Arsenal Cake Sale and Mean Waitrose

bobversus

Hi everyone,


I ran my first ever cake sale on Sunday 24th of April for the National Autistic Society. I live right outside the Emirates stadium in Arsenal and so took full advantage of the 10,000 or more fans who walk down my road to raise money:

www dot bobversus dot com /2010/04/27/ bob-versus-the-cake-sale

It was incredible but exhausting; I had spent the previous two days phone bashing and racing round London picking up cakes from various generous bakeries including Hummingbird, Konditor and Cook and Greggs as well as local bakers and friends/home bakers. The cake sale raised over £300 for the charity!

The thing that really disappointed though... was Waitrose and their attitude towards helping. I went into the store on Holloway Road and two senior manager types refused to help. One laughed in my face when I asked if they'd be able to donate any cake (left overs of the day). Another blankly said no, his answer? That cake is left for the staff.

Perhaps I'm being a bit p'nickety but this seemed a bit unreasonable. Rather than aid a charity they'd give it to their employees who are paid a fair wage? I'd understand if it were a local bakery - though most of the donations I received were from family run bakers - but this is a high street giant.

Disappointed I left. Recently I discovered from a friend who works in Waitrose that they do not receive any leftovers at the end of the day, nor are allowed a significant discount. That adds insult to injury. I'm not sure it's totally true of all Waitrose branches, I imagine some DO, can anyone clarify this?

Regardless, it's irrelevant. Should I contact Waitrose about this and see if they will offer some sort of donation? Does anyone have a contact for their head office? I would imagine they would be very concerned that Waitrose has blankly refused to help a well known charity that isn't even asking for cash funds - just left over cake!

Thanks for reading!

Bobby

tabskitten

Erm.......so you are going to contact Waitrose to demand compensation for not giving you a 'donation' that they are under no obligation to give you anyway?!?
Personally I am quite relieved to hear that they favor their staff over some Joe Bloggs off the street who wanders in demanding free cake for charity........

I am not saying you are not a good person for trying to raise money for charity, but come off it, charity is optional and you should not pressure people into giving.

Savvy_Sue

Bob, we've always had quite reasonable support from our local Waitrose, which isn't even that local. However, we've approached by letter rather than going in, so they have our headed paper and some indication of what we need.

bobversus

Yep, totally see where you're coming from. I wouldn't want to guilt/force anyone (small business or massive) to give, each to their own.

But, I had authorisation from NAS and the proof to prove it including headed letters. Even Morrisons, 20 metres down the road agreed to help so bit surprising that the poshest (want for a better word!) supermarket in the UK weren't able to spare a few buns for charity.

BLT_2

Should you contact senior management because the local store refused to give you a freebie? Damn right, I went into Curries and asked if they had any 42" LCDs they hadn't sold that day and they laughed in my face.

I am pursuing this with head office at the moment.

Personally I would give the cakes to my staff too, especially as supermarket wages are hardly a fair wage, rather a minimum wage. More importantly I have had it up to here with getting pounded by endless charities all day, I can't turn on my TV, walk down the street or even check my freaking mail without getting a begging letter

liam8282

Perhaps Waitrose already officially support other charities, see the link (there are many more if you google waitrose charity)

http://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2008/07/22/waitrose-donate-%C2%A322-million-6840-local-charities

Maybe you going in off the street didn't give the right impression, I would agree with other posters that a written request for a donation, rather than you turning up "cap in hand", would probably have got a much better result.

Writing to head office, to almost demand a donation, is a bit over the top.

Mids_Costcutter

I guess this is all symptomatic of the lack of decision-making power by local supermarket managers these days. When I ask the manager at my local Somerfield / Co-op why they don't stock something the answer is always a monotone "it's decided by head office".

celyn90

Our local waitrose has a certain amount of cash that they donate to charity each month. The distribution is decided by the shoppers on the basis of the number of tokens the shoppers put into boxes. The store also have an allowance for raffle prizes and donations too that they give out when people write to them to ask.

Fair play to you for raising money, but I do think that writing a letter with a nice request giving a bit of notice may have got you further. Even if you had headed letters with you I think going in off the street in person is the wrong approach. I also think it is a little bit mean of you to put the store manager under pressure by going in in person; however he handled it, he will have to respond in accordance with company policy or his job is on the line.

I would also think that there are issues with giving cakes that out of date at point of sale (so if you picked them up and sold them the following day). When I was a student and worked in a food hall, we used to have to destroy perishables at the end of the day of they weren't sold to staff.

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

celyn90 wrote: »

Our local waitrose has a certain amount of cash that they donate to charity each month. The distribution is decided by the shoppers on the basis of the number of tokens the shoppers put into boxes. The store also have an allowance for raffle prizes and donations too that they give out when people write to them to ask.

Fair play to you for raising money, but I do think that writing a letter with a nice request giving a bit of notice may have got you further. Even if you had headed letters with you I think going in off the street in person is the wrong approach. I also think it is a little bit mean of you to put the store manager under pressure by going in in person; however he handled it, he will have to respond in accordance with company policy or his job is on the line.

I would also think that there are issues with giving cakes that out of date at point of sale (so if you picked them up and sold them the following day). When I was a student and worked in a food hall, we used to have to destroy perishables at the end of the day of they weren't sold to staff.

I think the point is though that their response was rude, i.e. laughing at the charity request, and also far removed from many other retailers who were perfectly happy to help, without having received a letter beforehand either..

A super well done for all your fundraising efforts OP, what a great idea! :A:j:j