To ask people that do their normal shop at waitrose how they afford it?

[jdoe8]

After spending a few days with a family member that does and doing an aldi shop, the quality is very stark. As much as the super 6 look good, the apples are very powdery and the oranges pithy and not that sweet. It makes me feel a bit poor. In other countries you would have market stuff that is good, but obviously not in the UK.

I feel like I would have to earn 150k to afford it. I like it for the rare treat, but unless you live on cheap stodge im not sure how so many people afford it.

I do our weekly shop at Waitrose and I get some of our cleaning products there or at Tesco / B&M or wherever they are cheapest.

If I need to get branded items I would usually get these in tescos too as they seem to be cheaper.

I do my top up shopping in Waitrose and my main shop is usually online from Morrisons. (But once a month from Ocado as they have fab vegan things!)

A full shop in Waitrose is too expensive... but topping up is liveable

Whenever anyone mentions Waitrose, that Michael McIntyre sketch springs to mind

I don't think there is honestly that much difference tbh.
The only difference I find is when I go to Lidl (I only really have a Lidl and a waitrose that are convenient to get to) I can just chuck items in without really thinking about it but with waitrose I have to be quite strict and I only buy their essentials range. I find waitrose does in general cater to a more upper class market and have more specialized items which means they cost more obviously. But they do have the essentials range too, I find I spend perhaps 10 pounds more per week at waitrose when I have to shop there,
that said I prefer lidl for price, ease and I find their stuff is pretty decent quality. I think it must vary a bit though as some people say they don't like the quality of lidl's fruit/veg. As well as it being personal taste of course

What a weird thread.

I order from ocado and I find it great! About 80 to 100pounds every fortnight roughly and then we go to the grocer for fruits and veggies every week (spend about 20-30pounds). I don't like fruits and vegs from the supermarket, the quality isn't great and neither is the price IMO.

I use Ocado and Waitrose. I think Waitrose can be expensive if you buy lots of ready-made food, but I don't. I like Ocado and Waitrose because they stock all the basics that I need. It's just a normal supermarket.

Our budget when we lived in the U.K. was £80 per week and we shopped ocado. Totally do-able.

Oh, and I have started going to Lidl for a few things but I would not do my whole shop in Lidl because their range is very limited.

I get a lot of their 'essential' stuff. In all honesty in recent years the cost isn't much more than Tesco, etc. Unless you buy Ducy everything and a lot of ready meals...

Duchy

I've just started 'shopping around' in an effort to try and save some money on a weekly £200 shop for a family of 5. Previously shopped at Tesco with top ups at Waitrose, now going all over and approx £80 a week. I loved Aldi and thought their fresh fruit and veg was great quality, their wine is fab and cheap too! Asda was great also, only problem their marketing is so good I want to buy all their 'offers' Morrisons was v disappointing, poor quality fresh stuff didn't seem to save much compared with elsewhere and yes I still shop at Waitrose I'm just careful in only buying what I definitely need to minimise wastage

I just swapped to Waitrose online shop this week because of Tesco now charging for click and collect, and also my DH wasn't registered so got £20 off first shop. Had to spend £80 to use the voucher and it was actually quite difficult, whereas our Tesco shop had been topping £80/£90 the previous few weeks. Most things cost the same to be honest but a few things are more and a few less. The 3 for £10 meats are particularly good value. We mainly buy the essentials brand.

People go to Waitrose because of the status associated with it.

They do? I go because it's closest, has great parking and lovely food. And the the staff are lovely and helpful

Anyone who makes decisions on where they buy their milk based on what they think other people will think about it needs to have a long hard look at their life

I can honesty say that I have never had any status conferred upon me for shopping in Waitrose.

I get no respect.

We do our Waitrose shop Thursday evenings as that's when they reduced most .

I do all the food shopping in Waitrose because it's the nearest supermarket, has parking and I like the food there.

Most of the stuff I get is the essentials range anyway, plus I meal plan pretty carefully and make a list so it's not like I'm buying a load of random items. I haven't found it any more expensive than Tesco or Sainsbury's but I haven't sat down and compared like for like.

