that graph, I bet they think 'pensioners, kids, students' and assume (probably wrongly) that they spend less than more affluent consumers in cars?

Posted 14 years ago #
chdot
Admin

All of that is true. People with cars are more likely to shop 'out of town' - Gyle, Fort etc.

So more emphasis should probably be placed on retaining/attraction people who live/work locally and making it a nicer 'destination'.

Differences between Bruntsfield and Morningside.

One has wide pavements, the other has charity shops.

Which may be completely unrelated!

Posted 14 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

and wide pavements have more room for bike racks?

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

If you look at page 3, Edinburgh shoppers’ concerns compared to retailers’ concerns, it is very telling.

Remember when removing cars and the widening of the pavements in Princes Street was first proposed? The retailers were all up in arms about it, there were dire predictions about how retail profits would drop and shoppers would all go out of town. Then when it actually happened, the numbers of shoppers in creased and so did retail profits...

Posted 14 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

My partner asked about bike trailers at the desk in Morningside Waitrose yesterday, and they said something obviously non-committal about it depending on customer demand, but agreed to pass this on to who-ever makes decisions (doubtless not someone who works on Sunday). So, let's see if we can generate some momentum. (hey, maybe we should nominate Spokes for their 'local charity' contribution scheme :)

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

I think they are starting to get the message, but the more people we can get ask, the more likely they are to respond.

Posted 14 years ago #
Kim
Member

I came across this forum thread from Waitrose about cycle trailers for loan. If we can get more people to post on it, then maybe we could get cycle trailers loan in their Edinburgh stores.

Posted 12 years ago #
cc
Member

I can't find the reference just now, but I remember reading in a cycle campaign site that people who cycle to the shops tend to spend more on average than people who drive there. Shoppers who get there by bike spend less per visit but they shop more often, and it adds up to a higher total spend.

Posted 12 years ago #
Kim
Member

I have seen several studies, this is a fairly good over view.

Posted 12 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.

// CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

About This Forum

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Trailers for Waitrose?

Reply

RSS Feeds

Links