Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

... or are the locals really rude?

123 replies

pfft · 30/06/2009 17:22

Have just moved to country village outside somewhat la-di-da town where we work.

Went to the local shop. Am now too scared to ever go there again.

Picked up the milk from the shelf, it had a spare label round the handle, which was wet with condensation - it slipped out of my hand and smashed onto the floor, spilling milk everywhere. I moved the vegetables away from the advancing tide of milk, and went to the counter to say I was terribly sorry but I'd just spilt milk and did they have anything to clean it up with. Woman appeared out of the back of the shop
and shoved me aside and said impatiently "Get out the f*ing way, SOMEONE'S going to have to clean that up", and the man at the counter said "oh you're TERRIBLY sorry [posh sing-song accent] are you. Well there's a Waitrose [posh accent] on the other side of [la-di-da town] for people like you, why don't you go there and spill milk and rearrange the shop how you like it, next time."

I said nothing and paid for 2 lots of milk. The man snatched the money out of my hand and scowled at me. The shop full of people all stared at me.

I thought "heavens I'm getting paranoid", looked up from staring at the floor, and realised they were all still staring/scowling at me.

How often do people spill milk in Sainsburys?
Is it such a crime?

OP posts:
ZZZenAgain · 30/06/2009 18:08

might be worth investing in a nasty spirited snarling dog while you're at it.

pointydog · 30/06/2009 18:11

I am amazed you said nothing throughout that shop scenario.

puffling · 30/06/2009 18:15

Is it Newmarket?

pfft · 30/06/2009 18:19

I was a bit scared, pointydog! (not sure of what, but felt like I'd just been screamed at by a teacher in primary school ). Also, I very much didn't want to come across as ready to feel got-at... given that ds will have to put up with these people even more than we will.

Only while I was riding home did it occur to me that their behaviour was really quite silly. Unfortunately there is no local rag, or I'd consider writing a letter to it. Then decide against it lest it prejudice DS' chances of surviving the first 3 minutes of school .

OP posts:
Kimi · 30/06/2009 18:19

This is why I love supermarkets and could not give a shit if every little store closed down and went out of business.

These people should relies you and doing them a favor by shopping there, not the other way round

toddlerama · 30/06/2009 18:22

Offer to help all your elderly neighbours with online shopping and laugh when the poxy place gets shut down.

SomeGuy · 30/06/2009 18:30

List of Waitrose stores (largely stripped of Surrey/London ones):

Abergavenny
Abingdon
Alcester
Allington Park
Ampthill
Andover
Banstead
Barry
Bath
Beaconsfield
Beckenham
Berkhamsted
Biggin Hill
Billericay
Bishop's Stortford
Blaby
Brackley
Bridport
Brighton
Buckhurst Hill
Buckingham
Burgess Hill
Bury St Edmunds
Buxton
Caldicot
Cambridge
Cardiff - Pontprennau
Caversham
Chandler's Ford
Cheadle Hulme
Cheltenham
Chesham
Chichester
Christchurch
Cirencester
Clifton
Colchester (coming soon)
Comely Bank
Crewkerne
Crowborough
Dartford
Daventry
Dibden
Dorchester
Droitwich
East Grinstead
East Sheen
Eastbourne
Eldon Square
Ely
Enfield
Evington
Farnham
Fleet
Formby
Four Oaks
Frimley
Gillingham
Gloucester Road
Gosport
Great Malvern
Green Street Green
Hailsham
Hall Green
Harborne
Harpenden
Harrogate
Havant
Headington
Henley-on-Thames
Hersham
Hertford
Hexham
Hitchin
Holsworthy
Horsham
Huntingdon
Hythe
Kenilworth
Kingsthorpe
Kingston
Leigh on Sea
Leighton Buzzard
Lewes
Lichfield
Lincoln
Longfield
Lymington
Maidenhead
Marlborough
Marlow
Marylebone
Milton Keynes
Monmouth
Morningside
New Malden
Newark
Newbury
Newmarket
Newport
Northwood
Norwich
Okehampton
Otley
Paddock Wood
Parkstone
Peterborough
Petersfield
Ponteland
Portishead
Ramsgate
Reading
Rickmansworth
Ringwood
Romsey
Rushden
Saffron Walden
Salisbury
Saltash
Sandbach
Sanderstead
Sandhurst
Saxmundham
Sevenoaks
Sheffield
Sidmouth
Southampton
Southend-on-Sea
Southsea
St Albans
St Ives
St Katharine Docks
St Neots
Stamford
Stevenage
Stourbridge
Stroud
Sunningdale
Swaffham
Temple Fortune
Tenterden
Thame
Thatcham
Tonbridge
Torquay
Towcester
Trinity Square
Twyford
Upminster
Waitrose at Oxford Services
Waitrose at South Mimms Services
Wallingford
Wantage
Waterlooville
Welwyn Garden City
Westbury Park
Willerby
Wilmslow
Windsor
Winton
Witney
Wokingham
Wolverhampton
Woodley
Worcester Park
Worthing
Wymondham
Yateley

