MSE News: Waitrose scraps its free hot drink offer in some stores

flubberyzing

It would honestly never occur to me to go in and get a free coffee without buying something! Surely it's not much better than stealing?!

I buy a few bits in my local Waitrose a couple of times a month and nowadays you can only get a cup at the checkout.

MysteryMe

It may not be in the spirit of the offer but to align it with stealing is silly.

Doc_N

Pincher wrote: »

The John Lewis cake and coffee vouchers will be next, no doubt.

Gone already to all intents and purposes - the promised 3 vouchers a year have long since disappeared for most people.

This, and the free coffee/newspaper, was intended to set John Lewis/Waitrose apart from the cheaper alternatives such as Amazon and Aldi and keep customers from defecting.

It hasn't really worked, because the price gap is far too wide, so they're dismantling the schemes, piece by piece.

They've also dismantled what used to be John Lewis's excellent customer service, as anyone who's shopped there recently, or had a problem, will tell you, and Andy Street is on his way in advance of some pretty poor trading results - just like the CEOs of Sainsbury and Tesco did before things went wrong there.

Things aren't looking good - except for Amazon and Aldi, of course.

The_all_new_me_2

Couldn't have put it better myself Doc N.

gwa1981

Oh dear, my father in law won't be happy

Doc_N

It's all being dismantled, piece by piece, slowly but surely:

We just wanted to make you aware of a small change to your myWaitrose benefits.

From 1 November 2016, the minimum spend to receive money off your shopping with selected newspapers from Monday to Friday will be £10. It will remain £10 at weekends as it is now.

The titles included in the offer are The Telegraph, the Guardian, the Daily Mail, The Times and The Sun as well as The Sunday Telegraph, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday and the Sun on Sunday.

We would like to thank you in advance for your understanding. Please do not hesitate to ask a member of staff at your local Waitrose if you have any questions.

Sunny_Saver

And no doubt soon weekend spend will have to be £15.

I agree that customer services has gone downhill.

DCFC79

gwa1981 wrote: »

Oh dear, my father in law won't be happy

Why is that then ?

Just spend the £10 and you have your hot drink.

Was bound to happen at some point.

Smidster

DCFC79 wrote: »

Why is that then ?

Just spend the £10 and you have your hot drink.

Was bound to happen at some point.

I don't think any of us are "happy" with the changes. The extent to which you are unhappy will dictate whether you continue to shop at Waitrose.

We will see if there is any customer reaction to this (or any other perk) perk removal in the medium term. There are some really interesting psychology studies about price and in particular charging for something that used to be free. We get annoyed by something going from £1 to £1.50 but detest something going from 0 to 5p

I often used to see people get other stuff with the coffee so how much of that trade will be affected - e.g. croissants in the morning?

flubberyzing

MysteryMe wrote: »

It may not be in the spirit of the offer but to align it with stealing is silly.

Said by someone who takes the free drink without spending a penny, no doubt.