Stafford has people not claiming JSA in the best 5% in the country and has an average household income of just under 45k per year.
both superior to Leek, who guess what have a......Waitrose. Stafford can easily sustain a Waitrose.
I did consultation work for Waitrose in 2004 (maybe earlier) with a move to moving to Stafford, actually noted in the previous local plan by a different third party consultant. The only stumbling block was a suitable site. They had 2 options but both were outside of the local plan and was not sold off in the end.
in 2012 waitrose were in interested in the current morrisons site but they could not a agree to the length of term of the lease (25 years, with a 20 year opt out), so morrisons took quickly as tesco were sniffing around.
If waitrose want a store in stafford that suits them, they will be here. At the end of the day it is only a sainsburys and m&s clone, which stafford has.