To think Waitrose is an obscene rip-off

[SomeGuy]

I know they have lovely food, and you have to pay more for better-quality meat, etc., but surely there is no excuse for this:

Lindemans Framboise 375ml (raspberry beer)
Asda price: £1.64
Waitrose price: £2.19

Chimay bleu (trappist beer)
Asda price: £1.74
Waitrose price: £2.39

These are just bottles on a shelf.

Similarly canned food:

Heinz Spaghetti bolognese 400g
Asda 70p
Waitrose 98p

Toilet paper:

Andrex toilet quilts 9
Asda £4.76
Waitrose £5.35

and I could go on.

Like someone said earlier in, it's the customer service that makes the difference. It really does - and they are hugely successful for it. And no shareholders, all goes back to the employees. Brilliant.

Actually Ocado deliveries are best because they send you a text in the morning saying "Your shopping is going to be delivered by Simon in Courgette Van XYZ123L."

I love Waitrose too.

A new one opened (a few yrs ago) in my town.

I was pregnant and a touch hormonal, it was 23rd Dec, I hadn't ordered my turkey and was doing my main shop with morning sickness and my 4 yr old.

As it was the shop's first Christmas thay were having some stock availability ishoos (read someone had stuffed up) and I couldn't get most of my list, inc the turkey.

I found the manager and pointed this problem out to him.

He sat me down in the cafe with a tea and scone, a children's lunch box for DD and took my list off. He made staff call turkey orders to see if all customer who had ordered really wanted them, got substitute items for all missing on my list (inc a huge ceramic mustard jar £10 when all I wanted was a small tub of wholegrain).

Someone pushed my trolley, unpacked and packed it. I got all sub'd items free (40+) and I got an organic free range turkey crown.

I would've married the man on the spot had he asked!

I love them all muchly, although the nice young men in mine wear too much aftershave and travelling the chillded section requires a gas mask.

my love affair with them continued this evening with their leek and cheese tartlets, 3 rice salad and stuffed vine leaves, had a lovely convo wiht the man at the tills and had a yummy dinner!

as many of the 16/17 year olds are saying these days...OMG I HEART...WAITROSE!!

and marmaduke- he sounds so nice!,...in asda or sainsburys theyd look at you laugh for leaving it so late then go and chat to their mates!
see thats why i love the people at waitrose!

and food!
anyone tryed theire lavender and lemon cupcakes? ooooh salivates!

xxx

Milk, he went on to be far more fab than that! When DS was born he had CP and was very floppy and couldn't sit/balance unless fully supported.

The baby seat trolleys were too upright and unsupportive for him and he just flumped to the side/down and got very distressed. They had 2 trolleys that one could fit a car seat into but it was a busy shop and often these were already in use.

Mervyn, for that was his name, the manager always spoke to me after the Christmas incident and asked one day if all OK. I explained the issue, he questioned me about what I needed and ordered 10 more trolleys suitable for DS' carseat. Until they arrived I brought DS in his special pram/wheelchaair and one of the lovely young men pushed my trolley for me.

I have other tales of his loveliness, but I'm worried I sound like a stalker

He has now moved to a different shop, although I'm sure I played no part in that decision

He sounds so nice! and is a prime example of Waitrose cutomer service!

i want to hear tales of his loveliness!

stalkerish tendencies, whilst a bit scary can also be amusing and informative!

xx

I buy meat/veg/fruit/cakes from waitrose and everything else from home bargains!

I can't get on with tesco, their stuff goes off too quickly and I don't like their meat.

The staff in waitrose are always really friendly and helpful. Going from there to home bargains is like going from the sublime to the ridiculous!

I also second the comment about waitrose cider!!!

Did you write to head Office and tell them about his loveliness, Marmaduke? To my shame, I always mean to do that but never get round to it.

I will be watching for Mervyn in our branches ...

i've thought of another reason why waitrose is brill.

the cheese

no other supermarket sells such delicious cheese, i bought a strong (strength 7 )chedder the other day and just smelling it made my tongue tingle, mmmmmmmmmm.

Marmaduke he sounds bloody fantastic!

