WAITROSE - CHANGE IN OPENING HOURS

[David Graves (your Alderman)]

I am passing on a notification I have just received to say that the manager at Waitrose, Cherry Tree Walk, has agreed via the Estate Office that starting from tomorrow, Friday, 20 March, the shop will only be available between 8AM and 9AM each day to elderly/vulnerable customers. This is until further notice and is in line with what many supermarkets are deciding to do. I don't have definitions for elderly/vulnerable people but I am sure common sense will prevail and that those of us at relatively low risk will stay away first thing each day.

[David Graves (your Alderman)]

Now corrected to 7am to 8am, I have just been told.

[Shane]

That is correct

[Maria Elizabeth Prior]

I also understand that Waitrose are now shutting earlier than normal, from 10pm to 8pm during the working week.  

[William Pimlott]

Just for clarity: Monday to Friday 7-8am for the vulnerable and elderly, Saturday 8-9am. Thank you David, John Tomlinson, Paul Murtagh and Waitrose management for organising this.

[Christine Clifford]

My husband went there at 7 but mainly empty shelves. I think their stock comes in during the afternoon and is then put out and gets cleared out by the time they close. This mass buying must be stopped

[David Graves (your Alderman)]

I assume that normally deliveries arrive overnight so the shelves are fully stocked when the store opens in the morning. These are not normal times, so if deliveries are arriving during the day rather than at night there is, I agree, no point in asking the elderly and vulnerable to get up early to arrive at a shop with empty shelves. If people are not prepared to be considerate of others, quite frankly a rationing ststem needs to be set up. As I undersrand it for some items Waitrose is already enforcing a two items only policy. 

My fear is that the latest announcement this afternoon (closing pubs, cafes, etc) will only exacerbate the sense of panic and unreality. People will hardly be relaxing their fears as a result of this. Unless people show restraint, the Government will have to act again, and the constraints ratcheted up further.