Waitrose ditches free newspaper vouchers for loyalty shoppers
Waitrose will no longer offer free newspaper vouchers to loyal shoppers as it instead looks to “invest in rewards that benefit all members”.
In an email sent to customers, the upmarket retailer said it would not be offering the discount vouchers for newspapers from 29 October, The Telegraph reported.
The offer, which was first introduced in 2013, gave shoppers a free newspaper or £10 shop at the weekend if they spent £5 with the retailer during the week.
In 2016, the weekday spend was raised to £10 and two years ago, the voucher was no longer available for the majority of shoppers as just 5% of customers were using it, according to Waitrose.
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However, a small number of the retailer’s ‘MyWaitrose’ loyalty scheme members who purchase the newspapers often had continued to retain it as a “temporary goodwill gesture”.
Speaking of the change, one shopper posted to X: “Middle class disaster – Waitrose is going to stop offering free copies of The Times when you shop there.”
A Waitrose spokesman told The Telegraph: “Our newspaper offer was retired in February 2022, as it was only being used by 5% of customers. A small number retained the offer as a temporary goodwill gesture, but we’re phasing these out to invest in rewards that benefit all members.
“These customers will get additional rewards over the coming weeks to thank them for their loyalty, as well as our wider benefits, like free hot drinks and personalised offers, which remain hugely popular.”
Other benefits such as the free hot drink offer and personalised deals will still be available.
Earlier this year, Waitrose reduced its loyalty scheme from weekly vouchers to vouchers that will only be delivered to shoppers from “time to time,” in a move that angered some customers.
The retailer’s myWaitrose scheme previously allowed members to receive two vouchers each week to be used by midnight the following week, either in-store or online, however, under the change in March, the terms and conditions read: “If eligible, the customer may receive vouchers for personalised offers on products from time-to-time.”
31 Comments. Leave new
Used to love getting my free paper on a Saturday morning, how mean to take that away from people?
I spend a fortune in Waitrose every week. I think they made a big mistake.
This was the only reason I order from waitrose on a Sunday – au voir Waitrose, another Customer departs
As M&S is nearer they’ll be losing yet another regular customer as there is no incentive to walk further
They did not even bother to notify the change to me
Au voir Waitrose – this was the only reason I got my Sunday grocery delivery from you
Goodbye Waitrose
Well they have lost another Custumer loved getting my free newspapers at the weekend, no point giving you 50 pence of an item which is much cheaper in
other stores anyway. Bad judgement Waitrose.
We do all family shopping at Waitrose (above 100 a week). Will divert to M&S after the newspaper voucher surprise.
Very bad move by Waitrose by discontinuing free newspapers.
I anticipate that they will lose many, many customers including me, my family and others I know.
Can’t type more ; off to M and S.
The daily free newspaper voucher was the reason I did all my grocery shopping at Waitrose.I will now shop at Tesco which is actually nearer to where I live .Another long time customer lost.
Well, they have lost one more customer. I am retired (76) and went to Waitrose every Saturday & Sunday for my free Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times. Reading them takes me the whole week. Of course I bought lots of other stuff there as well…….
You can give a naked man a shirt but if you ask for it back he’s very unhappy
Stopped going to Waitrose because of its removal of the free newspaper. Having the newspaper compensated for the
higher prices at Waitrose, compared to other local supermarkets.
Liked and looked forward to the free newspaper offer. They stopped this, and although I still shop at Waitrose, the current and present personalised voucher schemes are not or mostly, not useful or needed. I’m a divorced older person, my spend in Waitrose averages circa £10,000 per year. I’d like an advantageous voucher scheme that benefits directly with the amount of my personal expenditure.
The removal of the newspaper offer means I will not be shopping in Waitrose again.
I greatly appreciated the free newspaper voucher and would go out of my way to shop virtually every day at my local store, but never using the free coffee voucher. In return i would do the vast majority of my shopping there, it’s a shame that ALL that’s come to an end.
We buy less from Waitrose. Although it is more than some people who go in and get a loaf of bread or a bag of sugar, then get their free coffee. You can now get a free coffee without buy anything as long as you have a My Waitrose card. What other supermarket has to give free coffee to get customers.
I thought the scheme only applied to comics. Could I have got the Financial Times and the Observer for free?
