Crowborough: Opening

Waitrose Crowborough 110 opened on 8th October 1974.
The following article appeared in the Partnership in-house magazine at the time.

The Crowborough Branch is built into the side of a hill.  The trolleys are made to be taken up on the escalators, they have rubber clad feet at front and rear which means they can stand comfortably on the moving stairs. We have escalators in two other branches [1974], but the trolleys there hook into a special channel beside the stairs and are carried up separately. Here they travel with the customer. The escalators have not such a steep rise as usual and for some time they are to be run slowly so as to allow customers to get used to the idea. The trolleys are both wider and longer than our others and have different handles. Incidentally, a ‘train’ of trolleys can still be brought down from the car park on the escalators.

In addition to the car park being on the roof, Crowborough has other special features. The warehouse is on the same level as the shop floor, so incoming goods are unloaded from a vehicle on the roof and sent down by lift into the warehouse. Once there they can be priced and then it is a much easier task to take goods out onto the shop floor when they are needed than to bring them down by lifts as in most of our other shops.
The selling floor is about 11,315 square feet – which puts it up among the four or five largest in Waitrose. It has gas fired central heating throughout, (others are mostly electric). Even the fly killers are different – they work by ultra-violet ray.

We close with best wishes to the new shop and its Partners and echo a quote from one of the new ladies who have joined us there, ‘ Waitrose is lovely’.

Chronicle Vol 30 No 9
12.10.1974