It has just been announced that our local independent grocery retailer Jempson’s (currently supplied by Nisa / Co-op - and before that by Budgens) is joining Morrisons' retail partnership, ‘Together with Morrisons’.
In the meantime the Lower School site (below) once fought over by Tesco and Sainsbury's, but now intended for housing, remains empty, and rumours about a new supermarket just above Valley Park, or down near the Winchelsea Road, just remain rumours.
The first store to be changed is the Peasmarsh superstore which will be dual-branded later this spring, and the supermarket in Rye and convenience stores in Battle, Bexhill, Northiam and Wadhurst will follow later.
The new stores will offer customers a mix of Morrisons' own-brand products and branded favourites alongside local produce from local suppliers.
Whether any other supermarket will want to come to Rye remains very uncertain. The Covid lockdown saw many more people ordering online and having home deliveries from a number of different supermarkets ; and only using local outlets if they could not order online, or did not have a car, or were possibly here on holiday, or had run out of something vital.
The cut price company Aldi on the Rye side of Hastings is a fairly recent arrival and is reported to be attracting shoppers from the Rye area.
Rye News has requested a statement from Jempson's managing director Stephen Jempson and hopes to run a more detailed article in next week's issue.
