The Steeple Times

Category: Supply Chain Issues

  • Wonderful Wise Waitrose – Supermarket Sensibly Scraps Best-Before Dates On 500 Fresh Products

    Wonderful Wise Waitrose – Supermarket Sensibly Scraps Best-Before Dates On 500 Fresh Products

    In scrapping best-before dates on 500 fresh products, Waitrose has seen sense and will help reduce food waste; they should be saluted, but what will ‘went-off-at-birth’ Waitrose-hater Owen Jones have to say?

    Whilst most people sensibly lauded Waitrose for announcing they will be scrapping the inclusion of best-before dates on some 500 fresh food products from September, the public still await a reaction from the supermarket’s number one hater, the eternally ‘angry man’ Owen Jones.

     

    Of the move, Marija Rompani, director of sustainability and ethics at John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, this morning announced:

     

    “Best-before dates are designed to show food quality rather than how safe it is to eat.”

     

    “By removing best before dates from our products, we want our customers to use their own judgment to decide whether a product is good to eat or not, which in turn will increase its chances of being eaten and not becoming waste.”

     

    “By using up existing fresh food in our homes, we can also save on our weekly household food shop, which is becoming an increasingly pressing concern for many.”

     

    “UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year, meaning that all the energy and resources used in food production is wasted.”

     

    Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) added:

     

    “Best before dates on fruit and veg are unnecessary and create food waste because they get in the way of people using their judgement when food is still good to eat.”

     

    “We are absolutely delighted by this move… which will help stop good food ending up in the bin.”

     

    “We estimate that removing dates on fresh fruit and veg could save the equivalent of seven million shopping baskets of food from the bin, which is huge.”

     

    Rivals Tesco removed best-before dates on 100 fresh products in 2018 whilst Marks & Spencer did the same on 300 products in their range in July this year.

     

    Now, today, we join those calling on Apple watch wearing hypocrite Owen Jones to do the decent thing; it’s time for him to come out and celebrate the wisdom of the wonderful and anything-but-wasteful Waitrose.

     

    Pictured top – It’s ‘bye bye’ to irrational dates that just encourage people to bin perfectly good food from September at Britain’s smartest supermarket (left) whilst the eternally bitter Corbynite creep Jones (right) – a mouse-not-a-man who undoubtedly “went off” at birth – has yet to comment on this piece of extremely positive news.

     

    On Twitter, Matthew Steeples offered up a poll asking how ‘The Guardian’s’ nastiest piece of work would react to the news of the positive decision by Britain’s best supermarket. Previously, in April this year, a former columnist on the paper, Suzanne Moore, declared of Jones: “Owen Jones has long been very angry with me, and it’s not really to do with trans people at all. (There were trans people at many of those parties he attended – that’s how Terfy I am.) Trans people are merely pawns in his proxy war, and they deserve far better representatives. His real problem with me was that I did not support Corbyn or those who surrounded him. I didn’t feel it was my duty to get this deluded old fool elected. But Owen, with his zillions of Twitter followers, thought otherwise and became increasingly hostile to me. I may have been rude in my responses, but my animus against that part of the media isn’t personal: it’s about class. Owen went to Oxford and was a bag carrier in Westminster before being handed a national newspaper column. So many of these hard-Left types have no life experience and it shows. I was reminded of that recently when Jones went on some mad rant, posting 33 tweets about me. Way to go, mate, if you don’t want to look obsessive and harassing. He wanted to rebut the idea that he had anything to do with me leaving ‘The Guardian.’ The boring details are this: I chose to leave. I was not fired, but I found it intolerable to be censored for relatively mild views. I have never claimed to be cancelled or silenced. Do I think Owen was responsible for getting my “colleagues” to gang up and write a letter denouncing me? I can’t say. I certainly think he was responsible for creating the toxic atmosphere in which it happened. But he denies it and claims the letter was never about me, even though it was leaked to his mate Patrick Strudwick at ‘Buzzfeed,’ who strangely seemed to think it was. No need to go into all that again. I wrote at length about it here without once mentioning the twerp’s name. But suffice it to say that in 30 years of journalism, no one has spoken to me the way he did. Of course, anyone on Twitter will be aware he does this on a regular basis to women. That is why #OwenJonesIsAMisogynist started to trend this week, after ‘Private Eye’ reported that an independent investigator brought in by ‘The Guardian’ had upheld a complaint of bullying made against him by a female columnist, and that he is yet to face punishment.”

    Reactions to the brilliant best-before decision on Twitter

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  • Easter in January at Waitrose

    Easter in January at Waitrose

    Waitrose started promoting Easter merchandise on the 2nd January; Easter Sunday is not until 17th April and naturally ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ mentality kicked in on social media

    Waitrose presents itself as a supermarket for the sophisticated. It’s more the kind of place you’d expect to find Jennifer Aldridge of The Archers than perhaps, say, Gail Platt of Coronation Street, but now the retailer to royalty has been slammed online after “going after the chav market.”

     

    On the 2nd January – a supposed ‘day of rest’ when the no doubt still pissed-up public were no doubt still recovering from their Christmas and New Year bingeing hangovers – one Rebecca Norton-Gray uploaded two images of merchandising in an unnamed store to Facebook and assiduously captioned them: “No, no, no, no. Today. Waitrose (South Coast).”

