Waitrose Witney 131 - closed branch

Witney exterior 1969
John Lewis Partnership archive collection
Witney wine department c1970
John Lewis Partnership archive collection
Witney opening 1986
The Gazette

Waitrose Witney opened as Branch 131 on Wednesday 15th October 1969 (New Waitrose branches traditionally opened on a Tuesday, but in Witney that was early closing day). The Branch Manager was Mr J E Patterson who had joined a few months earlier from another supermarket group. As with all Waitrose openings at the time, Witney began trading without fuss, ceremony, special offers, free samples or gimmicks. The aim was to begin as they meant to go on, relying on good basic shopkeeping to attract custom.

The shop was large, with 8,900 square feet of selling space, deeper than it was wide, with a private car park at the rear for a hundred vehicles. It was staffed by eighty-two Partners – all of whom but six were recruited locally.

On opening day pepper sold extremely well and  immediately after opening time the aisle by the pepper shelf was blocked by customers trying to get at it. By ten minutes past nine, Waitrose were amazed to find they had been cleared out of pepper entirely. It was learned later that there had been a shortage of pepper in Witney and shoppers took advantage of a brand new source of supply.

Witney Branch 131 moved to new premises and became Witney Branch 142 on 16th September 1986.  Almost double the size of the old, the new branch combined some engaging architectural features with a clean and uncluttered floor plan ideally suited to efficient, modern supermarketing.

The branch manager was Mr C J Adey, with Mr S R Hopkins as his deputy, with 270 staff, full and part time, most of whom had transferred from Branch 131. For Mr Adey had been appointed manager of Witney on 13th September 1976.

 

Comments about this page

  • So my dad was Mr Aday and it’s taken his death to think despite ‘taking the mickey’ at college because every young person I know work at waitrose ,he was just my dad

    By Suzanne gallimore (21/04/2021)
  • I was 9 years old, standing outside Witney’s Waitrose in the early 1970’s with the family dog waiting for my mother to finish shopping, the automatic exit opened and closed; within that time the Yorkshire terrier had rushed forward and we ended up separated, me on the outside still holding onto the lead!

    By Mary Sturges (26/02/2017)

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