Overheard in Waitrose: documenting the chatter in 'Britain's poshest supermarket'

Eavesdropping in the aisles of the luxury supermarket chain

Antonia Molloy
Thursday 17 April 2014 16:45 BST
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The Facebook page has over 130,000 likes
The Facebook page has over 130,000 likes

It’s the first choice of the well-to-do shopper – and now a Facebook page has been set up in homage to “Britain’s poshest supermarket”.

Recognising that the typical Waitrose customer might be slightly more well-heeled than your average consumer, the tongue-in-cheek page is a platform for individuals to publish the “words often heard permeating the aisles” of the luxury supermarket chain.

Set up on Monday, the "Overheard in Waitrose" page already has over 130,000 likes – and what’s not to like about comments such as these...

If you're wondering how on earth you're going to find the time to run a hoover round your house in between work and socialising, spare a thought for those who also have to schedule in pool maintenance.

And what about people who have to fill two sets of cupboards - it makes shopping twice as hard.

But then again, these kind of problems pale into significance when your coffers are full to bursting. One Waitrose customer was overheard saying: "Gosh you have to be millionaires to shop here. Just as well we are!"

However, just because you have lots of money, that doesn't mean you need to waste it. Another upper crust customer commented: "Don't we already have a wine thermometer dear?"

An accompanying Twitter account has over 4,000 followers and offers up further overheard titbits.

If you thought crisps were a standard snack food, you were wrong.

And apples? According to the Waitrose clientele, they are so last season: "What are those next to the lychees and star fruit father? Why they are apples, Hans my boy!"

It is not the first time Waitrose has been ridiculed. In September 2012 the supermarket introduced the Twitter hashtag #WaitroseReasons, asking people to finish the sentence "I shop at Waitrose because...".

Some of the responses included mocking comments such as "I shop at Waitrose because it makes me feel important and I detest being surrounded by poor people" and "I shop at Waitrose because everyone on our estate does. Even the gamekeepers."

Earlier this month, Prime Minister David Cameron was accused of being “ stuck-up and out of touch” after he heaped praise on people who shop at Waitrose, describing them as more “talkative and engaged” than the wider public.

Mr Cameron was speaking in a question and answer session at a store run by Waitrose’s parent company John Lewis in Cheadle, near Manchester.

However, Waitrose is not the only supermarket to be mocked on social media. Discount supermarket chain Lidl also has its own "Overheard" page and accompanying Twitter account. Using slightly different wording to its posher counterpart, the Facebook page is described as: "A paje 4 them hoo heer them wordz in da streets ov britans 'premium discount store' [sic]".

But with under 800 likes, it has a bit of catching up to do.

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