     

    The pictures shared featured Cadbury’s Mini Eggs and Lindt chocolate bunnies and were accompanied by signage reading: “Easter: Sunday 17th April.”

     

    Clearly joining the somewhat flustered Ms Norton-Gray in being not as enthusiastic for another holiday fest as the management of that particular store, other members of the ‘Overheard in Waitrose’ Facebook group reacted with equal shock, fury and amazement.

     

    Another member of the nigh on 21,000 strong group, Abi Lewis, described the marketing of Easter 105 days early as “mental” and added: “On Christmas Eve… they were taking down the Christmas shelving and filling up with Easter eggs and Easter bits” whilst an especially militant ‘Catherine McG’ proposed action and declared: “Too soon. Melt them.” What is she proposing to do? Pop round her local store with a flamethrower?

     

    Taking a contrary view, one Bob Anderson Bowden, obviously had other things on his mind. He scoffingly suggested: “People really have lost the ability to not get riled up over things they could just ignore, eh?” whilst Fred Hill turned to comedy and concluded: “Oh my God. I’ve only just come to terms with the birth of our baby Jesus and now you want me to mark his execution with a bunny and an egg. I’m an atheist but this is superficial by even my standards.”

     

    Thinking outside the box and instead focused on matters of the heart, Andrea Marlowe brought up Valentine’s Day on 14th February and enquired as to what the supermarket was doing about that. Her priority, most definitely, was for love and lust rather than Easter and chocolates.

     

    Finally, meanwhile, Peter Raymond was clearly someone who’s truly simply had enough of utterly everything. He opined: “Oh, for f#@% off!!!”

     

     

    Iris Apfel Magnum
    In May 2020, members of the Facebook group got especially overexcited after news emerged that Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco had put out “urgent recall notices” for Magnum White ice cream tubs “because they contain milk” in spite of Waitrose being unaffected by the recall. Nonagenarian Magnum brand ambassador Iris Apfel – a living legend who believes: “More is more and less is a bore” – was sadly not asked for comment.
    Waitrose Lidl carrier bags social distancing
    Earlier in April that year, a member of the group gave advice on how to ensure social distancing when shopping and remarked: “When shopping in Waitrose, ensure others shoppers stay the recommended two metres away by taking a Lidl carrier bag with you.”
    Mike Alan magician coat savaged
    In December 2020, a self-professed “international magician” named Mike Alan went “mental with a cucumber after alleging a ‘razor sharp’ M&S shelf ‘savaged’ his coat and left him ‘looking like a snowman.’” Aptly from Tunbridge Wells, Kent – a place best known for originating a complaining sort going by the name of ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ in June 1929 – subsequently received advice from readers of ‘The Steeple Times’ that numbered: “Should have gone to Waitrose.”

    An early example of ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ correspondence:

    SIR – Being present at the unveiling of the plaque on Thursday last week on the Pantiles, I was surprised when the National Anthem was played to see that in a place like Tunbridge Wells, which is noted for its loyalty and calls itself ‘Royal,’ there should be people who refused to remove their hats. Are such people Communists? If they are, Tunbridge Wells should be no place for such as they. We can do without them.

     

    Letters to the Editor, ‘Tunbridge Wells Advertiser’ – 14th June 1929.

     

  • Dim Tim Martin’s Doom

    Dim Tim Martin’s Doom

    Nikolay Kalinin on extremist Brexiteer Tim Martin moaning about shortages at Wetherspoons being caused ironically by Brexit; ‘Dim Martin’ should blame himself only for such a situation

    It has recently been revealed that Wetherspoons – owned by Brexiteer Tim Martin – has been facing shortages partly due to ironically enough, Brexit. One branch for example put up a sign saying it has run out of Bud Light, Carling and Coors due to lorry driver shortages.

     

    A spokesperson for the company stated: “We are experiencing some supply problems with both Carling and Coors, which means that some pubs do not have the products available. We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused. We know that the brewers are trying to resolve the issue.”

     

    Martin – not having learnt from his mistakes from June – told The i that the shortages were due to industrial action, stating: “Last week, we understand, there was industrial action by delivery drivers acting on behalf of Heineken, our biggest supplier.”

     

    “As a result of a shortage of deliveries of Heineken, some other products ran out in some locations – for example Carling and Coors lagers.”

     

    However, Heineken were keen to point out to the paper that shortage of hauliers was the cause of shortages and that the strike action was canceled on 20th August.

     

    The shortages were mocked on the Internet, with many making fun of Martin for his blind support for Brexit, including him printing out 200,000 bear mats which advocated for Britain leaving the EU.

     

    Meanwhile, political activist Femi Oluwole wrote in his column for The Independent: “Can you imagine the entertainment value of watching Brexiteers argue with their past selves from 2016? The ratings alone would boost the economy so much we’d soon forget about Brexit and Covid.”

     

    There is no denying that COVID-19 had a massive impact on the supply chain, because the 60,000 drivers from EU who left the UK were unable to come back. However, the new restricting immigration system has also meant that many of those workers were reluctant to return.

     

    It looks like the sunny uplands of post-Brexit Britain are a bit more stormy that one could have expected, and that’s something that hardcore Brexiteers like Tim Martin and Nigel Farage truly need to accept and acknowledge.

     

    Tim Martin Boris Johnson
    The Wetherspoons owner has previously made much of his links with Boris Johnson. Strangely, he’s now rather quiet on that subject.