Waitrose faces 'middle-class backlash' after free coffee attracts 'wrong kind of customer'
Middle-class shoppers complain supermarket attracting less well-off clientele who only want its free coffee
Waitrose faces complaints from disgruntled middle-class shoppers who claim its free coffee offer is attracting the wrong kind of customer.
The supermarket, which has a famously upmarket reputation, offers shoppers a free cup of tea of coffee each day if they sign up for a 'myWaitrose' card.
The move has made Waitrose the second largest provider of coffee in the UK but has sparked complaints from some regular shoppers who say others are now coming just for the free drink.
One Facebook user, Jennifer Huggins, wrote on Waitrose's Facebook page: "Please stop the free coffee at Barry Waitrose, it is putting me off shopping in the store people are coming with two cards two free coffee no shopping, with their Tesco bags."
According to the Daily Mail, another shopper, Penny Clayden, who does a weekly £100 shop at the supermarket, implored Waitrose not to "turn into a 'soup kitchen' handing out free drinks".
There is a saying:" free for those who can afford it, very expensive for those who can't."
What I did not know was that the spirit of the saying was "
and rightly so".
If you, like me, have ever wondered why some people, despite being very well off, seemed hell bent on seeing other less well off folks become really, truly impoverished, then I believe here is your answer.
The answer is "apartheid". The wish is for a financially driven segregation of "the wrong sort" born out of a desire to be perceived as better than other human beings. Worth more in every sense.
"I think seeing people walking round the store holding on to takeaway cups of tea and coffee looks quite ridiculous and brings down the image of Waitrose until it is just like everywhere else – in which case I might as well shop anywhere else."
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector...ind-of-customer.html
