Waitrose & Partners Wokingham

Not great this evening . The older staff are always lovely and super efficient but tonight ( 29/11) , the isles were like an employee youth club gathering . Zero work being done and three groups chatting with their friends to the point that I couldn’t move through the fridge isle . The Young boy supervising the self serve till, didn’t speak to the girl on the till nearest to self selve , he shouted at her right next to my ear. No awareness on how rude he was. I walk in Tesco and people are working . Waitrose don’t seem to mind if they do or don’t.Update:Dear Holly , many thanks for your response

Although its a great supermarket, none of its branches offer Halal products similar to Sainsbury's

Always a pleasure. Wide aisles and lower shelves of product make it our go to local.

Loving the new cafe menu. Some really interesting and tasty offerings. So far tried the rainbow fritters, avocado and perfectly poached egg, cauliflower burger - really interesting flavours, and fresh sushi now also available in the cafe. Great vibe and good improvement.

Friendly staff, good selection. Could choose quieter periods to stack the shelves because they get in the way.

A medium-sized Waitrose located in the centre of Wokingham. It has a decent car park, ideal not only for shopping but also for visiting the town’s restaurants and pubs. Manager sometimes looks grumpy and not always lets shoppers pass first when he is on a move, which is very odd and contrary to John Lewis Partnership training. It still is the best place to shop for groceries in Wokingham. All staff are friendly, professional and helpful.

This shop is now on the same level as Lidl, Aldi and Asda.Half cases of biscuits on the shelves, the cardboard left on the shelf, many shelves sparsely filled and looking very untidy.This is how Aldi, Lidl and Asda present their shelves.No consistency of product placement - the fresh chicken stock is on the top shelf of the chicken section, whilst the fresh beef stock, from the same manufacturer, is on the bottom shelf of the beef section, leading to difficulties in finding products; Same as the low cost supermarkets.I asked an experienced member of staff (partner) , whom I have seen working at the branch for many years, for a product. In the past if you asked a member of staff for a product they would have stopped doing what they were doing and taken you to the product. This is what I believed you were paying a premium price for, and was a differentiator between Waitrose and the low cost supermarkets. No longer. The person I asked just pointed down an aisle and dismissively said “if we have any, it will be down there”; same as the discounters.The till management was a disgrace. Only two serviced tills were open and each one had a queue of seven people, each with a reasonably full trolley. I think there are about eight tills installed in the branch, why not use them ?. The Self Checkout tills had a long queue of about 10 people, and the express queue also a queue of about six people.All in all the same experience if you go to a discounter.Unfortunately a very poor shopping experience, and one which will probably not be repeated as I, like thousands of others will use the discounters in future.

Lovely store with friendly staff. Prices are slightly higher than other stores, but the quality is better and there's a big range of interesting products you don't get elsewhere. The 90 minute parking rule is great, previously people parked all day whilst using other shops or even taking the train. Now there's more space for customers.

If you want a miserable and depressing shopping experience then here’s the place for you. The atmosphere here is the same each time I visit this particular store. However this mornings (7th Dec 23) I have enough and the visit compelled to write this review. Before even getting to the shopping area I had to change path to avoid a collision with a very determined partner who clearly needed to be at customer service. No smile, no apology and no good morning. It’s not the first time this manager/partner has treated me this way. In the shopping zone 2 partners were greeting each other, which is fair enough and lovely to see but one declared ‘it was another day in paradise’. Why? I do not know. Next onto the chilled packaged fish counter where the person who is usually in the fresh produce section was re-stocking. He stepped aside eventually. No smile, no good morning. However C, his colleague got a good morning. I walked away hearing him telling C an anecdote about an incident with 2 mobility scooters from yesterday, so I presume this involved older adults or those with additional needs. Nice to hear in the public areas. At this point I wondered if I was invisible. The people at the customer service desks, checkouts and self checkouts are the saviours of this store. The majority of whom greet you and smile. However I and others have been subject to unwarranted rudeness in the past.Now I will never forget the debt of gratitude we owe to the partners throughout the covid lockdown and how helpful and organised they were.I am also aware of how entitled the customers using the store seem to be. Some of them are beyond rude. I am not one of these customers. I shop here because there is always different products to try and quality is second to none. However, I am not here so the neighbours can see my Waitrose carrier bags as I unpack the car.Maybe the solution is simple, I think it is anyway. Pay not a living wage but a thriving wage. Directors/CEOs do not reduce or omit bonuses for the shop floor partners and delivery people. Reflect inwards and perhaps offer a salary sacrifice for yourselves.it really is time for the partners to feel valued and in turn allow them to value us customers. This was the principal of John Lewis himself. It is so sad to shop here and if I can avoid I will.

Great staff and not as expensive as you might imagine! I have knocked off a star. Following their store revamp its not so good. I have noticed that there are many things that are not now sold. The deli counter used to be fabulous, always worth the queue but not anymore, there aren't any queues for it anyway now. Staff levels are lower be prepared to wait to pay or go self check-out, they will have us stacking the shelves soon!February 2022 update - I use them less and less these days. You may have read reports in the press of their prices rising faster than their competitors, the reports are correct. Next week they remove the free paper perk for 'My Waitrose' customers, another reason to avoid them. They do remain a niche store, they stock things that you will find difficult to get elsewhere and their cheese range is very good. The staff are always helpful and friendly but that doesn't help their inflated prices. I was tempted to knock-off another star, they are saved by the cheese.Mar 22 Update - OK the free paper is back, just be prepared to set up your e-voucher on your phone (rather than just scan the paper barcode. Still 4 star's but they are still a bit expensive compared to the other supermarkets.Still good for those items not stocked elsewhere, but still a bit pricey. The new app coupon arrangements for 'My Waitrose' is fine just adds a few moments at the checkout whilst you scan the vouchers from your phone, still it saves paper.July/Aug 22 Update - No changes, a little upward creep in some prices but that's the same everywhere. They are presently adding a homeware department.September 22 Update - I shop here less and less. Identical products are available cheaper elsewhere, they are slowly pricing themselves out of business.October 22 Update - It may just be my imagination but I believe gaps are appearing on the shelves. It could of course be another 'rationalisation' of product lines similar to when they 'upgraded' the store a few years ago?November 22 Update - They now have a freshly made sushi outlet operating. I gave it a try and it was tasty and well presented, not too expensive either. They have 'upgraded' and increased the number of the selfscan tills, they now film you as well.Dec 22 Update - They have added a little bit of a John Lewis aisle now selling towels and stuff. Other than that, no change.Mar 23 Update - I think they are doing as best they can to keep prices under control. They will never be the cheapest place to shop but for those who can afford it they have the ingredients you need under one roof.May 23 Update - No substantial changes. Still the place to go for any special ingredients but probably not the main shopping destination for many.June 2nd 2023 - Substantial amount of empty shelves still in the fresh fruit and veg section. It's been a week like this. Hope they sort out there IT so this doesn't happen again.September 2023 update - Things are back on the shelves again. I am not shopping here so often these days. Still good for items you can't currently find elsewhere, but this list is getting shorter. The discount stored have upped there game and it's going to squeeze the likes of Waitrose.