Thanks to “Waitrose Unpacked” shoppers at Waitrose’s Botley Road shop in Oxford will be able to shop for packaging free items and refill their own container with a wide range of products. With this new scheme Waitrose & Partners will offer the largest number of loose fruit and vegetable lines of any national supermarket, whilst removing plastic wrap from flowers and indoor plants and launching refillable options for everything from wine to beer and cereals to coffees as well as cleaning products.
Following its efforts to encourage shoppers to bring reusable containers to take home products from the supermarket’s fresh service counters, the supermarket is launching a bold new trial.
“Waitrose Unpacked” will be available across the Oxford shop to maximise awareness, and will run for a period of 11 weeks until 18 August. Waitrose is seeking as much feedback as possible. A feedback survey will also be available on its website, and #WaitroseUnpacked will feature on Twitter and Instagram.
A dedicated refillable zone, the UK’s first supermarket frozen ‘pick and mix’ and first borrow-a-box scheme are among a series of ideas being looked at in a unique test from Waitrose & Partners, which has the potential to save thousands of tonnes of unnecessary plastic and packaging.
Packaged equivalents of the products will remain in their usual areas to create an effective test to see if, given the choice between buying packaged or unpackaged fruit and vegetables, which one do customers go for.
“Waitrose Unpacked” concepts include:
- Produce unpacked – 160 loose fruit and vegetable products will be available at the store – the most loose fruit and vegetable lines offered by any national supermarket
- Frozen pick and mix – Frozen mango, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, pineapple and raspberries are packaging free and will be available as pick and mix
- Plastic removed from flowers and plants – Plastic wrap has been removed from all flowers and indoor plants and replaced with 100% recyclable and 100% PEFC certified craft paper
- Detergent and washing up liquid refillables – Waitrose & Partners is the first supermarket to partner with Ecover and provide an automatic detergent and washing up liquid dispenser where customers will be able to refill their reusable Ecover containers
- Wine and beer refillables – Four different wines and four different beers available on tap to take home in reusable bottles to cut down on the use of glass bottles
- Coffee refills – Customers can grind one of four coffees in store to take home in a reusable container to reduce glass and plastic packaging
- Essential refillables – 28 products including pasta, rice, grains, couscous, lentils, cereals, dried fruit and seeds have been taken out of packaging and will be available through dispensers
- Borrow-a-box scheme – In a UK first, shoppers can borrow-a-box from store to shop with and then take home before returning on their next visit
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