Winchester supermarket allowed to extend opening hours (From Romsey Advertiser)

Winchester supermarket allowed to extend opening hours

10:00am Sunday 16th December 2012 in Winchester

A WINCHESTER supermarket has been given permission to extend its opening hours.

Waitrose in Stockbridge Road, Weeke, applied to extend its hours from 8am—10pm to 7am-11pm.

Branch manager Alison Pilling told a city council planning committee last Thursday (Dec 13) the supermarket needed the extension to compete with local shops.

She said: “On the back of the unprecedented financial recession, the grocery sector has more competition than ever before. We would like the flexibility to be able to react to changing customer demand, particularly at Christmas and Easter.

“The site being open longer is unlikely to increase traffic by any discernible amount as the majority of customers will still shop within normal hours. But we want to make Waitrose more accessible to the minority.”

The majority of the committee agreed, approving the proposal by 11 votes to one.