The John Lewis Partnership has opened a new store-in-store at its Wallingford Waitrose supermarket, offering more than 700 products.
The store-in-store is part of a wider trial of a concept first piloted by the partnership in 2019.
It offers Waitrose shoppers a dedicated department store selling products drawn predominantly from John Lewis’ Cook & Dine and Gifting categories, with the focus very much on own-brand lines.
The Wallingford, Oxfordshire, store is one of three currently trialling the new concept, with the others in Godalming and Horley, Surrey.
The Godalming and Horley trials have smaller offerings of 500 each, focused more on general merchandise, with the Horley concept being split up into different locations across the Waitrose store.
When John Lewis first tried the store-in-store concepts in 2019, they included plans for fashion and style talks, calligraphy classes, barista workshops and photography courses, although these have been shelved due to the pandemic.
John Lewis said at the time that, had the trials gone well, it had identified up to 50 Waitrose stores where the concept could be rolled out to.
The department store retailer said the new concept was “designed to give shoppers greater access to the products, services and partner skills” and “forms part of the business’ plans to combine the strength of its two brands”.
Waitrose Wallingford is also the site where the retailer rolled out trials integrating unpacked items into the supermarket’s regular aisles in a UK first.
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