"But they sell duck eggs! Waitrose customers respond to closures | Business

The sign in front of Waitrose is offering a "sad goodbye" to Bromley residents who have been in their Sundridge Park store for more than 40 years.

The store closes in the fall because the supermarket said that it "has not been able to find a way to make the store profitable in the long run."

The store will become a branch of Lidl, the German discount supermarket chain which, with Aldi, is aggressively developing in the UK and shaking up the status quo.

Bridget Wright, who has shopped all her life there, is stunned by the closing: "Oh my God. I can not believe. My husband said this morning that Waitrose was closing some stores, but I was sure our store would be safe because there are still a lot of people and things are beautiful. "

The 64-year-old also loves the German channel, but prefers Waitrose for her wine selection and high-end product line. "They sell duck eggs that I do not think I can get to Lidl."

A survey has already stated that the arrival of a Waitrose branch in a neighborhood, with its high-end Duchy organic food brand and Heston Blumenthal range, could add nearly £ 40,000 to home values. But the retailer, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership, owned by its employees, is now retreating, selling or closing unprofitable stores, while it's adapting to an extremely competitive food market where Cheap rivals are on the rise.

It is obvious that the snobbery of the place where people shop is a thing of the past in Britain, buyers looking for the best quality at the best price. Aldi and Lidl are the fastest growing supermarket chains in the UK, with some of their major traditional competitors challenging their business models.

Sainsbury's and Asda – the UK's second and third biggest supermarkets – have recently attempted to merge in an attempt to strengthen their position against discounters, but competition monitoring has blocked the deal.

Kylie Day thinks that Lidl will be a better choice for local people who are struggling to cope with low incomes.

She says the Waitrose store has suffered from a "lack of custom" even though there is little competition in the surrounding area.

"I'll be sad to see her go because I remember coming here with my wife … but I think Lidl will have more customers because of the prices," she says. "I think the older generation is gone and there is no one here to spend money: young people do not have it."

Aldi and Lidl are now bigger than Waitrose, which is the eighth biggest chain in the UK with 344 stores. The two discounters take out one out of every seven pounds spent in groceries in the UK.

After having progressed during the last recession, the German chains have transformed the mode of British shopping. Last Christmas – at a time when the British traditionally adopted their habits in more upmarket stores such as Waitrose – two-thirds of British households visited Aldi and Lidl, giving them their biggest share of festive expenses.

Waitrose said that the decision to close seven supermarkets, three of which – Bromley, Oadby in Leicestershire and Wollaton in Nottinghamshire – being sold to Lidl, is not a sign that she is throwing sponge. She is pouring money into her online grocery store as she prepares to end her long – term distribution agreement with Ocado next year. He says he's going to compete with the biggest competitors by making his stores more attractive, by adding sushi counters and wine bars, instead of trying to become bigger.

Lidl, the smaller of the two German chains with 760 stores in the country, announced last month its intention to invest more than £ 500 million to open new stores in London. It is also building a new headquarters in Tolworth, South West London, which can accommodate 800 people.

Peter Dowse, who put his Waitrose bags on the trunk of his car, did not hear that the name of the door would change, but explained that his main reason for using the store is convenience. "I would prefer it to stay like Waitrose, but I will probably continue shopping here," he says, adding, "If it goes down too much, I could think otherwise."