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 my main shop in Waitrose every week. I like it because it is closest, they have nice products, nice staff, easy parking and good ethics.

Stuff I don't buy in WR is meat & fish which I buy in M&S, Donald Russell or butchers/fishmongers, bread which I buy from the bakers if poss, ready meals which I buy from Cook and wine which we buy online - all are because I think they are better quality than Waitrose.

I can afford it because DH & both earn reasonable salaries.

I do my main shop in Aldi and then top up with all the nice things you can't get in Aldi in my local Waitrose (also my nearest shop). I often pop into Waitrose when they are doing reductions and we have a Yellow Sticker Special Dinner.

Aldi is wonderful for some things - I did a gorgeous pasta sauce last week with pancetta, Parma ham etc in it - all from Aldi. But their fruit & veg is a bit hit and miss. You need to be selective.

I find Waitrose far cheaper than my local Co op. Much nicer experience than Tesco and Sainsbury as well.

I do my main shop in Waitrose because it's convenient - the fruit and veg aren't great, meat is ok on a power with the butcher but the choice is limited, M&S is so much better....but I'd have to drive 30mins to get there.

I shop there from time to time.
I like the fish counter and they do great cakes .

Don't really understand the question - we shop there, although get fruit and veg from the greengrocer. We afford it because our income is such that we can.

We started using waitrose due to their Ethical approach to me that is important. I expected our food bill to go up and it did the fist month.. (by a lot ) 2nd month it went down to £10 above where we had been before.. 3rd month it went about £20 below. We have now been waitrose shoppers for many years and I can taste the difference when we get meat from elsewhere. A while back I bought some chicken from another supermarket. As we were eating dh looked at me and said " this chicken is not from Waitrose is it?" He had just arrived home and sat straight down to eat. there is no where he could have known it was from another shop.. He can taste it.

Their essential range is fantastic. I have far less food waste than I did before We eat well so I am not going to give you a figure (also we are a family of 6 with 4 teenagers so lets just say my food bill is large )

I use their 3 for 10 a lot. (in fact I cant recall the last time I bought chicken that was not 3 for 10) they have regularly got sausages on offer. twice a year they have a half price event. I stock up on Dishwasher tablets, washing tablets and fabric softner. Last one was in January I have still got 10 packs of washing tablets to get through (sadly only 3 fabric softers so I didnt buy enough there)
Check their reduced to clear items I often get cheap meat that way.. Go in late and you get bread very cheaply sometimes veg too.

Overall though for me it is simply the ethical approach and the quality of the food that keeps me faithful to Waitrose.. I do at times venture to other shops I always feel like I spend a lot for very litt.e I think you just get used to " your way" of doing things so everything else feels expensive.

I'm a Waitrose shopper and I'm certainly not rich. I look for the special offers and Waitrose essential products, I agree that you could spend lots of money if you were that way inclined but with a bit of planning it's more than possible to spend the same amount as you would in another supermarket, also the my Waitrose card benefits are very good too.

I buy in bulk things we use when they are on offer, and if you have a Waitrose loyalty card you get 10% off quite a few items. You can choose your own 20% off items (ten in all) that really help to keep the bill down on essentials. I also find the Waitrose essential range really good value. Tesco sell perishable stuff that goes off so quickly that you can't finish it - a lot of their bagged salads are going brown on the shelf and that makes it VERY expensive! (This might be bad stock rotation in our local store of course.) I did a shop last week and saved £12.00 on offers, loyalty card discounts and a free newspaper - I don't think Tesco or Sainsbury's would have been any cheaper.

Just done my first ever Waitrose shop online inspired by this thread - seven evening meals for two, breakfast stuff plus toiletries plus catfood and I really struggled to get up to the 60 minimum for free delivery! Much cheaper than I expected.

We order online - free delivery if you spend £60. We buy Waitrose essentials range for a lot of items and the quality is better than other supermarket value ranges. For a family if three we usually spend around £90 per week including a couple bottles of wine but not pet food or beer - we usually pick this up from Tesco every couple of weeks. I guess some things are more expensive, bread,and biscuits for example but for overall quality is much better and price difference is not that great.

I shop at Aldi then Asda then Tesco. What I mean by this is that I get probably 70% at Aldi, There are some branded items that I will only get at Asda and if they don't have what I am looking for then final port of call is Tesco.

BUT and it is a big but you have to be very careful at Aldi and inspect their fresh food carefully. It can be hit and miss with them. It isn't that it is substandard when it arrives in store but IMO it is about storage and handling. Aldi do not have cool stores out back of their stores (well not in the smallish one I use) and they do seem to throw their stock around a bit. (I refuse to get their bruised and battered potatoes anymore)

I still save 25% or so per week going to Aldi. The occasional time |I have gone into Waitrose and M&S for that matter I do wonder why people waste so much money doing a full shop in these places. But then again I have never earned enough to be able to not worry where I shop and maybe that is the key.