If people do indeed shop there as some kind of status symbol then I suspect they need a head wobble. Likewise the people who refuse to go to Waitrose as some kind of bizarre reverse snobbery protest.

That Waitrose is expensive is a myth.
Used to be but now all essentials are price matched to Tesco.

Two things made me leave Waitrose. First, most was given over to JL department.
If I want a coffee machine, I'll go to JL or buy online. There is never anyone shopping for electricals or household goods in my Waitrose.

Second, the price matching with Tesco. We don't shop at Waitrose for Tesco prices. If we wanted Tesco prices we'd shop there.

Both the above cut out lots of items due to space that only Waitrose had and I miss, such as a particular cheese or fresh shellfish on the counter.

Waitrose did used to be a bit exclusive but no more.

Gasp! I heard a public announcement for staff to come to the checkouts recently. There were never public announcements unless a dog was left in a car on a hot day.

The supervisor would quietly have a word and the wheels would have been put quietly in motion to open another till.
"Madam, would you like to come this way"?

Now it's "this tills open."

I'm open to shopping at Aldi, but having bought two packets of Smoked Mackerel as cheap and them being so full of bones, one being binned I'd never buy anything there again. That was three years ago and haven't eaten smoked mackerel since, from anywhere.

M&S is for busy people who need to put stuff in a microwave or oven.
Waitrose is for people who cook.

Second, the price matching with Tesco. We don't shop at Waitrose for Tesco prices. If we wanted Tesco prices we'd shop there.

I fail to see your logic there.
I don't got to Tesco as I don't like them as a company.

I agree, that the Essentials range is brilliant and this makes shopping there affordable.

I used to shop at Booths (small northern high end chain like a boutique Waitrose) and Sainsbury's but changed to Aldi when they buy it a nice new one near us,I am a total convert! Our weekly shopping has gone from £60 a week for 2 adults to around £30 excluding meat which we bulk buy variety packs from a local wholesale butcher for around £20 a time every 5 weeks or so. I tend to one week bulk cook from scratch in 4 person portions then freeze 2 of them around 4 days a week (we have maybe 2 takeaways a week and eat out on a Sunday teatime) then the next week generally when I'm working more we eat from the freezer on the nights we eat home cooked.

jdoe8 - I actually had a hunt about to try and find the report after I posted before and what I found was so out of date I didn't put post it up in another message. Early 2000s - honestly did think it that long ago. I found a couple of reports after that saying M&S and Co-op I think were the two supermarkets that had promised to cut pesticides.

The report was initially from Friends of the Earth:

I don't think this was the actual one (see link below) but this one recommends that M&S needs to be more flexible about the cosmetic appearance of its food to meet its residue target. I couldn't find anything more up to date to see if they improved this but I didn't spend much time on it.

www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/pesticide_supermarket_food.pdf

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/supermarket-fruit-veg-still-carry-1973075

I was in M&S the other day and the strawberries were unbelievable - so big, red and juicy looking. Whether that means the company has done anything with reducing residues I don't know. My father had told me about the report and what stuck in my mind was M&S wants its fruit and veg to look perfect so it tended to have more levels of pesticides on it and it was better to buy the ugly looking, off colour fruit/veg as it had lower levels.

I shop at Waitrose. I spend £120-£150 per week for 2 adults and 2 children, why? Because I can afford it, that's why. Scrabbling around in 4 supermarkets to save a few quid, eating factory farmed meat and cheap powdery fruit is not my idea of feeding my family and growing children.

I think what you buy has much more bearing than where you shop.

I feed a family of four, including 2 teen boys on all organic produce direct from the farm (by mail order). That's very extravagant compared to buying the same things in Lidl etc.

However, I only spend around £100 per week because I don't buy anything "expensive". Everything is cooked from scratch, fruit and veg is in season, meat is eaten in moderate amounts, breakfast is porridge (not hideously expensive boxed cereals) lots of pulses added to stews etc. No individual portions of luxury deserts or "healthy" cereal bars etc, which I think is where many families spend the bulk of their weekly shopping money. Food basics aren't expensive (relatively speaking) no matter where you buy them.

I don't think Waitrose premium beef mince is as nice as Tescos personally but that's just me.

There are some unpleasant snobby comments on here - why?