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!!!”
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.