NapQueen has just proved my point ....I spend £35 at Aldi and another £30 pound or so at Asda a week. this includes EVERYTHING 7x evening meal for 3 (2 adults and 13 year old DS that eats as an adult) 7x breakfast for 3, 5x lunch for 2 9DP disabled I am his carer both at home all week) 2 x 3 lunch (weekend). The only extra I get is on a Monday £5 for mild and bread topup. It is all relative I suppose

People love to peddle the myth that shopping at Waitrose costs twice as much. It's just not true!

It depends what you're buying of course. The bulk of my Waitrose shops consist of meat, fish, fruit & veg and dairy produce as I mostly cook from scratch (allergies). I buy very little branded stuff (I could count on two hands the branded products I buy: things like Stoke's ketchup, Ryvita, Yeo Valley Yoghurt). I prefer Waitrose own brand mayonnaise and breakfast cereals which are cheaper than buying the favourite brands at any supermarket.

Sometimes I shop on Ocado instead and more often than not they send me an email afterwards telling me how much more expensive my shop would have been at Tesco.

When I buy fruit from Waitrose it is very very rare that I'll find a mouldy clementine in the bag or that the fruit isn't nice to eat. When I've shopped at cheaper supermarkets I've often ended up throwing bits away.

I would never buy really cheap meat anyway for various reasons.

I am not a high earner by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm a Waitrose shopper because we are not counting every penny, and I can get everything we want in one shop locally to where we live.

But I don't spend money on: alcohol, cigarettes, clothes or makeup. I am often amazed how much money some people spend on some of these.

milk and bread topup

ok people who do shop at Waitrose need to stop saying it isn't as expensive as people think . When you do a shop on my supermarket.com or the like they ARE often the most expensive

I do my main shop at Waitrose every week and our monthly income is approx £2500. It is absolutely affordable, particularly if you mainly buy essential Waitrose stuff. It is a nice environment to shop in, the staff are lovely and the food quality is excellent. In contrast, I was behind a couple in Aldi the other day who had a very similar shop to mine with similar items and was to discover the total was £135!! I have never spent anything approaching that in Waitrose. I spend approx £80-£90 a week including household goods and toiletries, sometimes that includes nappies! You definitely don't have to earn a fortune.

We live in walking distance to a massive Waitrose .... and I personally find their fruit and veg sub standard to anywhere else .. it's always best before that day too.
They do a great selection of more luxury items and some of their easy cook range is really good .... but the reality is the rest of it is all the same branded stuff you can get anywhere ...
Their customer service is good, cafe etc ....
But I really don't get the snobbery attached to it .....

I'm lucky as I can spend as much as i want on groceries and we spend a lot per week but I'm not a big Waitrose fan. We have lots of supermarkets here so I shop a bit everywhere and have quite a good comparison. I do most shopping in Sainsbury's and buy mainly their Taste The Difference and Organic stuff. It's more expensive but great quality and mostly cheaper than Waitrose normal range. I find Waitrose Organic range really expensive and not at all better than Sainsbury's organic stuff. I've also found their ready made food disappointing - fish cakes etc. I do think Waitrose is a bit about status... I also think the shops vary greatly - for example, I hate our local London store which is overcrowded so a nightmare to shop, there is always a super long queue and customer service is not amazing. However, whenever we travel to my DH's home town, I love Waitrose there - it's spacious, well stocked and staff can't do enough for you. At the same time, their local Sainsbury's is awful - no organic produce to be seen, only a few Taste The Difference things and mainly their essential range. So i think i would shop differently there... I think location has a big impact on what local stores sell and how they feel

This seems such an odd question. We shop where it is convenient, according to disposable income, where we get reasonable price for the stuff we want to buy etc. etc.

We currently shop in Waitrose and Tesco, because they are nearest. If we couldn't afford Waitrose, then we'd shop somewhere else or buy something else. Our income is nothing like you suggest, but maybe we have less other expenses than you do?

The problem I have with waitrose is I go in for bread and milk and come out having spent £70 as there are so many things i WANT but don't really need. It's a discipline issue for me. I'm sure if I stuck to meal plans and essential stuff then I could do it, and I am a SAHM so a one wage family - and my husband is not in the higher earnings bracket!

Aldi are not too bad for some things but the quality of fruit and veg is def not the same as Waitrose. I would prefer not to shop in any supermarket tbh. Farm shop or local grown stuff from greengrocer is of far superior quality.

When I lived alone I shopped there as it was the only place in walking distance. It was usually a case of shopping very carefully and resisting the temptation to chuck extras in the trolley. I didn't have a freezer either at the time, so couldn't do much in the way of bulk to cut it down a bit.

I did find it more expensive - fresh stuff and meat in particular. It wasn't expensive for the quality, but was expensive compared to what I would buy from other supermarkets, if that makes sense.