Waitrose Is Not A Bargain These Days

Back in the day, Waitrose was great. An employees co-op and although their stuff was deadly expensive, they did top notch reduced to clear - and plenty of it! They reduced to half price straight away and then about 3:30pm was 'happy hour' when they reduced the stuff down to pennies and you could properly fill your freezer. Was £4.99 now £0.18. That sort of thing. It made for a bit of an eclectic menu - but who cares! Posh people's food at Kremlin-friendly prices.

All that's a memory now. Their reductions are rubbish these days. Was £4.99, now £4.59. What?! For your stale old stuff? 40 pence off? Do you want to sell it or not?

You're better off at Marks and Spencer these days. They still do crazy time in the afternoon and their food is even nicer and even posher than Waitrose.

 

Waitrose sell expensive stuff, but their essentials stuff isn’t anymore expensive compared to other supermarkets aside from Aldi or Lidl.

I actually shop at Waitrose as I’m more or less vegan and they have by far the best vegan/veggie stuff in comparison to the other supermarkets. The branded vegan/veggie stuff they sell isn’t anymore expensive than the other supermarkets as far as I can see.

Of course that’s my reason for using them, but no doubt they aren’t the cheapest option out there.

 

Have you tried Harrods online as an alternative? https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/services/food-to-order

 

In related news, Clive has noticed that the days are getting a bit longer and it has warmed up a bit.

 

I hear their "Basics" range is tolerable.

 

I’ve ‘filled the freezer’ for peppercorn prices at Tesco, Asda and Morrison’s. Never even tried Waitrose or M&S for these bargains.
But, in my experience different branches of the same supermarket have different policies.

There’s our Morrison’s that used to drop to giveaway prices but because there was a gaggle of shoppers at 7pm and they cleaned everything out in seconds, they changed it (with a change of store manager I think)? to taking off 10% then 25% or something, never for 8p anymore.
I was so ticked off I rarely go there now. Lol

 

Clive you need to get a job there, the staff get the best of the "going out of date" stuff.

 

You can’t beat Lidl and Asda imo

We had a cracking home made cottage pie for 4 yesterday costing £3.59 in ingredients

 

The waitrose in Ricky is one of the worst places on earth. Populated by absolute horrors.

 

All I know is the fights over the cages of reduced stuff as they're wheeling across the shop floor are some of the most brutal battles seen outside of medieval times.

 

Don't forget you get a free newspaper at Waitrose, Clive

 

Do they stock the Morning Star at Waitrose?

 

Have you tried TooGoodToGo, @Clive_ofthe_Kremlin? App that lets you reserve a 'Magic Bag' of reduced goodies, usually for about £3.

There's a few coffee shops/supermarkets/restaurants on there, but more added regularly. Differs area to area. From my experience, Costa hasn't been worth it, although has been decent quality. Morrisons is usually the most generous with the amount of stuff you get, although if you're a fussy eater you may end up chucking some (coleslaw, eurgh)

 

I'm an absolute sucker for the Wenzels one, from mine I usually get: 2-3 filled baguettes along with a couple of iced buns, 4 donuts and then something random ranging from a huge loaf of bread to a yoghurt. Varies quite a lot though, sometimes had entirely sweet ones filled with a ****load of cakes, donuts and buns. But i've never felt hard done by for my £3

 

No I didn't know about this at all - gracias compadre!

I see our local Budgens is in it, just up the road. Definitely worth a try...

 

On the subject of Waitrose, there was a glorious short time when their programming overlooked the possibility of reduced to clear.

So for example, the meat costs £4.99, but it's on offer for two for £8 say. You then find it reduced to clear, for 50p a go and when you pass it through the scanner amd the receipt says "Offer meat 2 for £8" and minus £2 is taken off your running total. So in effect, they're giving you a quid to take it away.

Ahhhh, that was my sort of bargain.

Someone must have blabbed, because it doesn't work anymore for some time now.

 

If you had a conscience you'd give the money back, Clive.

 

Nonsense. I followed the rules precisely and didn't do any trickery. The error was in their own calculations. Nothing I could have done to correct it. I didn't violate a single ethical principle in my view.

 

I'm thinking of a charitable contribution out of pity for an employee-owned business in a lot of trouble.

 

Quite jealous I don't have a Wenzels near me. I had one from Morrisons once where I got 35 pears, and 3 loaves of tiger bread.

