Scotland

Waitrose . . trolley good show

PAST the miniature turnips - the size of milky-white marbles with their tuft of green stalks still intact - beside the heartbreakingly small freshly-plucked Norfolk quails, a trolley's length away from the salmon caviar, a distinctive gap has appeared on the supermarket chill cabinet shelf.

Last night, somewhere in the pleasantly fashionable quarter of Comely Bank, someone was eagerly tucking into a jar of simply scrumptious jellied eels.

Perhaps they were also among the handful of shoppers who headed home from the brand new Waitrose supermarket with a pack containing two of those titchy, goosepimpled quails. They're small enough to hold in the palm of your hand - it must be a bit like stuffing the family budgie into the oven - yet, according to Waitrose's branch manager David Lincoln, very tasty if you fill them with cous cous, apricot and raisins.

The doors to Waitrose's first two Scottish outlets - at Comely Bank and in Falcon Avenue, Morningside - swung open yesterday morning, and in filed curious shoppers, eager to discover the delights of the charcuterie display, sample the fresh meat sourced by the chain's specialist butcher team, or seeking MacSween's haggis balls and fresh Madagascan crevettes to serve at their next cocktail party.

As managing director Steven Esom points out, despite the baskets, the trolleys and the shelves heaving with the same everyday staples from spaghetti hoops to toilet rolls - this isn't even a supermarket. No, stupid, Waitrose is "a food shop".

But what exactly are you supposed to do with some of it?

Nestling next to the trendy miniature vegetables - cauliflowers not much bigger than the 50p they cost and biro-sized leeks - are Oriental-sounding Enoki mushrooms, all the way from a mushroom farm in . . . Leicestershire.

With their long stalks and delicate caps, it's a toss up whether to stir fry them or stick them in a vase on the mantelpiece along with their equally aesthetic Bun Shimeji brown cousins.

And what exactly is a working mum of two hungry but fussy eaters, who used to shop in the Comely Bank store's predecessor, Somerfield, supposed to do with a whole and very ugly monkfish?

"Well, you could slice it up and curry it, or casserole it. It's got very firm flesh, which means it's one of the few fish you could skewer and barbecue," suggests Waitrose's specialist adviser Gary Grace.

It's a far cry from the offerings from Somerfield, where fish was sold pre-packed and the busiest man in the store was Hal Robertson, the pizza chef.

Today Hal is still to be found - one of the 74 former Somerfield staff who now find themselves rebranded as Waitrose 'partners' - now repackaged, retrained and revived into a fish counter specialist-in-training.

The pizzas have morphed in Waitrose's Goats Cheese and Fig Chutney, while Hal has been to the Mecca of London's fishmongers, Billingsgate Market, to learn the vital statistics of a perfect salmon and how to fillet a sea bream. It's a world away from sprinkling mozzarella over pizza dough.

"The only fish we used to sell came in a packet, there wasn't a fishmonger in the shop," he says. "I'm learning all the time. It's good to be able to speak to the customer about what we are selling - they appreciate that. I really think this shop is going to do really well."

By now, the queue of shoppers at the 'baskets only' till has grown to 25 strong, snaking past the customer services desk towards the magazine rack, where the likes of Heat and Best have been relegated behind Country Life and House and Garden.

"I think we're going to have to think seriously about introducing some more checkouts," says the supermarket chain's director of sales Geoff Scott, overseeing the dual Edinburgh launches. "We have been amazed at how well it's been going. The Morningside store is just the same - packed."

Sales figures and customer numbers are, he adds, "confidential", but his smile is proof that the Scottish debut for the supermarket renowned for its quality produce and customer service has gone rather well.

It has certainly impressed Comely Bank local Ann Young, 64, who leaves the store with two full carrier bags. "I didn't buy anything unusual, just my normal shopping, but it was good to have a look," she says. "It's a bit pricey - I don't know if some of the pensioners around here will be able to afford it."

Dawn O'Neil, 28 and friend Natasha Bald, 20, have nipped in during their break from Black Horse Finance. They were disappointed to find only a small selection of sandwiches. "It's not too bad," says Dawn, "pretty much the same as Sainsbury's, really."

"It's a bit pricey," chips in Natasha. "I only bought a shortcake and a magazine - I'm more of an Asda girl really."

Meanwhile, Ian Mason, 86, of Comely Bank Avenue, has been sent to the store by his wife to pick up their daily essentials.

"It's a bit chaotic, they've changed the order of things around and I had to ask someone to help me. Did they have salmon caviar? I didn't see it, not that I'd be buying much of that.

"I've got what the wife wanted - some packet soup and a couple of Bird's Eye shepherd's pies. No caviar today!"

• Waitrose, the food retailing arm of John Lewis, took just three months to get its two Edinburgh stores off the ground.

The company says it sourced nearly 400 additional products from 45 different Scottish firms to sell in its first Scottish stores.

Many lines were introduced as a result of "Meet the Buyer Days" held in Edinburgh which let food producers showcase their products to store chiefs.

The regional produce range includes beef, poultry, milk, fruit and vegetables.The two branches will employ a total of 244 staff, known as partners, all of whom will have a stake in the business and share in profit.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=816612006

Last updated: 02-Jun-06 13:52 BST