Never knowingly undersold

Is it only me...but I do like Waitrose.

I don’t know if this came across your radar in past few days but Waitrose has recently run a blog inviting people to complete the statement ‘I like Waitrose because……’. The answers have been hilarious. Check it out if you have nothing better to do. (And for those of you from deprived areas, Waitrose is a chain of supermarkets-like Lidl but much much posher).


One respondent’s answer showed the grammatical correctness of its customer base by pointing out, that unlike other supermarkets, it had queues for those with baskets of 10 items or fewer and not 10 items or less. That is most definitely my kind of place. And it is.



And yet my most recent visit to this emporium of Yummy Mummys led to my disgruntlement. And all because I did have fewer than 10 items in my basket. Two to be precise. Unlike some.



For the man in front of me in the queue with his young son had two baskets over-flowing with goodies. Naturally I pointed this fact out to the gentleman, for at this point given that he was in Waitrose I considered him thus, and that he might have made a mistake and had entered the wrong lane in error. I did not want him to feel embarrassed.




I pointed out to him the sign and even tried to read it out to him in case he had a visual impairment issue though I became increasingly convinced that he was just ill-educated. As the debate ebbed and flowed and the argument becoming increasingly heated it was clear to all that this man had no intention of playing by the rules and conforming to the standards required to shop in this emporium. It was a wonder that he agreed to pay.




And this man, who was setting a poor example to his son of the mores of how civilised people behave, had the gall to call me ignorant.




And while all this was going on the Waitrose man who should have been enforcing the standards acted as a passive spectator even though he must have been able to spot the difference between the typical and atypical Waitrose client. No way was he  going to intervene. No chance was he going to back a dog in this particular fight. This was way way above his pay grade.





Now maybe it’s only me but if Waitrose are (or should that be is?) going to allow those to whom the GCSE English grade boundary between C and D really matters, shop there; if those of a chavish disposition are going to be allowed to share the shopping aisle with my trolley; if people who do not realise that the ‘t’ at the end of a fine Merlot is silent are going to be given access to ‘Duchy Originals’ ; then they will really need to enforce the ’10 items or fewer’ rule.




For clearly such people for whom Waitrose is not intended are unable to read, understand and apply such a simple rule themselves without strong guidance. And I for one do not want my haven of shopping calm and my oasis of middle class behaviour to become just another Tesco or Morrisons, heaven forbid. I do not want to meet the Lord of the Flies when shopping for my groceries. They should get back to Aldi, Lidl and maybe even Asda.



Have a great week.




Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.