Waitrose is offering yoga classes in an attempt to encourage customers to calm down before or after their weekly shop. The store is holding evening yoga classes in three of its supermarkets, with plans to roll out the programme across other branches in its network of 353 shops if successful. The upmarket supermarket will charge customers £7 per session or £35 for six sessions. The classes will take place in
its in-store cafés.
Nick Huismans, Associate Director from consultancy firm Newton, believes the store
has taken a step in the right direction by using vacant space in an innovative way, and tapping into demand for convenience, while the key to success is ensuring it bases its innovation on insight into what customers really want as opposed to “gut feel”.
“It will be interesting to see if this proves a success for Waitrose, especially considering a previous attempt by Tesco proved unsuccessful, but this does certainly offer something unique above the other grocery retailers,” he said.
Waitrose offers yoga classes
