Oxfordshire gets new Waitrose bike trailer scheme

Oxfordshire is the latest county to enjoy a supermarket’s bike trailer hire scheme to cart shopping home.

Earlier this year the Waitrose company decided to encourage shoppers to ride home with their groceries rather than drive. So they invested in specially-designed cycle trailers equipped with a large canvas shopping bag to store shopping for the ride home.

Waitrose’s store in Wallington, Oxfordshire, has now got the trailers, which are loaned free to customers who want to use them.

Store manager Duncan Robertson said: “I’m delighted that we are introducing cycle trailers and hope that we can encourage shoppers to think about using alternative methods of transport and play a positive role in the environment.

“We’re confident the trailers will be well received here as many of our customers are already engaging in our other initiatives, such as our Bag for Life scheme.

“Shoppers using them will probably get their food home quicker than most, not to mention saving fuel and transport costs.”

The store has three cycle trailers, and if the scheme proves popular, more will be introduced.

Customers can reserve a trailer before they start to shop and collect it before leaving the store.

They have up to three days to return it, and there are cycle spaces next to the store.

Waitrose has cycle trailers at 45 branches around the country and the branch at Witney is the only other store in Oxfordshire to have them.