Waitrose - NEW budget range

~Chameleon~

Rhyburgh wrote: »

Bought this at the weekend, think it was about £5.50 for 1kg and it was absolutely delicious. Don't usually buy many joints of meat so don't know how the price compares, but was very nice.

That price is incredibly competitive indeed for a joint of beef (£2.25 a lb) so I'll certainly be giving it a try, thank you! :T

Have now tried several other Essentials range (meat, fruit and veg) and they've all been fantastic quality (better than Tesco Finest) and great value for money!

hippey

I have read the internal magazine about the 'essentials' range, it is NOT a budget range, it is a rebrand of 4000 lines of own brand goods, the prices have not changed (unless already offer lines) and packaging will be changing over the next 9 months.

For instance the 'essential Waitrose' chicken is the 'Select Farm' chicken, same farmers, same production, and infact the same price. (although some are on offer)

They are trying to appeal to the customers who think Waitrose is expensive, without doubt it is not cheap, but you get what you pay for. And they are also standardising the packing to make it uniform accross the range.

Floss

Essentials natural yogurt is scrummy, almost as nice as Tesco's low fat version and much nicer than Asda's!

maro11

I have had a look at this range in store and am not impressed with the product or quality. All the mince I picked up today had min 20% fat!
The organic mince was only .50p more expensive and had only 5% fat.

hippey

maro11 wrote: »

I have had a look at this range in store and am not impressed with the product or quality. All the mince I picked up today had min 20% fat!
The organic mince was only .50p more expensive and had only 5% fat.

You will normally find 20%, 10% and 5% fat mince ranges in the fresh meat fridge.

Some of the packaging is inbetween changes.

1carminestocky

hippey wrote: »

I have read the internal magazine about the 'essentials' range, it is NOT a budget range, it is a rebrand of 4000 lines of own brand goods, the prices have not changed (unless already offer lines) and packaging will be changing over the next 9 months.

For instance the 'essential Waitrose' chicken is the 'Select Farm' chicken, same farmers, same production, and infact the same price. (although some are on offer)

They are trying to appeal to the customers who think Waitrose is expensive, without doubt it is not cheap, but you get what you pay for. And they are also standardising the packing to make it uniform accross the range.

Confusing. They are trying to appeal to the people who think Waitrose are expensive by keeping their prices the same but changing the name on the packaging?

~Chameleon~

1carminestocky wrote: »

Confusing. They are trying to appeal to the people who think Waitrose are expensive by keeping their prices the same but changing the name on the packaging?

Perhaps it's simply a case of people perceiving Waitrose to be more expensive than other supermarkets. This 're-branding' or whatever it is they're doing has made me look again at their products and I've been pleasantly surprised to find they're not actually as expensive as I'd previously thought ... I used to shop there as a 'treat'

In some cases I've actually found them to be cheaper, but most importantly the quality far, far exceeds that of Tesco, especially with regards to their fresh meat, fish, fruit and vegetables.

themaccas

maro11 wrote: »

I have had a look at this range in store and am not impressed with the product or quality. All the mince I picked up today had min 20% fat!
The organic mince was only .50p more expensive and had only 5% fat.

I agree I looked at this and thought it was high. However...I have now been shopping at Waitrose for nearly a year, their mince with a minimum 20% fat is delicious and I found less fat draining from that than the Tesco extra lean mince. Don't be fooled by the labels, Waitrose food is far superior and I spend less there everyweek than I ever did shopping at Tesco and Sainsburys. One of the reasons is that my Waitrose only sells food so I don't have the children whining for toys, books, DVD's and it's not the bearpit that Tesco usually is on a Saturday morning.

hippey

themaccas wrote: »

I agree I looked at this and thought it was high. However...I have now been shopping at Waitrose for nearly a year, their mince with a minimum 20% fat is delicious and I found less fat draining from that than the Tesco extra lean mince. Don't be fooled by the labels, Waitrose food is far superior and I spend less there everyweek than I ever did shopping at Tesco and Sainsburys. One of the reasons is that my Waitrose only sells food so I don't have the children whining for toys, books, DVD's and it's not the bearpit that Tesco usually is on a Saturday morning.

That is exactly why we shop at Waitrose, and have done for over 4 years. I got fed up with Tesco overpricing lines and rubbish quality own brands. My wife now works for Waitrose so I could be slightly bias now, but I find I waste less, buy less and my shopping experience is much more relaxing even with my 2 young kids!

Also in reality I spend less at Waitrose than I ever did at Tesco (even before partner discount) Waitrose just don't have shelves full off rubbish you only buy because its cheap.

The new packaging is to simplify the own brand range with previously came in so many different designs, similar to the organics range which was simplified last year to the blue flash with green text on the product.