Northern Pride: Booths makes Waitrose look like B&M. Be like me and press your nose against the window this Christmas

[bellinisurge]

The Booths Christmas catalogue is out! It's always hardback. 2020 is no different. I always get one just to drool at and giggle over. Can't afford anything in it but it's a Christmas tradition. Pick one up if you are lucky enough to be near a Booths .

I got the Booths Christmas book yesterday and read it all, circling the things I want like it was an argos catalogue

I'm actually tempted to order their Christmas meal for four. Chances are it will just be Christmas at home this year and the food looks amazing.

I want all the desserts!

I love Booths... my local one is in Knutsford and I am lucky my godmother lives there... she knows it's Booths I go to visit!!!!

Their meat and cheese counters are just perfect.

I can walk in and ask for "2" of any unpasteurised blue", or "2 kgs of the fattiest brisket you have", or "can you make me one of those free-range chicken parcels", and they just make it appear or build it in front of you.

If I ever marry again, it will be to a Booths butcher.

@Coffeeoverload

I don’t get it... whenever I’ve been in Booth’s a lot of the food has been stale and fruit/veg on the turn and it’s all just been a bit 🤷🏼‍♀️. Sorry peoples...no drooling from my corner! Agree about Betty’s though!

I have never seen stock in poor condition like that, and I've spent a fair amount of time in various Booths around the area (I live near two).

Their customer service is wonderful too!

We always buy some components of our Christmas buffet food from there. We can't afford it all, but there are some staples that we don't like to do without!

We're lucky to have Booths and Bettys in walking distance! Not that great for the figure in lockdown!

The big Booths stores are good but the little ones are fairly unimpressive in my experience

That Christmas catalogue looks amazing though!

We have had their Christmas lunch for the past few years and it is amazing. I love going on Christmas Eve to pick it up with my dm and we have a mince pie in the cafe. The best bit is ringing a proper hand bell to let them know you are there. My ds gets more excited about this than anything else

You won't get a cafe mince pie this year as they're all shut until January!

Booths are donating to good causes.

They're doing a whole range of buy one, donate one free, for food banks at the moment.

They also support British farmers and food standards and have pledged to not stock low quality imported meat post-Brexit.

@Footle

Booths are donating to good causes.

how do you know that Footle? And how might a good cause access that help?

@StillWeRise, did you not read my post? This is an example of what they're doing. How do you think food banks access the donations?

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

Southener here too. I've seen the eBook and drooled thought "Oh that's quite nice"

Waitrose is nice for a Christmas wander , it's a 30 minute drive to my nearest one though. They are scarily well organised with queues at Christmas anyway , and pointing you to spaces in the car park.

Not sure I'll get to a Waitrose before Christmas though ?

I;m really jealous of Betty's , I don't know if there's anything comparable darn Sarf . We've got Gails and Patisserie Valerie .

You've still got Patisserie Valerie? All the ones I know are closed; I thought thy'd gone bankrupt?

I live within reasonable driving/walking distance of 5 Booths' shops and have lived in three places with Booths. Only go in for special stuff though; too expensive to do your shopping for the week.
The Windermere one isn't awesome TBH but it is crammed on that little site; there's not much room in that area to expand anything!
I have also gone through the catalogue but I don't rate the recipes in the back this year - last year's were better. Still going to get my xmas posh bits though!

You've still got Patisserie Valerie? All the ones I know are closed; I thought thy'd gone bankrupt

They went through a huge change a couple of years ago, I think they pulled most of their stores and just kept the London ones.

Our local one is still there but no sitting in.

We popped into Booths a while ago to get a dessert and DS asked, “Isn’t this the Christmas shop?” as we only shop there at Christmas 😂 (although pre lockdown I went every Thursday for my lunch when I was down in Lytham for work, those were the days...)

We used to make a pre-Christmas pilgrimage to the one in Knutsford. The whisky/whiskey selection is, according to DH, fecking brilliant.

Can you order this amazing book of dreams online? Or do you have to be in-store to get one? I'm in the Sarf so no chance of getting to a Booths but I share the MN fascination for it!

If you message them via Facebook Messenger they may post one out to you! They're really lovely.

Depending on tiers we may be away for a couple of nights near some Booths in December. Would anyone like to enable me and tell me what your favourite purchases are? It would be to buy and take away there and then, not to order for Christmas, although will power depending it could be stuff to keep for Christmas, if that makes sense.

Cheese and beer; excellent choice of both!

Booths is my local supermarket, 5 minutes walk
It might he beautiful at Xmas but it's bloody expensive the rest of the year. The Christmas book is a wonder though

Their meat packs for barbecues in the summer are very good though - nice meat and good value. Beers, cheese, unusual wines, bakery.