Waitrose essentials: Kalamata olives

[Mango Chimes]

I don't see it as top tier at all.  I see it as desperate.  It's a supermarket, full of stale factory shit pretending to be better than what your neighbour eats.  Capitalism's Finest. 

I particularly hate Waitrose because it's a bellwether.  When the Waitrose arrives it's time to leave.  It indicates your proximity has been infested with vacuous aspirational cunts.  I left Wales when the smarmy fucks set up shop in Aber.  Smug is what it is.

It's an employee-owned business.

[Dewt]

When I visit the UK I'm always amazed at the variety and quality of food available - even in my mum's little Co-Op.  I was taken to a Sainsbury's which - well, I don't want to say it blew my mind, but it kind of did.  There was a bit too much choice for me really - same with Marks and Spencers.  The fact that you can buy spirits in the supermarket was surprising - but then to see about 10 types of gin was flooring. 

Food in the UK is so cheap as well - NZ has pretty high prices but people don't realise it until they go to Australia and see the exact same products for half the price. We get told we have some of the best produce in the world but really a lot of our 'best' is exported and if it isn't, we pay top dollar for it.  There is still plenty of good quality food around of course but we don't get the variety that the UK does.

Hungry now.

I have a similar experience in the US. I know this wouldn't be the case in California or something, but in New Hampshire there's more choice, I guess - if you want to choose from ten different brands of cheese-flavoured cracker. The choice of quality produce is extremely low. There's one choice for pork belly and you have to hunt for it, whereas in the UK I could expect to not even have to ask a butcher for it, it would just be there in the fridge cabinet bit. People will scoff at this, but the UK (and Europe) defaults to providing food that has ambition. Even something as mundane as Tesco Finest would be baffling to people in huge swathes of The New World.

Whole Foods is the aspirational option that Buelligan remembers Waitrose being, and it's about as good as a decent Asda.

[Danger Man]

Waitrose still sell aspirational shit, yes. They have also converged to become much more like the others, who've met them in the middle.

My fridge makes me look posh. Better throw some shit out there and hope I look ok again.

[Dex Sawash]

I love olives but I couldn't eat a whole one.






Because the taste is quite strong so I like them sliced up on pizza or a burrito.

[Dewt]

Yeah, olives are absolutely delightful as an ingredient but I can't eat them on their own. Same with avocados. Makes me gag like eating a spoonful of butter would.

[wasp_f15ting]

The Waitrose Essential Margherita Pizza... just try it - thank me later.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

I didn't just leave Wales, I left Britain.  I'd retreated from the fatuous aspirational arseholes, westward, ever westward.  Now, they've tainted the whole country.  You'll find these cunts anywhere, in any generation.  Britain is crawling with them.

Why not just pity them? It doesn't matter. Laugh and be merry, as they say!

[bgmnts]

I don't see it as top tier at all.  I see it as desperate.  It's a supermarket, full of stale factory shit pretending to be better than what your neighbour eats.  Capitalism's Finest. 

I particularly hate Waitrose because it's a bellwether.  When the Waitrose arrives it's time to leave.  It indicates your proximity has been infested with vacuous aspirational cunts.  I left Wales when the smarmy fucks set up shop in Aber.  Smug is what it is.

There's no smugness or pretension in France, thankfully.

[Hand Solo]

I love olives but I couldn't eat a whole one.

[Buelligan]

It's an employee-owned business.

It's part of the John Lewis Partnership isn't it?  That's not employee-owned.  And even if it were, does ownership of the correct type give permission to behave in appalling ways?  The People's Purveyor of Cuntitude?  I think not.

Why not just pity them? It doesn't matter. Laugh and be merry, as they say!

As I said, I do pity them.  Nevertheless, they've mindlessly herded themselves across a great culture and destroyed it.  Made people ashamed of their own poverty and simplicity.  That's not funny to me.

There's no smugness or pretension in France, thankfully.

Waitrose isn't a country.  What sort of argument is that?  There are still places in countries, like France, where a person can live in beauty, eat healthy, delicious, fresh food, dress in hand me downs, feel self-respect and be poor.  Sure, there are objectionable people and things everywhere but most cultures haven't entirely subsumed themselves to the degree the British have.  I wonder what the Christmas ad will be this year?

[ZoyzaSorris]

The John Lewis Partnership is famously an employee-owned cooperative, buellers. As such Waitrose does seem a slightly strange target for tirades on the evils of supermarket capitalism.

[touchingcloth]

Isn't it owned by John Lewis?