As punishment for this change I will buy all my wine elsewhere 😂
The Observer? I’m not aware that they’ve stopped offering vouchers for lavatory paper.
This is suicidal to Waitrose, free newspaper is a crowd puller. They already kind of locked it down by not offering all customers. Anyway it’s lost, they should see reduced foot fall on Saturdays and Sundays.
Despite receiving personalised vouchers most weeks we have had about 4 weeks of none. Just generalised vouchers that are not related to our spending – the free coffee is ‘hanging on’ but for how much longer?
And more customers lost. My wife and I will no longer shop there, nor will my sister.
Waitrose appears to actively dislike having people shop there, preferring to discourage that outrageous behaviour.
A pathetic voucher scheme-“ yes, you can use 2 of the 8 we send you….only 2 remember ….but look, we are giving you 50p off some teacakes, generous, yes “
Terrible discounts..” you see that duck, was £10… now only £9.80…what are you waiting for?”
And now, a useful benefit taken away.
“ Hey, you can still get a free coffee…don’t forget to bring your own cup though…or, preferably, buy one of those in the homeware aisle. What? The coffee machine isn’t working? Oh, well, never mind…it’s not going to be available for much longer, anyway. We’re taking it away to offer even better benefits which I can’t disclose at the moment”
Tesco, Sainsbury’s et all must be so happy as Waitrose shoot themselves in the foot, again.
Exactly. The coffee machine hasn’t worked in my store I don’t know how long!
Another nail in Waitrose’s coffin. I didn’t get an email telling me of the discontinuation of the voucher offer and just spent 17 minutes in a store trying to find the voucher. One assistant didn’t know anything about vouchers at all – another told me the voucher system was discontinued last May. He clearly thought I was lying when I told him I had last used just over a week ago. On getting home I checked the website and found that the scheme has been discontinued. My local Waitrose offers poor quality, expensive vegetables and is tired and badly laid out so I now have no reason to shop there at all. M&S will now benefit.
They’ve lost us as well. For over 19 years
We shopped most days, lured by the offer of a free copy of The Times., usually spending at least £40 a time on other groceries and goods.
The very basic coffee machine often breaks down and isn’t repaired for weeks at a time.
So now we do our big shops at M&S and Tesco – where both have fresher fruit and veg.
And I do smaller daily shops in our local mini CoOps, Sainsbury’s, Tesco Express, Asda and Morrisons. Where we buy our copy of The Times and Sunday Times. But we are still in pocket because of Waitrose higher prices.
We spend between £10 -15k a year on groceries. So Waitrose have lost us good regular customers as well.
We go there occasionally because we like some of the staff – and for specific items the other stores don’t stock. But often they have run out of those…
Sometimes there are only one or two main tills open and a long queue for the baskets only where customers are often only buying lottery tickets or cigarettes…
They did not have the courtesy to tell me it was stopping. Will use M and S.
I echo all the comments above. I wrote to Waitrose pointing out that the free newspapers a couple of times a week mitigated the significantly higher prices I pay at Waitrose for my weekly shop. I got the ‘corporate line response’. So I too will do most of my shopping at Sainsburys or M&S from now on. I think Waitrose has misjudged the strength of feeling around removing this perk. The execution of the personalised vouchers for me is also poor – if I buy a large box of soap powder that would last 2-3 months, I hardly want to buy another one the following week!
I have loved the newspaper offer for years, first the Telegraph for puzzles, then for the last 4 yrs Guardian for news, especially with my free coffee! But it’s tough for supermarkets AND newspapers are barely surviving so it was bound to change. However, this is the first I’ve heard of the other offer, spend £5 or whatever mid week get money off at the weekend. Maybe that’s why it was under subscribed?!
If the primary reason is cost, I would have thought Waitrose could have negotiated an excellent deal with the newspaper publishers, since they’re desperate to maintain readers. So now yet more journalists will have to be made redundant.
…but they offer the occasional free iced bun! I know what I prefer on a Saturday morning
It was wonderful offer whilst it lasted . Sadly visiting Waitrose requires me to drive a few miles out of the way . I used to do a weekly shop as the paper made it worth the extra expense on groceries etc . All the other mayor supermarkets are only a mile away . I will now use them for the vast majority of my spend .