Overheard in Waitrose!

Same in Altrincham, merlot. All the mums with their 4x4s picking up kids from prep school and straight into Aldi for wine, cheese, venison etc. I don't know about £4 school uniforms - they should start looking at the colours of local private schools' uniforms - they'd get plenty of customers.

DD was decorating and asked if I had any newspaper she could use. So I popped to Waitrose on Sunday and got a free paper with my shopping! And my free coffee too of course!

Three young shelf stackers were standing in a group chatting together in my Waitrose when one of the older staff came up to them and said where do you lot think you are ... John Lewis! (Only funny if you've ever been to John Lewis and seen all the managers standing round in their suits with clipboards in hand whilst customers try and get some service)

I like Waitrose [for some things] and it's not pretentious at all, in that nobody is like a Stepford Wife [no onesies either] it's just full of ordinary types doing the shopping.A bit pricey for a full shop, but we use it for certain items. Also the bread is never good, as mentioned on another thread.I shall certainly listen out for funny comments though.

Crafting, that comment about John Lewis could very well be applied to our local Tesco - any number of 'supervisors' and staff wearing suits wandering about, chatting to each other, but no one actually willing to respond to a till person's request for assistance or help!

I'm in a shopping desert, dontchaknow, with nary a Waitrose or a Booths - my DD2 has both within striking distance, so is never stuck for a free Guardian and a hot beverage. All my local Coop has to offer is the odd wilted bunch of flowers for a quid - I'm lucky if they have heads on by the time I walk home. I'm told that Booths shoppers tend to look down on the Waitrose riff raff.

Never heard of Booths

It's exclusive to the North West, Ana. Founded 1847, so they see Waitrose as upstarts.

Yes, as I see now I've googled it! I was wondering why it had never been mentioned before, as there are quite a few GNetters from that area.

DH just got back from Waitrose, gleefully announcing her was first at the reduced counter! Well it's nice to be first in something! Xx

The nearest Booths is at Knutsford, so I am stuck with Waitrose. How deprived am I?

Very - I LOVE Booths! At least, I love the one in Keswick which I believe is the largest branch. It's expensive but a lovely place. We went on holiday nearby a couple of times and it's the only place where I have been able to go to shop guilt-free and not care about the prices, because I know it's only for a couple of weeks and DBH hasn't insisted on hunting around for somewhere a bit cheaper.

The only place I have ever seen beggars in Bury St.Edmunds is outside the pedestrian entrance to Waitrose. I would love to know if it works for them. I presume so.

We use ALDI AND Waitrose, find that combination works quite well, then regular forays into my lovely local Coop, local veg shop. Sometimes Sainsburys, dont have Morrison and never Tescos! Would starve first.

A small M & S is coming to Melton Mowbray and Oakham- you should here the moaning - everyone wants an Aldi - except me give me M & S and Waitrose anyday of the week.

We are getting a small M&S at a garage in the high street, which is being demolished and then rebuilt to accommodate the food store! It should cause no end of traffic chaos when the badly driven 4x4s try to 'just pop in'!

I have Waitrose across the street from where I live so I shop there all the time. I don't think they are more expensive than anywhere else if you get their specials and/or their own brand stuff.

I make a special trip to Lidl for certain items including the 1litre tub of Turkish yoghurt.

My best "shopping snobbery" story is this one which I am sure I've told about before but worth a repeat:

We were at a dinner party when supermarkets came up in conversation and one of the women said "I've never been to Lidl" in a haughty sort of way. Her teenage son said "But of course you have, you were there last week". To which she instantly replied "Well, I've never knowingly been to one ...". I laughed out loud. But she gets top marks for a quick come back.

DD2 posted a very funny article on FaceBook recently- with a 'poor' person asking all the posh people to go back to Waitrose now the 'crisis is over'- and stop the hour -long queues at Aldi and Liddle!

Our Aldi is very much busier than it was a couple of years ago. No where to park and the trolleys have all been taken if you can. And a lot of the customers look very comfortably off.

Overheard by DD in Sunningdale Waitrose (Where the VERY posh people shop!) " Oh my God the children will be home this week and I'll have them all summer!" This was a week before the state schools broke up so obviously at boarding school and mother will now have to try and remember their names and bribe the Au pair to take them out

Well, you learn something new every day. The fact that I shop at Waitrose means I am POSH!! I do have one saving grace though, I drive my 4x4 extremely well

Oh I remember the Sunningdale Waitrose, when I was starting my little PT job at the Waitrose that was opening in Abingdon....we all got 'bussed' their for our training....posh hardly covers it....I actually served Royalty...well a housekeeper with an account!

My most memorable Waitrose saying was one overheard in the fruit and veg dept at the last Christmas I worked there (10 years ago at least)....some poor woman, obviously at the end of her tether, had a full blown hissy fit and yelled at a manager that Waitrose had ruined her Christmas.....the crime was to have run out of Organic celeriac.

Good to hear they are opening a M&S in Oakham and Melton. I bet they wished they had not shut the one in Market Harbrough! Especially now Waitrose is there! X

I was in Waitrose today having my free cup of coffee and the man at the table close by was speaking to his wife at the top of his voice about the "new" house they have recently moved to and wanted to know whether to have the study up or downstairs, stating either room is large enough to hold a library table, and we all could understand how large it was as his arms were fully extended.

Would love an M&S in Market Harborough - where we visit often. At least in Melton Mowbray you can buy very posh pork pies.

I once heard middle class folk in Lidl, obviously on their first visit, exclaiming, " oh my God, they even do prosecco!"

I think Waitrose is the thing I miss most about England after the family. It is always our last stop before we get on the ferry....