Hassled · 30/06/2009 18:31

pfft - you have way more self control than I can imagine. I would have had a major hissy fit. Or cried. Possibly both.

< differentID - your sister is in trouble. People in Dereham are INSANE. Nice enough, but barking mad. >

pickyvic · 30/06/2009 18:36

move north - it might be grim up north but its a bit friendlier than that!

my mate once dropped a full 4pints of milk in our local corner shop and everyone (the staff included) nearly peed themselves laughing - it was dripping off her hair....it really bounced!
(Maybe you had to be there!!)but it was funny....

it was obviously a local shop for local people.! tell them where to stick their custom next time!

ZZZenAgain · 30/06/2009 18:38

I think she was not expecting that reaction in the shop or to be spat at in the street so she was struck dumb with shock. It's often not till afterwards that snappy come-backs and put-downs occur to you.

So what should she have said in the shop or in a situation like the one where she was waiting at the lights on her bicycle then?

pfft · 30/06/2009 18:40

pickyvic - yep, I was sort of expecting people to laugh too - it's always bounced when I've done it before... where I grew up the containers didn't even break, they just bounced!!!!

OP posts:
pfft · 30/06/2009 18:45

ZZZen - re the bicycle spitting thing, I think the comeback of choice - the one that would've got through to them, at least - would've been two fingers up and "f*ing OLD pikey c**ts".

Re the shop - I dunno. I really dunno. I dread being poshly gittish like my mother, and try as hard as possible to not be and treat everyone equally nicely, but fear I just emanate some kind of pheromone that gets up the noses of 60 year old men in polyester shirts...

OP posts:
ProfYaffle · 30/06/2009 18:50

ABetaDad - no irony! I just imagined the people of Cambridgeshire to be terribly refined though my personal experience is confined to Cambridge and Linton.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 30/06/2009 18:57

Well it is not

Bridport
Crewkerne
Dorchester
Lewes
Marlborough
Paddock Wood
Ringwood
Salisbury
Stroud
Tenterden
Tonbridge

Don't think its is Chandlers Ford
and juries out on Cirencester as although a la-di-da town it is a college not a uni.

whatmaisieknew · 30/06/2009 19:00

oh for goodness sake tell us where it is ! A mumsnetter wouldn't speak to you like that, she'd say "Hello were you looking for the organic veg ?"

DesperateHousewifeToo · 30/06/2009 19:02

Were you dressed head to toe in Boden?

pfft · 30/06/2009 19:04

FiveGMID - - it's in Cambridgeshire. I'll leave you to triangulate MNers to villages on the other side of town from the Waitroses in Cambridge, Huntingdon, Peterborough, Newmarket and Saffron Walden... .

OP posts:
Clwc · 30/06/2009 19:04

Someguy and Five, We've already established that it's in Cambridgeshire, somewhere near Cambridge (University town).

Clwc · 30/06/2009 19:06

Sorry pfft. X post.

Lizzylou · 30/06/2009 19:07

Hmm, it did sound fairly familiar, my Mother lived in a small village outside Cambridge for a time and she found it, ummm, interesting
She loved Cambridge itself though.

pfft · 30/06/2009 19:09

DesperateHousewife - haha! erm, head to toe in muddy holey shorts covered in house paint, manky running tshirt, and stinky tevas covered in cow poo (and milk)... arrived on DP's rusty old mountain bike... not looking posh! that's why I think it must be the pheromones that irritate old men getting to them...

OP posts:
hatwoman · 30/06/2009 19:10

absolutely no way it's Buxton. very much doubt it's north of watford. northerners don;t do stuff like that (sweeping generalisation...)

hatwoman · 30/06/2009 19:12

ooo this thread is moving quickly...

kazbeth · 30/06/2009 19:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bluebump · 30/06/2009 19:53

Ooh I grew up in a village outside of Huntingdon, I hope it wasn't there, I have nice fond memories of it!