To their credit (I knoooooow but in my defence there was no Waitrose) ASda back home ordered in a special trolley to cater for us and just one other family (we had 4 small children, 2 with SN and they ahd triplets) that allowed us to put ALL of the kidsin the trolley at one (but Dh did have to come to push the thing LOL)

Milkno- ds2 had that cupcake yesterday, he loved it. Their cakes are thintgs of beauty.

Am a convert now.

I did write, yes. I got a lovely letter and some vouchers in return!

I think he is one of their top guys and goes to set up new store/trouble shoot etc.

One time I was meeting with about 8 other mums at the cafe, they were all there with coffees and I had just arrived. He came over to greet me, using my name, (the girls wondered exactly how much time I spent in there!) and asked if everything was ok. The girls said that actually their coffees were a little tepid. He got us a new round in, including mine although I pointed out I had not yet bought one, with cakes.

My guess would be that their coffees were actually cold as they had been faffing around and gossiping for too long.

So to the OP, YABU, I am happy to part with large sums of money on a regular basis to get such splendid customer service.

That's it - my Boden delivery came today with a coupon for £15 off a shop at Ocado!!

It is actually quite funny - the family pictured on the voucher were dressed in Boden ...

Power of mumsnet ???

SomeGuy: The John Lewis Partnership part owns Ocado, so it's not totally separate to Waitrose, although their pricing is different.

I like Waitrose for the reasons other posters have mentioned: it's part of the JLP- which is a genuine partnership- i.e. all staff share in the profits of the business; staff benefit from a whole host of benefits other than pay (subsudused theatre tickets; subsidised education; partnership hotels/holiday homes etc etc); they are much fairer to their suppliers than other supermarkets and more ethical in the way they conduct their business.

Whether Waitrose is vastly more expensive than other supermarkets depends on what you buy as SomeGuy's limited "basket" suggests. I have used www.mysupermarket.co.uk to comapre the cost of my online shopping several times, and Ocado is never the most expensive. However, I do most of my cooking from scratch. Even if it were more expensive, I'd pay the prices for the reasons outlined above. It is the best value IMHO.

ok so marmy he fancied you,

you were his milf and oyu KNOW it...

I'd rather pay for the customer service, the realtive peacefulness, and the quality products.

OP - I don't buy any of the stuff you mention.

I go to W because I like their quality fish/meat/ etc etc and my nearest Tesco is 9 miles away so whatI'd save in food, I'd spend in petrol. And we don't have ans ASDA withing 10 miles.

It's a free world- no-one is making you shop at W so carry on shopping where ever you like!

LOL Noah, really? The poor man must have very low standards!

I have to say the 'coffee clique' were suitable impressed by my influence.

I think he saw me as a potential troublemaker to be pacified at all costs.

suitably

I buy anything that isn't fresh from ASDA online once a month.

For fresh foods, ready meals, treats, macaroons, fancy little onion tartlett thingies, nice bottles of wine, flowers, quick off the cuff presents for people (eg. some nice snowdrop bulbs bought last week), I like to waft around in Waitrose. The aisles are wide, the shelves are neatly stacked, they have nice toiletries, and little bits and bobs from John Lewis, the staff don't hurry you and the whole going to the supermarket experience is just more lovely. As I loathe and detest supermarket shopping, this is how I compromise.

Sure, this has probably already been said many times on t'thread.

I bought some "perfectly ripe" peaches from Waitrose recently that had just gone over-ripe and weren't very nice. However all four had one or more bites out of them (we were all eating them at same time). Took em back and got a double value refund no questions asked.

marammduke
descirbe him
paint a peinture
was he diVINE?

Or was he in a polyester suit

marammduke
describe him
paint a peinture
was he diVINE?

Or was he in a polyester suit

oh how odd - that came up as a preview first time

Not exactly Beau Ideal, tbh.

But I'm married to a hansome, vain and rather selfish impractical man who has never fulfilled a shopping list of mine in a fully stocked shop, let alone spent time and energy deciding that whipping cream may do instead of double.

So at that point in time I may have been prepared to overlook his shortcomings.

Regualtion John Lewis issue, not shiny as far as I remember.