Which British supermarket chain, part of the John Lewis Partnership, was founded in 1904 in London? The answer is Waitrose.
Waitrose began in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, a small grocery business founded by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose, and David Taylor in Acton, West London. In 1908, after Taylor had left, the business adopted the shortened name Waitrose from the remaining founders’ surnames.
The John Lewis Partnership acquired the grocery chain in 1937, when it consisted of ten shops and 160 employees. Waitrose became the partnership’s supermarket arm while retaining its own brand identity and developing a reputation for premium groceries and service.
The date and location describe Waitrose’s original grocery business, not the later supermarket format. Its first supermarket opened in Streatham, London, in 1955. Tesco and Sainsbury’s are separate British supermarket chains, while Marks & Spencer is principally a department-store and food retailer rather than the answer here.