Over a hundred people gathered around the entrance to the new Waitrose in East Cowes at 8:30am this morning.
They were hoping to be some of the first to shop in the new supermarket after 14 children from Queensgate Foundation Primary school in East Cowes pulled the ribbon.
Pride From Managing Partners
There was much pride for those working at the new shop from the Managing Partners who came down from Waitrose Head Office. Something, we believe that is very unusual for the opening of a new Waitrose shop.
The reason? It was their first shop not on the Mainland – effectively overseas.
There’s quite a large car park, which by the time we left, was filling – unsurprising on the opening day.
Green credentials
As previously mentioned on VB, the store is being hailed as the first green UK supermarket, being fully powered through an on-site biomass plant.
As well as creating 150 new jobs on the Island, the store will also stock Island produce such as products from The Garlic Farm, The Tomato Stall, Goddards Brewery and The Garlic Farm.
Tom Honeyman-Brown from the Garlic Farm said, “As a smaller producer it’s often hard to get the exposure that larger and better resourced producers can benefit from, but the Waitrose commitment to local producers has helped us to get around this stumbling block.
“We pride ourselves on the quality and consistency of both our products and service, and it’s great to find the same values in a company the size of Waitrose.”
Interviews to follow on VB sometime soon.
Cutting of the ribbon
Christian Beasley from Virtually Wight was at the launch shooting video of the event.
He managed to achieve the status of being the first person through the tills, telling us he purchased a small bar of dark Puru chocolate in honour of Paloma Vivanco getting fired on The Apprentice”Ž.
Thanks to Christian for sharing his video and photos with VB readers.
Image and video: © Used with the kind permission of Virtually Wight
