Leven Street store in Edinburgh has officially launched its new look following a major revamp, which includes the introduction of several new food and drink concepts, a refill counter for dried goods and a Scotmid ‘first’ – a walk in chilled wine and beer cellar.
The store, which remained open throughout the design and build phase to ensure customers could continue to shop there, saw the partial demolition of the existing buildings on the site and the full construction of a new retail shell.
The Leven Street store is of special significance as St Cuthbert’s Co-Operative Society was established in 1859 just around the corner. The store was heralded as Scotland’s first ‘supermarket’ in 1959.
To mark the occasion, the Society has already donated £500 to the Kings Theatre as part of the venue’s ‘name a step’ campaign, which sets out to aid work into making the premises accessible to all and to creating a welcoming community space with improved facilities.
Lucille Bluefield, Interim Head of Development, Capital Theatres. said: “We’re thrilled that Scotmid has chosen to support the capital redevelopment of the King’s Theatre by ‘naming a step’. Their donation will help transform the King’s for generations to come by making the building fully accessible and improving facilities for audiences and performers. As our near neighbours, we’re delighted that Scotmid is relaunching its food to go offer and Capital Theatres staff, audiences and visiting performers will no doubt be keen to sample ‘The Kitchen’. We look forward to developing our relationship with Scotmid further.”
We continually look for ways to improve, enhance and expand our customer offering. With innovation a key area to achieving this, one new concept at the new look store is The Kitchen island, which provides customers with ready-made hot and cold food, pastries, sandwiches, snacks, pizza, noodles and various hot and cold drinks – with changing food choices to cater for breakfast, lunch and evening meal options.
A range of delicious products from two local suppliers –Artisan Cheesecake and Kilted Donut – has joined the line-up. Located in Livingston and Leith respectively, the move supports both businesses by bringing them into a new marketplace.
Scott Graham, Store Manager at Leven Street said: “The official opening of our new look store marks the end of a journey that began before the first lockdown. We are thrilled to bring an extended offering and brand new products to our customers. The feedback we’ve had has been overwhelmingly positive!”