Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Over 150 customers queued from 8.30am today for the opening of the first joint John Lewis at Home and Waitrose, in Ipswich.
The adjacent stores, which share an entrance and a customer cafe, will allow shoppers convenient access to product ranges in both the home store and the supermarket, and represent a £12m investment by the John Lewis Partnership.
The John Lewis at Home is the first to open in Suffolk, an area that has been long sought after by the business.
John Lewis at Home Ipswich features 43,000sq ft of selling space over two floors, and computer terminals allow shoppers to browse the wider John Lewis assortment for home delivery or next-day collection at the shop. The 27,000sq ft Waitrose offers shopping from home via the Waitrose website and customers can also shop in-store themselves, with the store delivering the items to their door. Together, the stores have created 375 new jobs locally.
Property & development director at Waitrose Nigel Keen commented: “In what is a challenging economic climate, it’s great to see the investment that’s being made in the town, and we’re looking forward to seeing the reaction of shoppers to our stores being alongside each other in this way for the first time.”
