Waitrose Brings Hanging Vegetable Gardens to the Supermarket
Published in Foodon 04-03-2019
Is the end of the packed salad in sight? By the end of this year, British supermarkets, under the direction of Waitrose , want to have their own picking gardens and vertical farms in their stores.
Save in an old railway tunnel
Bio-engineers have unveiled plans to set up hanging vegetable gardens in supermarkets. The systems do not use earth, are portable and can be placed in urban environments such as shops and supermarkets. Crops are grown vertically: with their roots suspended in a cylinder, where they are fed with a nutrient-rich spray.
Retail group John Lewis , which includes premium supermarket chain Waitrose, has confirmed to The Telegraph that it is currently in talks with bio-engineering firm LettUs Grow, which grows many types of vegetables in a disused railway tunnel in Bristol.
"No choice but surprising customers"
John Lewis wants to use the cylinders to grow lettuce on the shop floor, so that customers can choose their own fresh salad. They look at whether the introduction is still possible in 2019, otherwise it will be 2020. "You really come into contact with the food system and the origin of our food", explains the beautifully fitting named Jack Farmer, co-founder of LettUs.
"I think it really has to do with the way people see the shopping experience in the future, with the rise of Amazon and other online retailers, and the retail experience needs to become much more experiential," he said in Farming Today on the BBC. "In recent years, seismic changes have occurred in our sector, with a new measure of customer expectations every time they shop. Stores simply have no choice but to inspire and surprise customers - with fantastic products as well as personal, seamless experiences ", confirms Peter Cross, customer experience at John Lewis.