In its recent effort in the battle for the middle-class grocery shopper, supermarket Waitrose is once again bringing back free hot coffee to entice shoppers into its stores.
After outrage over the withdrawal of the offer during the pandemic, the company told the nine million members on its My Waitrose loyalty scheme that they would again be entitled to a complimentary americano, cappuccino, latte or tea once a day regardless of whether they bought anything – as long as they have their own reusable cup.
"Some of our My Waitrose members like to have the free coffee before they shop or during the shop, rather than afterwards, so we are just offering a bit of flexibility in response to customer feedback," stated the supermarket.
When Waitrose introduced the perk in 2013, there were queues at coffee stations and complaints from customers that the offer was attracting the “wrong type of shopper”.
In 2017, the supermarket tweaked the policy by making it compulsory for shoppers to buy something before pouring themselves a free hot drink. A year later, the supermarket stopped providing disposable cups, requiring customers to bring in their own reusable ones.
The scheme was scrapped during the Covid crisis but reintroduced in November 2022 – again for customers making a purchases.
Waitrose also offered hot drinks to the police "as part of an initiative to cut down on shoplifting".
When it was introduced in August 2023, West Mercia Police Federation secretary Pete Nightingale said, "It makes sense from a business perspective because any police presence is bound to have an impact - either as a reassurance for shoppers or a deterrent for shoplifters."
The move is seen as a power grab by the retailer – which has more than 400 stores across the UK – after it lost ground to M&S. Waitrose has been overtaken by M&S for the first time outside Christmas trading, according to the latest market share data from Kantar.
In the last four weeks to 3 November, M&S increased its market share to 4.03 per cent of the grocery market, compared with 3.76 per cent a year earlier.
Waitrose’s share fell from 4.02 per cent to 3.91 per cent. It also enjoyed the biggest jump in sales among all the big supermarket groups during the period.
