Do you live near a Waitrose?

Loughton_Monkey

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I tend to just look at the final bill when I get to the till which seems to always be about £75 regardless of which shop I am in. I find this better reflects the cost to me than a standardised basket of goods which I didn't buy.

Costs are definitely going down.

A couple of years ago, I usually got away with <£100. Then it seemed to be between £110 to £130 every week.

So far this year, I've rarely got above £100. Except that Sainsbury has been running a "Spend £110 5 times in 4 weeks, and earn 11,000 Nectar points [worth £55]". Hence I have struggled a bit.

The saviour was the other day when they reduced tonic water (12 small cans) from £4.25 to £7 for 2, so I grabbed all 24 packs in the shop for the 'fifth shop'. Together with a few other things for our forthcoming 2 month camping holiday it was easy to hit the target. Obviously I never buy anything that I wouldn't normally buy, but there's always loads of items you can just stock up on for future use.

antrobus

jackyann wrote: »

Haven't read the whole of this.
My nearest 3 supermarkets are Co-ops and that suits me fine. .......

Come to think of it, my nearest 3 supermarkets are Co-Ops. I regularly drive past them on my way to do some shopping. I'm not paying Waitrose prices unless I can at least get a free coffee and paper.:)

P.S. Not that you can really call any Co-Op a 'supermarket'; these days it's a chain of convenience stores.

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Costs are definitely going down.....

Grocery price deflation is now about 2% according to Kantar.

Anatidaephobia

There isn't any Waitrose near me, I've never even been in a Waitrose.

There are 2 Sainsburys, 2 Morrisons, 2 Tesco, Co op, Aldi, Lidl, 2 Asda, M&S, all within a 2-10 min drive, plus more if we go further afield than 10 mins, but no Waitrose.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Together with a few other things for our forthcoming 2 month camping holiday

:eek:

I assume by 'camping' you mean roughing it in merely a 4* hotel?

dktreesea

davilown wrote: »

I live near a waitrose (1 mile away), and shop there each week. My shopping bill is the same as when I shopped at tesco or asda, with the only difference bing the lack of waste as waitrose has a lot less 'BOGOF' offers. Why is my bill the same? My son has a part time job at John Lewis so we get 15% discount.

Tbh, the shop branded stuff tastes better and fruit/veg lasts a lot longer plus you don't have to put up with the massive queues any difficulty in parking. Oh and the aldi/waitrose combination is a very good one!

Incidently, this store is only 1/2 a mile from what used to be the biggest council estate in Europe.

Wow, that's a great discount.


I like the feeling of seeing people working who all get to participate in their company's profits at the end of the year. Plus they have the best sushi of all the supermarkets, and really yummy pastries at the beginning of the day, not to mention delicious house baked bread, much better than Asdas.

lostinrates

Anatidaephobia wrote: »

There isn't any Waitrose near me, I've never even been in a Waitrose.

There are 2 Sainsburys, 2 Morrisons, 2 Tesco, Co op, Aldi, Lidl, 2 Asda, M&S, all within a 2-10 min drive, plus more if we go further afield than 10 mins, but no Waitrose.

Near is so subjective and variable. The supermarket I consider too far to bother with now is actually closer than the one I used to go to where I used to live. Within that range of near now I think I can get to them all including m&s which I never bother with, yet consider them too far to bother. :eek:

jackyann

antrobus wrote: »

P.S. Not that you can really call any Co-Op a 'supermarket'; these days it's a chain of convenience stores.

Depends where you are. I sometimes visit a town with an Aldi, large Sainsbury's & Asda, and I go past a couple of Co-ops that I'd call "convenience stores": tiny, not a great deal of choice and mostly stuff you'd pop in for.

But I'd call ours supermarkets albeit on the small side - they sell proper groceries, and I do my basic supermarket shopping there. But we don't have a "monster" supermarket anywhere near - if I ever call in to one when visiting other parts of the country, I feel quite overwhelmed!

I think for most of us, especially those working, the "nearest" is the one that is one your route. For many years I thought T*sco did so well, not because their prices were good, but they seemed to have excellent locations.

antrobus

dktreesea wrote: »

Wow, that's a great discount. ...

A 15% staff discount is certainly more than the typical 10% discount that the likes of Tesco anad ASDA provide for their staff. But then Waitrose can afford to as it has higher prices to begin with.

dktreesea wrote: »

...I like the feeling of seeing people working who all get to participate in their company's profits at the end of the year. .....

It's not quite as wonderful as people make out. As I understand it, the hourly rate for a Waitrose SA is 10% less than Tesco's hourly rate. Yes, that Waitrose SA might well expect a 10%-15% partnership bonus at the end of the year, but a big chunck of that is effectively nothing more than deferred pay.

dktreesea wrote: »

....Plus they have the best sushi of all the supermarkets, and really yummy pastries at the beginning of the day, not to mention delicious house baked bread, much better than Asdas.

Waitrose get their sushi from Taiko Foods which is supposedly a cut above your typical supplier. Not so sure about the bread. When you say "house baked bread", do you know for a fact that your particular Waitrose has a scratch bakery. Most supermarkets don't. They simply finish off part-baked bread.

zagubov

The big store on our high street was a large Bejam that charged convenience store prices for mediocre quality foods. It closed down and left us with an unsightly empty storefront for years.

It's now become a Waitrose and it's brilliant. Still expensive but a lot more interesting stuff than Bejam ever did. And it's two minutes walk from my door.

Also got Sainsburys and Tesco convenience stores about five minutes away. The big supermarkets are all about a mile away or more.

Used to live miles from the shops and could never go back to that.

missyrichards

^ Bejam, I remember that store.

There isn't a Waitrose that near to me but I do order from Ocado sometimes and some of the food is quite reasonable in price as well as being good quality. They have given me one year's free delivery too.