Chichester

Waitrose Chichester 172 opened as the 71st Partnership supermarket, on Tuesday 11th November 1980 at 9.00am. The Branch Manager was Mr A Mayhew, who had moved from Waitrose Cowplain.

Four days before opening, the shelves were almost filled and in every part of the shop Partners were buckling down hard to get the work done on time. Some were from various departments at Bracknell – the merchandising team were particularly in evidence, advising on layout and keeping track of orders coming in. The majority of course were the new Chichester team – over a hundred of them. Many of the section managers had transferred from other branches – the grocery manager, Mr Brian Ensor, from as far as Hall Green near Birmingham. A number of them were sharing houses together. However a large proportion were newly recruited from the area.

The meat manager, Mr Gerry Tobin, explained how much more convenient and streamlined the meat preparation was in a Waitrose branch than it was even ten years previously. In the cold room were brand new mobile racks which made hanging space flexible. Once the meat had been cut and then weighed in its tray, it was wrapped on an automatic machine and some cuts of bacon were vacuum-packed for longer shelf-life.

Branch 172 closed at 6pm on Saturday 28th November 1992 to make way for the new Branch 208, which opened on Tuesday 1st December 1992. Mr Alan Mayhew, Branch Manager was very excited about the new store: “We have many loyal customers whom we’re sure will stick with us and we hope to gain many more.” The team of Partners increased to 197 – with 43 new recruits to help run the larger branch.

Section Manager, meat and fish, Miss Helen Blackwell: “customers have more choice and can buy the exact quantities of meat they want”, “unlike with pre-packed meat it is possible to buy just two rashers of bacon or four ounces of mince, for example.”

Miss Sheila Deal was one of the office Partners, “We have all been trained to use the new computerised tills, which also print out cheques for the customer, easing congestion at the checkouts.”

Comments about this page

  • This is where the current location of Argos is now. You can still see JLP on the brickwork which stands for John Lewis Partnership, so when I saw that on the wall I wondered if thats where Waitrose used to be!

    By Richard Taylor (12/08/2013)

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