First look: Morrisons’ new Market Kitchen food-to-go format

Morrisons’ new branch in Canning Town, east London, offers a menu of food-to-go options including stir-fries and pizza as well as wraps, smoothies and burgers.

The food offer has been brought together in one place with the first Market Kitchen, extending the grocer’s Market Street fresh proposition into food-to-go by utilising in-store skills such as butchery and bakery and Morrisons’ own products to cook meals for customers.

“It’s about feeding people, and that’s our job”

Justine Manley, Morrisons

The shop reflects the increasingly blurred lines between traditional food retail and convenience dining, which other grocers such as Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have also been developing.

The 17,500 sq ft store – Morrisons’ branches are typically 30,000 sq ft and larger – reflects its location in an urban environment that also has high commuter footfall as well as a growing number of residents as apartments are built nearby. There are also flats above the shop, which helped shape the emphasis on food-to-go.

Other features of the store include various packing reduction initiatives, such as a refillable area, an extensive world food section reflecting its multicultural customer base, a community room and electric charging points in the carpark below.

Morrisons brand design director Justine Manley told Retail Week that the Market Kitchen and other aspects of the store format had been introduced to better cater to changing consumer behaviour and needs. The value of the format has quickly become evident with strong evening demand.

She said: “We’re really well known for Market Street. This steps that up significantly. It’s about feeding people, and that’s our job.

“We’re taking our fantastic skills and evolving them into food-making. We want to understand what more we can do for customers and that’s where Market Kitchen came from.”

The kitchen uses ingredients from the store, and digital signage means the offer can be varied according to factors such as seasonality of produce and time of day. “The kitchen is equipped for any type of cooking process and that’s different from anything else,” Manley said.