Rate the shops: posh or not

[Codswallop20]

I will start you off.

Level 1

Lidl, farmfoods

Level 2

Aldi, Iceland,

Level 3

Asda, Tesco

Level 4

Morrison's, Sainsbury's

Level 5

M&S

Level 6

Waitrose, Booths

Level 7

Harrods

Level 8

Fortnum and Mason

Discuss.

(Entirely light-hearted and for entertainment purposes only, couldn't actually care less and have no aspirations of posh!)

Inspired by the other posh thread, and FYI ferrero rocher are still posh enough to make me feel somewhat inadequate.

@cafedesreves

In North London it's definitely Waitrose as the poshest. M&S always seemed a bit try hard. Lots of co-ops and Tesco express/Sainsbury's local which are all fine. Little Waitrose a cut above!

I think I'd agree with you there - I worked in Wimbledon for a few years and we had:-

Morrisons, Little Waitrose, Sainsburys, Tesco Metro, M&S Food Hall, Waitrose. Didn't see many Co-Ops apart from in another part of Wimbledon.

The 'posh' would use the Waitrose. But the Sainsburys seemed to be well used by them too.

@LemonRoses
I wouldn't say Booths is aiming solely at the fun for holidays market! we have one in the northern market town I live in and the University city where I worked and lots of people use them for a regular shop. Including us when DD was a newborn as it was so much less stressful than sainsbury's.

My favourite "posh" moment in Booths was when a very well dressed, more mature lady was offered the use of the self service tills and replied with "If I wanted to serve myself young man, I would shop in Tesco"

We now have Eurospar which have independent butchers, delis and a fishmonger, none of which fall within Spar prices, so I wouldn't put Spar at the bottom of the pile now.

A lot of it does depend on the area you live in, the only thing I would consider properly posh is something like Harrods or Fortnum and Mason.

I mostly do a mix of farm shop, Aldi, Sainsburys and Iceland
I wouldn’t have ever thought of shopping in Iceland until lockdown hit and they had delivery slots, totally snobbery on my part as actually the service is really good, some things are great quality while being cheaper. I couldn’t get a full shop there but it turns out my teenagers prefer some things so I still get a delivery once a month of all the things they like.

I hate Tesco, love Lidl.

I don’t love m&s food but for some odd reason I am seduced by the perfectness of it all.

I used to think sainsburys was posh until I started to shop there and realised I just didn't think much of myself. Tesco and Asda dont care who they employ. M&S I love the food quality and a bit more expensive but worth it. M&S and all the supermarkets get their fresh produce from the same batches but its just sorted into better quality piles before being packaged and sent out.

Waitrose I have never shopped in as I don't have one near me but its has an air of poshness to it. Then again so did sainsburys and m&s at one point. Fortnum and mason and harrods are just expensive.

Liberty isn’t a supermarket, but it is posh.

Where I am we have lovely Lidl about 12 months old, all sparkly and clean. It replaced a very grotty Lidl that I always felt dirty when I came out of (not very often.) Aldi a couple of years older starting to look a bit battered. Sainbury's and Morrisons are both 30 years plus and look it. We don't have a Tesco, Waitrose, M&S.

I would imagine it really depends where you are and what's available.

Iceland is absolutely fine. Cheap and cheerful but nothing wrong with that! And weren’t they the only supermarket who didn’t end up with horse meat in their products?

Kwik Save! Is that a northern one. It was a forerunner to aldi, stuff stacked high and in cardboard boxes. I used to have a Saturday job at marks in the late eighties, someone mentioned upthread about it being posh as you don’t do your whole shop there. Au contraire, I was always amazed how many people did just that when for me, it was very much a place for an odd purchase. Has anyone mentioned Booths, I think that’s on a par with Waitrose apart from the one near me (clitheroe) which is grotty.

Sainsburys is def posher than Tesco. However I’ll prob set the cat amongst the pigeons by saying I’d put Harrods at the bottom of the list - it’s just full of expensive tat😁

I agree, Harrod’s isn’t posh. Can’t remember if I’ve already said that...

Iceland beat the 'better' supermarkets on quite a lot of issues.

Years ago, all their own brand frozen veg was organic, but this failed for some reason, so they switched back. Probably because the type of customer who lives on pizza and burgers doesn't buy much veg and views anything as organic as wanky and suspicious and the type of customer who buys organic veg rarely shops in Iceland.

Yes, I think they were one of the few supermarkets not caught up in horsemeat.

They've been a leader in ridding plastic from their packaging and palm oil from their food.

They're supposed to be a good employer to work for and treat their staff well.

Also, from extensive personal research, their luxury level mince pies are consistently the best from any of the supermarkets, and I think I've tried just about all of them.

