Hospitality, Supermarket Assistant in Chelmsford

As a Partner on our service counters, you'll have the perfect opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and passion for food while feeling proud of how it is ethically sourced and recommend recipes for customers to try. You'll actively be bringing our ethos - passionate Partners serving food lovers - to life.

You'll use your enthusiasm and friendliness to build lasting relationships with your customers. You'll make all the difference to the impression they have about the Waitrose brand and keep them returning again and again by earning their trust and loyalty for a lifetime, all the while helping to maximise on sales and profit.

In addition to your contractual pay, any time worked between 22:00 - 06:00 will attract Night Premium at a rate of £3.75 per hour.

We are thrilled to announce that a brand-new Waitrose Convenience shop is arriving in Chelmer Village on 2nd July 2026, and we’re looking for dedicated food loving Partners to help us build this shop from the ground up. As a vital member of our founding team, you’ll work side-by-side with your colleagues to champion the quality, integrity, and unique shopping experience our customers love. This role will be part of the Bakery section within the shop; however, you will be expected to work in other areas also.

This is a brilliant opportunity to:

• Collaborate with a brand-new team to create a welcoming atmosphere.
• Contribute your expertise to ensure our very first day is a success.
• Connect with the Chelmer community and provide excellence in every interaction.

If you have a passion for working together and want to be part of a new opening, we’d love for you to join us in making our newest branch a local favourite.

We have a variety of part-time length contracts ranging between 8 - 30 hours per week available on both Temporary and Permanent basis.

Key Responsibilities

• You'll take responsibility for your own food counter ensuring the highest presentation and hygiene standards at all times.
• Staying on top of stock levels, ensuring the products our customers love are there when needed.
• Taking great care while working with open food and ensure all due diligence and health & safety protocols are followed, helping to reduce food wastage.
• Maintaining your knowledge of new products and have a good understanding of Waitrose's food values (e.g. animal welfare).
• Supporting the wider shop team when required with general shopkeeping tasks.

Essential skills/experience you'll need

• Communication skills to enable you to work effectively as part of a team and with our customers.

Desirable skills/experience you may have

• Experience of working in a customer facing role is welcomed.
• Experience of working in a catering / hospitality environment.
• Up to date knowledge and strong interest in food and drink trends.
• Flexible approach to ensure the support of the whole branch.

Closing Date: May 7, 2026

Pay: £13.00 (£13.25 After 90 days)

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours of Work: Varied hours of part-time work across seven days to include early starts, late finishes, evenings and weekends between the hours of 05:30 - 21:00.

Job Level: Partnership Level 10

Where You'll Be Working: Chelmer Village (Waitrose & Partners), Unit F Chelmer Village Retail Park, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 6XE

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays.

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants. We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.