[Buelligan]

The John Lewis Partnership is famously an employee-owned cooperative, buellers. As such Waitrose does seem a slightly strange target for tirades on the evils of supermarket capitalism.

I know the history of John Lewis but if you look at how it's marketed, what it does, the attitudes it promotes - it embodies the most rebarbative aspects of smug cupcake keep calmers cutting up spare cashmere to make VE-Day bunting.   Because a thing is employee-owned does not automatically confer on it righteousness or social responsibility.

[gilbertharding]

Just fucking listen to yourselves.

Fucking hell.

[Marner and Me]

I have a similar experience in the US. I know this wouldn't be the case in California or something, but in New Hampshire there's more choice, I guess - if you want to choose from ten different brands of cheese-flavoured cracker. The choice of quality produce is extremely low. There's one choice for pork belly and you have to hunt for it, whereas in the UK I could expect to not even have to ask a butcher for it, it would just be there in the fridge cabinet bit. People will scoff at this, but the UK (and Europe) defaults to providing food that has ambition. Even something as mundane as Tesco Finest would be baffling to people in huge swathes of The New World.

Whole Foods is the aspirational option that Buelligan remembers Waitrose being, and it's about as good as a decent Asda.

Americans are so dull with their food. It is cheap plastic crap. Filled with sugar too.

[Marner and Me]

Yeah, olives are absolutely delightful as an ingredient but I can't eat them on their own. Same with avocados. Makes me gag like eating a spoonful of butter would.

I like the big tug of olives you get in Morrisons that are stuffed with garlics and in the oil in the tub you get red chillis. Lovely stuff.

[Janie Jones]

I like the big tug of olives

I bet you do, Marner, you dirty old bollocks

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

There's no smugness or pretension in France, thankfully.

Lol,  indeed.

[Buelligan]

Waitrose isn't a country.  What sort of argument is that?  There are still places in countries, like France, where a person can live in beauty, eat healthy, delicious, fresh food, dress in hand me downs, feel self-respect and be poor.  Sure, there are objectionable people and things everywhere but most cultures haven't entirely subsumed themselves to the degree the British have.  I wonder what the Christmas ad will be this year?

[Neville Chamberlain]

Olives should be shot.

[shiftwork2]

Was first introduced to olives when Wilmott-Brown put a dish out in the Dagmar and Ali the gambler thought they were gone-off grapes.

[bgmnts]

I can live in beauty and eat fresh, delicious food and have self-respect whilst being poor in south wales, I just choose not to.

Although there is no Waitrose here, Saimsburys is as posh as it gets.

[pancreas]

If you want somewhere to buy Epoisses, bufala mozzarella, thai basil, kala mansi juice, ox cheek, potted shrimps, passable croissants ... then I don't think you have any choice but to go to Waitrose.

Plus, it is quite nice not to be harassed by vagrants as one imagines happens in an Asda.

[Buelligan]

Move to France.  I have friends who make or grow many/most of those items. 

Actually, don't.  You keep shopping in good old Waitrose.  Everyone.  *points threateningly at everyone*

I can live in beauty and eat fresh, delicious food and have self-respect whilst being poor in south wales, I just choose not to.

Although there is no Waitrose here, Saimsburys is as posh as it gets.

As you probably realise, I have tried it.  I suppose I was foolish enough to live in an area where the Waitrose demographic would buy up all the houses and not even install a fucking jukebox.

[Paul Calf]

I know the history of John Lewis but if you look at how it's marketed, what it does, the attitudes it promotes - it embodies the most rebarbative aspects of smug cupcake keep calmers cutting up spare cashmere to make VE-Day bunting.   Because a thing is employee-owned does not automatically confer on it righteousness or social responsibility.

So it's not what a company does that's important, but how they're marketed?

That's an interesting lesson.

[Buelligan]

Can you read Paul?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

If you want somewhere to buy Epoisses, bufala mozzarella, thai basil, kala mansi juice, ox cheek, potted shrimps, passable croissants ... then I don't think you have any choice but to go to Waitrose.

Booths mate

[pancreas]

They are very similar.

[Zetetic]

M&S frozen croissants are fine. Readily convertible to pseudo-franzbroetchen as well.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Is the jus roll pastry that comes in a cardboard tube better or worse than pre-packaged croissants?

I bought it but didn't realise it needed to be refrigerated and also forgot about it so it was passed its sell by date. It made a bit of a an angry popping sound when I opened it out of curiosity and I bottled eating it.