The only Waitrose in my city is actually opposite an Aldi, which itself is on a small downmarket retail park that has also has a Poundstretcher, Greggs, KFC and homeware shop that's actually a level lower than even Matalan in naiceness, but strangely there's also a Majestic wine.

Same with us, Waitrose is next door to Lidl and there’s a B&M down the road.

The mince pies were very good. I got several boxes of yellow sticker ones.

Our closest Morrison’s is excellent - bakery, butchers, deli, best range of products of all the local supermarkets, things like tinned pulses and French style tinned haricots and creamed corn (local Asda has fifteen racks of baked beans and half a rack of tinned marrow fat peas and carrots!) and a huge variety of pasta/rice etc - it’s the go to locally for any slightly unusual recipe ingredients.

So here it would be
Farm foods and corner shop Premier stores
Asda (lines available are very basic, they’ve recently got rid of fish and butchery counters and the lighting in the shop makes it look dingy and depressing)
Sainsbury’s - the range has been reduced and they never seem to have much of anything in stock, also expensive
Co-op. All our local ones have been revamped and are actually quite good, good offers too.
Aldi/Lidl - do our weekly shop in either or. Much cheaper than bigger supermarkets and range has got better over the years (used to take DMum and we’d do our weekly shop together - we’d quite often be the only car in the car park, how things have changed). Some really nice wine at excellent prices.
Tesco - getting expensive
Morrison’s - as above, ours is excellent.
M&S - pop in occasionally for special treats.
Waitrose - our nearest is 40 miles away so we only ever use them on holiday. Once spent £60 on one carrier bag of stuff - horrified at the checkout, burned on our collective family psyche!
Booths -if I was rich I’d move somewhere I could use Booths for my weekly shop - such a sense of well-being in the store.
Harrods and F&M completely outside my frame of reference although the kind of place we look round while on holiday - we always check out the posh food shops wherever we go on holiday whether it’s Valvona and Corolla in Edinburgh or Merkur Hoher Markt in Vienna.

And weren’t they the only supermarket who didn’t end up with horse meat in their products?
IIRC Morrison's didn't have horse meat in any of their products, although they stocked a brand which did. I think they have/had their own slaughterhouses.

This is my take on it based on what the branches are like round us. We don't have Iceland or farm foods (I have never heard of that or Booth's)

Level 1

Morrisons, Asda

Level 2

Aldi, Lidl

Level 3

Tesco

Level 4

Sainsbury's

Level 5

M and S and Waitrose

Level 6

Wholefoods

Level 7

Fortnum's

@Twobrews

And weren’t they the only supermarket who didn’t end up with horse meat in their products? IIRC Morrison's didn't have horse meat in any of their products, although they stocked a brand which did. I think they have/had their own slaughterhouses.

👍👍 brilliant. One more reason to value their shops.

In my town I think Farm Foods is the lowest level closely followed by Asda and Heron foods.
We have fancy Aldi and rough Aldi, Lidl comes somewhere between the two.
Also two levels of Coop.
Tesco would be next,
then Morrison's and Sainsbury's although my Mum would argue Sainsbury's is the best.

Tesco is more posh than Sainsburys and Asda

Is it?

I would say Lidl was posher than Asda.

@Grenlei

Sainsburys is an interesting one.

When I was a kid it was definitely NOT posh, certainly not to my Nanna and all the other old ladies in Stepney who used to push their shopping prams down Watney Street to the local one...

I also used to shop there all the time as a student in Cambridge.

But in recent years the prices always seem on a par with Waitrose, and it feels they're going for a more 'select' market than Tescos, Morrisons etc.

Aldi and Lidl aren't posh per se but I do know a lot of very wealthy people who shop there in preference to Waitrose.

Asda and Morrisons are about on a par, Tesco slightly above.

Sainsbury’s do ‘basics’ humous and avocados here. They’re posh.

I haven't been into Iceland since 'the COVID', but I used to go into the one near my mum's every month or so to stock up on fish, prawns and ice lollies (and those cheapo £1 pepperoni pizzas DS1 prefers to the ones I lovingly pummel out!)

The people who work in the branch I go to are the loveliest, most helpful staff of anywhere I've ever been, not just supermarkets. I know there's staff training, but it's as if they've all been chosen for their sunny dispositions. The Stepford Supermarket Staff

Asda is the dregs, hate it.

Lidl and Aldi are brilliant, Sainsbury’s is better than Tesco on ethical grounds, Waitrose is where to get the best cheese (other than specialist delis and cheesemongers) and the Ottolenghi style ingredients that no one’s ever heard of.

They’re treated well so staff morale is high. That’s so important. In fact I might reward Iceland for that by doing a monthly shop in their big shop local to us.