Basingstoke 'store of the future'

6:30pm Wednesday 12th September 2012 in Local By Emily Roberts, Chief Reporter

Inside the refurbished Morrisons supermarket Inside the refurbished Morrisons supermarket

A BASINGSTOKE supermarket has been chosen to become a ‘store of the future’ with staff trained to offer cooking tips and advise customers about matching wines to food.

Morrisons in Basingstoke has undergone a major refurbishment and now has more than 450 lines of fresh fruit and vegetables, with food available that it claims cannot be found elsewhere.

The new store launched on August 28, with food stocks including tinkerbell peppers and yellow courgettes.

It will feature ice beds and misting technology to optimise the freshness of food, and its new fresh market includes cured meats hanging continental style above the deli counter, 150 cuts of meat in the butchery and cheeses from the UK and around the world.

At the bakery, there are 40 varieties of bread baked from scratch throughout the day.

In order to deliver the new experience, Morrisons staff in Basingstoke have undergone intensive training on product knowledge so that they can better advise customers.

William Roe, Morrisons ‘store of the future’ director, said: “We are so excited to open a ‘store of the future’ in Basingstoke.

“The new concept has a fresh market feel with surprising produce and an exciting layout but still features the same great prices, making it an affordable choice for both existing and new customers.

“We wanted to create the UK’s best food shopping experience and something that none of our customers would have seen before yet still provide great value on all our produce.”

Comments(14)

chrisa123 says...
8:23pm Wed 12 Sep 12

Nice press release. Shame that you couldn't go to the store. There still aren't enough staff and they still stand around talking to each other. The self checkouts still don't work properly and are understaffed.

But the water sprays over the veg do look good.

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Sam_Walker 123456 says...
9:24pm Wed 12 Sep 12

The ice beds, the misting...great. Everything else, fine. Problems? Lots of un-staffed tills during the afternoons and evenings. The morning peaks are dealt with adequately but the after-work peaks are understaffed. Yet the staff are friendly, polite, engaging (although not irritatingly so) and know their regulars. Good store, glad it's my local.

The self-checkouts work fine; the trick is to bag items quickly, before the machine has a chance to complain that the items haven't been bagged. After scanning, there is a time limit to bagging, so be quick about it. The self's are also well staffed; there is always someone handy. I have witnessed impressive feats of product knowledge (i.e. the staff knew off by heart the code to allow the machine to weigh pick and mix - the code was over six digits; equate that intimate familiarity with each scannable item in the store and be awe-struck at the staff product knowledge).

Good show, Morrisons. Good show.

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AndrewRH says...
10:34pm Wed 12 Sep 12

Haven't visited it myself; Does this 'Store of the Future' support and encourage the use of bicycles, and cargo bikes for transport?

I'll get my coat...

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W Wallace says...
9:32am Thu 13 Sep 12

Like anywhere there is a bedding in period. I would suggest that the self checkouts being understaffed isn't a problem as they are self checkouts and not meant to be staffed! It can be frustrating I agree when you have people who don't have the common sense to use the scanners properly, but overall I am impressed with the store.

I don't expect every till to be manned all day long and to be honest i walk into a supermarket and expect it to be busy, I'd look on that positively and suggest the store is doing very well and attracting new shoppers.

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alan partridge says...
2:32pm Thu 13 Sep 12

aha!

I agree the staff training and staff levels during on and off peeks requires improvement. Im sure this is ongoing and will happen in due course?

I must say that I was impressed with the quality of the range of foods and produce on offer.

This country is crying out for Continental style supermarkets, choice and quality produce at a reasonable price.

Just one area I would like to see improved is a checkout for the elderly and disabled. One poor old lady yesterday was given grief from a member of staff on check-out, because she rocked up to a basket only till with 6 items in a trolley. She had to transfer these items to a basket and transfer back to the trolley after purchase. Madness! Customer care and common sence out of the window.

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jbee37 says...
2:55pm Thu 13 Sep 12

From what I heard, the previous owner and current life president wants the store to back to it's Northern roots like selling pies, pigs trotters, tripe and cross & blackwell baked beans instead of Heinze.........silly old sod!!
I hope it works. It'll make a change from Sainsbury's empty shelves at 8.30pm.

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starbucks911 says...
7:27am Fri 14 Sep 12

alan partridge wrote:
aha!

I agree the staff training and staff levels during on and off peeks requires improvement. Im sure this is ongoing and will happen in due course?

I must say that I was impressed with the quality of the range of foods and produce on offer.

This country is crying out for Continental style supermarkets, choice and quality produce at a reasonable price.

Just one area I would like to see improved is a checkout for the elderly and disabled. One poor old lady yesterday was given grief from a member of staff on check-out, because she rocked up to a basket only till with 6 items in a trolley. She had to transfer these items to a basket and transfer back to the trolley after purchase. Madness! Customer care and common sence out of the window.
If I'd have witnessed that I'd have wanted to slap a kipper in the employees face!

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Beats108 says...
10:00am Sat 15 Sep 12

Been to the new store and i like the new layout of it, idea of someone at front of shop with a map was a great idea even though we used our common sense and looked at the signs above the aisle's to look for it.

Maybe now they should sort out the parking slots, there not enough for parents and children and majority of the time people park their that do not have children and just abuse you when you confront them and the staff just seem to say yeah we sort it and dont!!!

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BTG says...
2:45pm Sun 16 Sep 12

Not enough parking for parents and children? There always seems to be plenty of it to me, and mostly empty as I take the long walk in the rain from the other end of the car park where the 'ordinary' spaces start.

My biggest gripe is the lack of small trolleys since the refurb. I'm a single person and therefore do single person amounts of shopping. Only giving the choice of large trolleys will not subconsciously make me buy more - it will consciously make me get back in the car and drive to Asda instead.

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jbee37 says...
5:11pm Sun 16 Sep 12

Yeah, why do parents with children need special parking spaces nearer the store entrance anyway? Get out of the car, grab his/her hand or buggy and walk to the entrance like everyone else. The one thing that I like about the parent bay though is the extra room. I think all parking bays should have painted area around them. There's nothing worse than
arriving back to your car and finding a dent or scratch caused by some inconsiderate shopper.

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Beats108 says...
9:31am Mon 17 Sep 12

jbee:

Be good if a 4mth old baby can walk, we need these spaces as you be the first to complain if I was parked near your car and dented it trying to get the cot seat out to put in the buggy or trolley, plus the reason it be closer will be for the safety of the children, there are idiots who drive in that car park like its a race track and others who just think they own the road, there has been may a time whilst crossing the ZEBRA crossing I have had to pick my child up as some one has not payed attention to where they are driving.

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Beats108 says...
9:32am Mon 17 Sep 12

BTG:

Use a umbrella then, or suggest to the store installing cover walkways on a suggestion card

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BTG says...
4:51pm Mon 17 Sep 12

Beats108:

I don't have a problem with the parent and child parking spaces, I'd much rather they were closer to the store to prevent the hassled parent who's trying to strap one child into a seat while another goes running into the road. I only said I thought there were enough of them.

How about if we just have parent and child spaces being purely for parents and children up to a certain time of the evening? Since I frequently don't shop until later in the evenings deliberately to avoid being run over by pushchairs, can we have their spaces as being fair game after 8.30pm when anyone who's young enough to need a pushchair should be tucked up in bed?!

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jbee37 says...
10:39am Tue 18 Sep 12

How about making all hassled parents shop online, thus freeing up all their parking spaces and avoid being run over by pushchairs?

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