 

Sounds sensational tbf.

 

Having started my career many moons ago working in a supermarket, I can 100% vouch for this.

 

The location of it leaves a lot to be desired as well. Seems daft to me.

 

I'm spoilt, there's 4 within a 15 min walk from me!

 

Years ago when at college/uni I worked at a Sainsbury’s and it used to happen there.

You had people that were wise to it and would be constantly on the look out. Anything that was BOGOF that was also reduced, they’d just stick these red reduced labels over the barcode and you had to manually key the reduction then tear a strip from the red sticker to scan the actual barcode. It would reduce the price in full but apply the reduction.

I remember they had it on burger buns once, some bloke came in and loaded his trolley up with every bun on the shelf. In the end he was owed something like £30 or £40. The shop wouldn’t actually give him money back, so they agreed to let him take them away for free. If he’d been smart he would’ve bought some other stuff so he still had to pay something.

Eventually they replaced these red stickers with specific reduced barcodes that were printed out and blocked the reduction, this was also because staff used to steal the red reduced labels and give them to mates etc.

 

I remember vaguely reading about some sort of Tesco offer where the clubcard points were worth more than the item. Someone clocked and bought the whole lot of whatever it was and was in profit, with the goods for free whether they needed them or not.

 

It was bananas. They were giving £1.25 worth of points for £1.17 worth of bananas. Some guy bought nearly 100lb of them, gave them away and made £25 profit on it.

 

An ex was a buyer for JLP. She wasn't very happy when she asked me, in the breakup argument, what I would honestly miss from our relationship and I answered honestly "...the long weekends of beach fishing at Brownsea Island..."

https://www.jlpjobs.com/head-office/leisure-facilities/

 

I had a similar experience at Waitrose one January about six years ago. They had brandy and rum flavoured double cream, buy three get £2 off, but on the last day of eat by date they had reduced the pots to 10p. I bought six to make rum and raisin ice cream. Spent 60p and got minus £4 on the bill. That helpfully paid for the pile of Delia Smith Christmas cake kits they had reduced to 25p. That was the Russell Square branch. A favourite of mine after discovering one Christmas Eve when rushing to grab some last minute food item after drinks in the nearby Skinners Arms that at 5pm they had reduced turkeys and geese to £2. That branch certainly did stock the Morning Star.

 

I remember my brother coming home with as many oranges as he could carry (a lot, it was a sight) and a crate of beer. It cost him about 50p as the oranges were on offer with the money off reduced items paying him about 10p per pack. He was more chuffed with the Oranges than the free beer.

 

Somethings 4rse about face when I discover that Clive shops at Waitrose and Marks and Spencer, when I shop at Lidl.

Our grocery bill is £50 - £55 a week for the three of us, which means that we benefit from a £10 off reduction (through their app) every month. We have plenty to eat, and very happy with quality which we think is often better than normal supermarket fare. We take advantage of the "offers" when appropriate and we get the additional bonus of little bargains like the big pick-axe I bought last month for £9.99 (I just need to find something to knock down).

 

Slightly related but when I worked on the till in my youth there was a regular scam quite a few punters used to try and pull. Basically they’d buy something small that cost just over a quid. They would then pay with a £50 note, they’d wait for the cashier to count out 2 twenties, a five some change etc, then hand it over to the customer. Then the customer would say ‘oh hold on’ actually I’ve got the exact £1.29 the time cost (or whatever it was) here’ from the change they’d just been given. They’d then say give me the £50 back, and hand the £1.29 over and scuttle off having pocketed nearly £50. I used to absolutely love it when they tried it with me, ‘sure, I’ll give you the £50 that’s in the till back as soon as you give me all the money I’ve just handed you first’. They’d generally go bright red and get extremely exasperated.

 

Wow, nothing gets past a19tgg, eh?

 

I love that story

 

When you tell this crazy 'world turned upside down' story at the Golf Club bar, don't forget to say it's the reduced to clear only stuff that the underclasser in question is buying in those shops.

I was in Marks this morning and got:

Family size luxury trifle: Was £4 now £1. Luxury taste the difference mash: Was £4 now £1. A pair of black cord trousers for our Aethelred: Was £29.50 now £1.89. Not a typo that last one.

Beat that Lidls!