The Abbey shop will be the retailer’s third store in Oxfordshire to participate in the trial. Credit: Waitrose & Partners.

UK supermarket chain Waitrose & Partners Abingdon has launched an Unpacked refillables trial at its newly refurbished store in Abingdon.

The Abbey Close store is the retailer’s third shop in Oxfordshire to introduce its packaging-free retail concept.

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The refillable zone at the store features a dispenser for dried products, frozen ‘pick and mix’, coffee, wine and beer refills, as well as detergent and washing liquid refillables.

The store also has a dry-aged beef cabinet, a new Waite and Rose café with additional seating, an updated bakery area self-serve checkouts.

Waitrose & Partners Abingdon branch manager Chris Andrews said: “Our Oxfordshire customers will have a big say in how we take the Unpacked concept forward and how our customers across the UK might shop in the future.

“It is still early days in Wallingford but Botley Road has been a huge success so we are looking forward to seeing how shoppers in Abingdon now respond.”

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In June, Waitrose Unpacked initiative was launched at Oxford Botley Road shop to test customers’ attitudes towards packaging-free product shopping. The initiative seeks to eliminate unnecessary plastic waste.

The trial received a positive response at Oxford Botley Road store with over 90% of consumers expressing their willingness to continue Unpacked.

During the last two months, Waitrose launched the concept at stores in Cheltenham and Wallingford.

As part of its commitment to make its packaging reusable, recyclable or home compostable by 2023, the retailer has also promised to eliminate 20% of plastic and all non-recyclable plastic from own-brand by the end of 2021.