When the Mail and the Telegraph agree that the people of a historic town in Cheshire are being “snobbish”, you do need to wonder why – despite all the rhetoric about a metropolitan elite – they are suddenly enforcing a kind of political correctness themselves.
So spare a thought for the people of Lymm, who found that promises made by developers Brookhouse that they would be getting an “upmarket” store – which to their minds meant Waitrose – have been broken. The new tenant has been revealed to be Netto, the Danish discount chain whose UK stores are a joint venture with Sainsbury’s, and locals aren’t happy. “I know it makes me sound like a terrible snob,” said Conservative councillor Sheila Woodyatt, complaining in the Mail.
The Mail evidently agrees. But is it really an open-and-shut case of snobbery? Or should we take a deep breath before we condemn them? Because there are legitimate reasons why we might prefer Waitrose over some other stores. Three of them, in fact.
First, Waitrose is the biggest and most successful worker co-operative in the country. It is reasonable to prefer our hard-earned money to go to the staff and not the distant shareholders, who might actually hold the shares for a millisecond or two before trading them on.
Second – and perhaps because of this – Waitrose staff are visible, friendly and courteous. They smile. They don’t stare at you like the security guards who seem to be the most prominent members of staff in many supermarkets. It isn’t snobbish to want to be a valued customer rather than an inconvenience who ought to comb their hair better.
Third, Waitrose tends to draw more people into a high street, and has famously played such a regenerative role that local authorities all over the UK are paying court to it. Waitrose supports the local economy without corroding the local competitors. Some supermarkets try to sell everything, and will not be shy about using below-cost pricing to drive out competitors.
The new Netto development is claimed to be creating 57 jobs. This is always a bit of a shot in the dark. Some supermarkets create jobs and corrode others; some create jobs and support others. Some are anchor stores, but some are actually hoover stores, sucking up the available spending power greedily and sending it to head office.
So what is the accusation here? It is partly that the people of Lymm value the uplift to house prices that a nearby Waitrose brings. Partly perhaps that they are resisting the arrival of the hoi polloi, in search of special deals on prosecco. Partly also that they are keeping prices higher at Waitrose or M&S when their poorer neighbours would benefit from discounting.
All these are real concerns, though reports about Waitrose raising property values may be just as much because they can co-exist with independent stores which other chains destroy.
Nor is Waitrose perfect. They can be rather expensive purveyors of suburban blandness, and their cleaners haven’t exactly had their fair share of the mutual spirit.
But there is another truth, which is that some supermarkets, and other big brands, treat their customers like dirt (although nobody is suggesting this applies to Netto). It isn’t snobbish to complain about this, as if we all have to accept the same treatment. Or that we can’t demand that newcomers on the high street support the local economy.
People know instinctively that some supermarket formats are deeply disempowering, and in subtle ways. Research in the US suggests communities that got a new Walmart store in the 1990s had lower voter turnout in the presidential election. Netto may not have the same effect, but its UK stores are part-owned by Sainsbury’s, another huge chain. It is hardly snobbish to complain that your local supermarket makes people feel powerless.
There is an insidious narrative emerging which suggests that, because most people are abused by the supermarkets they use – or the phone and energy companies – complaining about that treatment amounts to “snobbery”.
It is a narrative that requires us to stop fussing, to knuckle down and make ourselves easier to process. Don’t complain, don’t bother when developers mislead you, they say, because that is your lot in life. Personally, I don’t accept it – but heavens, I don’t want to be snobbish.
• This article was amended on 19 March 2015. An earlier version misdescribed Netto as “the Asda/Sainsbury’s-owned Danish discount store”.
