Discover Hertford Online Forum

because the hertford store is supposedly very busy. I dont see that any of those customers would travel to vh. Vh would be a different catchment area.

So; why not have both? it'd work in vh because you'd probably gain a lot of people from hoddesdon/broxbourne/ware area as there's nothing else similar nearby. and hertford wouldnt be affected by another waitrose at vh.

and worst case scenario if vh does canibalise the hertford store, THEN shut hertford. Wont cost any more - you'd know within a few months. Upside is massive compared to downside.

Yes - possibly mistaken or misguided (time will tell) but "utterly insane" is putting it a bit strong!

If Waitrose does open up at Van Hage's its hard to see why they should bother keeping the current town centre store open as well. I could see them opening up a "metro" type store in a smaller premises.

why they should bother? how does that argument work? Take tesco - Why should they have a store in Hertford when we have one in ware?

Lets just agree to disagree on this one - i don't get your point at all. If i was a waitrose shareholder i'd get out as this shows terrible management.

codek2 wrote:If i was a waitrose shareholder i'd get out as this shows terrible management.

Except of course JL are a partnership, not a PLC

ah yes true, well glad im not an employee then

By most measures they're about one of the best employers there is.

I wasn't really making any point but if pressed I would say any store would have to do some "proper" market research to investigate the viability of opening a new store in relatively close proximity to another. The supermarkets, of course, do exactly that and sometimes it works (as can be seen from the remarkable density of Tesco in some areas) and sometimes it doesn't.

Their decision will be based on a lot more than a few of our limited opinions that we'd rather keep a Waitrose in Hertford because we like it there.

It will be based on whether they think they can make money at either or both sites.

There is something I noticed if the Mercury report from 17 Feb
http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/N ... 154612.htm" target="_blank

and it's this

Waitrose director of development, Nigel Keen, said: "It's no secret that we have had a long-standing aspiration to have a new store in the area.

So if they have had a "long-standing aspiration" to build a new store in the area why didn't they buy up the Rank Cintel site before Asda did?
I don't really think the aspiration has been that long-standing.

I don't think anyone has said anything about the Hertford store shutting

Joe wrote:So if they have had a "long-standing aspiration" to build a new store in the area why didn't they buy up the Rank Cintel site before Asda did?
I don't really think the aspiration has been that long-standing.

Maybe their judgement as to the suitability of the site differed from Asda's.