Well Done Waitrose

bargepole

A brand new Waitrose store has opened in High Wycombe in the past few days, near J4 of the M40, about a mile away from the town centre.

It has a barrier-controlled car park, with 2 hours free if you spend £10 or over, or £1 charge if you don't. If you exceed 2 hours, there's a £20 charge. So you take a ticket on entry, and get it validated at the checkout after shopping. There are pay machines for anyone who has a charge to pay.

All of the signage is in the name of Waitrose, no PPC involvement whatsoever. If a large company like this can manage perfectly well without inviting parasites on to its land to sting its customers with £100 penalties, why can't they all do likewise?

Herzlos

Brilliant, it solves all of the problems without introducing any new ones.
I wonder what the customers think of it though? Will they avoid if they are worried they won't spend £10? I mean, the £1 charge means you are unlikely to want to stop on the way home for a pint of milk.

nigelbb

I don't think a minimum £10 will be a problem for a typical Waitrose shopper. There is a minimum spend of £5 during the week & £10 at weekends for Waitrose card holders to claim their free newspaper & cup of coffee.

beamerguy

Nice to see a supermarket doing the right thing, great catchment area for miles around.

BOOHOO to Asda and Morrisons then who still play the "scam" game

dazster

My local Waitrose recently invited Britannia to prey on their customers, with the result that they have lost a customer of 30 years' standing. My complaint to head office elicited a response that I can only describe as rude and sarcastic.

salmosalaris

and no need for Waitrose to have to be associated with, deal with and have their reputation sullied by shysters and their car park littered with gaudy illiterate signs.
Joined up thinking

fisherjim

There is also a stand alone John Lewis about 1/2 a mile away with no charges, no restrictions, polite signs about disabled parking and customer pick up areas, and no PPC.

It all works perfectly well, as do the local B&Q?Halfords, another retail park (where two PPC's have been used in the past but kicked out), a DFS, and two Home Base stores.

None of which have any PPC involvement, and the world has not imploaded at any of them!

As for the nearby gawdy, awful, scruffy Asda and dreadful Aldi or is it Lidl (I wouldn't step in either) well that of course is another story!

beamerguy

The problem is that supermarkets have is lack of knowledge of their customers.
Drive into any supermarket who display PPC signs and it is an alert that "SCAMMERS ARE ABOUT"

People in this country are not known to be complainers and therefore vanish, never to return. We are however very good at "spreading the word" and twitter / facebook do just that.

If a supermarket let the likes of UKPC take over, they clearly have not done any homework

salmosalaris

The_Deep wrote: »

It has a barrier-controlled car park, with 2 hours free if you spend £10 or over, or £1 charge if you don't. If you exceed 2 hours, there's a £20 charge. So you take a ticket on entry, and get it validated at the checkout after shopping. There are pay machines for anyone who has a charge to pay.

This sounds all very commercial. If it is out in the sticks, why is it not free? It is not as though it is near the station

Well the investment needs to wipe its face, there's nothing wrong with that , and with the proximity to the M40 there may be a need to stop car sharers using it as a drop off ?

Herzlos

If it's a minumum spend it will essentially be free though, most people will (I assume) spend that. Whilst discouraging longer stays due to car sharing. Might still actually be worthwhile leaving it longer for £20 but who knows.

Half_way

I can remember going to the supermarket with my parents( a good few years back) one supermarket was in a town/city centre location.
there was and entry barrier and an exit barrier
At the checkout they used to ask if you need a parking token to get out of the car park.
I visited the same place a few months ago, the entrance/exit barriers have now been replaced with PPC ANPR cameras.
The supermarket has had a problem with boy racers meeting in the car park after hours and racing round, ANPR cameras /PPCs will not stop people getting in and causing a nuisance, barriers and gates would