Marks & Spencer opens its largest food store in Scotland at Straiton Retail Park

Marks & Spencer hasn’t just opened any food hall at Straiton – it’s the retail giant’s largest in Scotland.

The 15,000sq ft store is home to a large greengrocer-style fresh market, offering an outstanding range of Select Farms produce, lots of which is locally grown in Scotland, including rainbow and baby carrots from Inverness, and Arbroath strawberries.

Shoppers also have an eggs station where they can self-select their preference according to size, type and yolk colour.

Manager, Thomas Tierney, who is in charge of a 100-strong team, said: “There’s a real focus on freshness and local produce in the new store because we know that’s really important to our customers. The past 12 weeks getting this set up has been a whirlwind.

Marks & Spencer has opened the largest standalone foodhall in Scotland at Straiton.

"We’ve been feeding back to the company to discuss things we don't currently do but we would like to in the future and making sure we have all the Scottish products in place, as many as we can.

"We have so much range and I’m confident that our customers know they will be able to come here and have a great full selection.”

As well as serving their customers, the new store will serve the community as surplus food will be donated to local charities instead of going to waste.

To help celebrate the opening and relaunch of Sparks, M&S’s customer loyalty scheme, the team will be treating seven customers over seven days to their shopping, totally for free. One recipient will be chosen at random each day, and whatever is in their trolley will be complimentary.

Liam Smith arranges some of M&S's selection of cheeses ahead of the opening on Wednesday

The store’s previous location in Straiton closed on Tuesday night in line with the new opening, with colleagues moving across to the new store. The relocation to a larger site will provide customers with a bigger and better food offer to enjoy.

Thomas added: “We’re delighted to open our new store in Straiton today. The last few weeks have been spent putting the finishing touches in store and making sure all our measures are in place to support customers, so they can shop with confidence. It’s brilliant to now be open in time for the festive season – chatting with customers today it’s fantastic to see them get excited about our new Christmas products, as well as shop for all the essentials. Our new store also offers click and collect, which means customers can shop for the full clothing and home collections the

“I’d like to say a big thank you to the team, who have been amazing getting the store ready. We’re all so excited to show the community all that Scotland’s largest food store has to offer.”

The new food store also has everything customers will need for a Christmas meal, along with all the trimmings.

The exciting new grocery store will launch in Straiton and will include a large greengrocer-style fresh market section with an outstanding range of delicious produce to choose from, as well as a pick your own eggs station where customers can self-select any number of eggs, tailoring their box to their preference according to egg size, type and yolk colour.

It is open Monday to Friday, 8am until 9pm, Saturday 8am until 8pm and Sunday 9am until 7pm. M&S Straiton will offer extended shopping hours which will gradually increase up until Christmas and from December 21 until December 23 the food store will be open until midnight.

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