Waitrose, a food shop, currently has 182 branches. The aim of Waitrose is to offer quality, fresh food and customer service. In 1904, the first shop was opened by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor, in Acton. The first Waitrose supermarket came up in 1955 in Streatham after the John Lewis partnership took over the business in 1937. Waitrose targets the middle class market like, the John Lewis's department stores. Although it has expanded in recent years, Waitrose originally traded mainly in South East of England and London. Eleven stores were purchased from Somerfield, their rival, and in a project named Toronto, 19 stores were bought from Morrisons in 2004 by Waitrose. It is being said that Morrisons preferred to sell these stores to Waitrose and not to its rival because they serve separate markets.
