University reveals plans to replace Costcutter

Costcutter on central campus is being redeveloped into a new convenience store, which will be managed by Warwick Retail.

The new store, which will be called “rootes grocery store”, will open for business on January 5 2015.

According to Warwick Retail, the new store promises to “serve the community it sits within”.

Warwick Retail has announced that it will make various improvements to the food products that students can purchase.

This involves working with local suppliers to provide a better quality and wider range of fresh fruit and vegetables, a new bakery area featuring a “bread of the week”, an improved range of alcoholic drinks and a new “grab and go” hot breakfast area.

Peter Dunn, director of Press and Policy at the University, urged: “pricing policy will be competitive with other convenience stores. We have a commitment to stock products that people want and are affordable. Longer term we will be working with suppliers to introduce locally sourced products.”

The rootes grocery store also promises to have well-appointed signage for better store navigation, extra tills to reduce queuing times and easier entry and exit to avoid congestion.

However, Warwick Retail has decided not to operate the shop on a 24-hour basis. The shop will be open 7.30am – 12am Monday to Friday.

Mr Dunn stated: “There was very little business to warrant opening the store 24 hours. However, we will look at extending the store’s opening times for key periods such as exams during term 3.”

Simran Thakral, a first-year Politics and International studies student, commented: “I’m excited about the new grocery store because Costcutter was so overpriced. If it means I can shop here instead of walking all the way to Tesco I’ll be the happiest person.”

Anu Roy, a Politics and International studies undergraduate stated: “Its all fair and good to install extra tills but no use if no one is going to be working them.

“There are times when the line for queuing [in Costcutter] has been extensive due to not enough staff, despite there being plenty of tills.”

She added: “they need to keep making sure their prices are compatible with that of Tesco since their main advantage is being on campus, yet sometimes they lose out on price because people are willing to trek it to Tesco for cheaper food.”