Waitrose will no longer give you Virgin Flying Club miles from 26th March

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• Baji Nahid says:

  21 Mar21 March 05:35

  The morrisons offer is also ending 🙁

  • TGLoyalty says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:47

    It was always ending.

    Though it was extended the last time.

    • James says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:04

      Morrisons was originally intended to be 1 mile per £ going forward, just like Waitrose. It is ending on 29th March ‘for good’, just like Waitrose. Although in my own account, the offer appears to have stopped already and I haven’t been receiving miles for transactions for a week or so now.

• Stu R says:

  21 Mar21 March 05:44

  I think after Virgin’s despicable behaviour in enforcing unpaid leave on staff then asking the government for a bung, whilst SRB sits on a small fortune, I’d think about flying with them ever again.

  • Spursdebs says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:53

    Good old multi billionaire Dickie Branson sitting in his hot tub on his tax avoidance private island telling his minions to take unpaid leave and demanding government bail out. Why are you surprised same man who sued our and therefore us NHS for 2 million £
    I have refused to buy anything he is associated with for years.

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:00

      I read recently just the interest in his firtune could pay his staff.

      • Craig says:

        21 Mar21 March 09:35

        Indeed?

      • AJA says:

        21 Mar21 March 09:43

        Theoretically that’s possible but it’s based on a notional interest rate applied to his net worth. He doesn’t actually receive that in income every year and he doesn’t actually have all of his assets in cash.

    • Anna says:

      21 Mar21 March 10:02

      +1, this is the man who demanded that UK tax payers fund the clean up of the BVIs after Hurricane Irma, an archipelago full of billionaires like him!

      • Perkypat says:

        21 Mar21 March 10:35

        And the man who sued the NHS.

        • Lady London says:

          21 Mar21 March 19:53

          Can someone explain that story about the NHS? I completely missed that

• Tom says:

  21 Mar21 March 05:58

  8,000 a year die from the flu in the UK.

  We are currently nowhere near that!

  FACT

  • James says:

    21 Mar21 March 06:01

    Having had a bad winter I am more worried about flu and still feeling the effects than the virus.

  • Jeff says:

    21 Mar21 March 08:56

    No we’re not. Hospitals are much much busier than usual though based on what I’ve been told from people who work in them

  • Ken says:

    21 Mar21 March 09:25

    Once you understand the power of exponential then you may think again.

    We are a matter of weeks behold behind Italy and Spain, even with yesterday’s increased suppression.
    London hospitals will beyond capacity in 5 days, the rest of the country 15 days.
    Yes, the majority of the deaths will be “pre-existing medical conditions”.
    Not much consolation if it’s your mum.

    If the UK gets away with 80,000 deaths in 2020 it will be a seen as a really good result.

    Although they have gone quiet on herd immunity, the playbook remains one developed for a Flu pandemic.

• James says:

  21 Mar21 March 06:02

  What I would say is that emails from Waitrose at the moment are a little slow for their updates and shopping.

• TH says:

  21 Mar21 March 06:28

  Surely it’s just economics, Waitrose are seeing unprecedented demand, so why would they sacrifice margin when they don’t need to?

  • Spursdebs says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:28

    My Son works for Tesco, he text me last night and was telling me how mental it is and how all the “ big wigs” are rubbing their corporate hands with glee at the takings. Funny how life goes 2 weeks ago he was just someone who worked in Tesco’s looked down on with contempt by some now he’s a key worker who you all want him to work his bits off so you can get a loaf of bread….funny old world.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      21 Mar21 March 07:38

      They must know it’s a temporary spike though. These people can’t consume everything they have in a standard time frame so In two weeks time when everyone has a full cupboard their sales will tank

      • Spursdebs says:

        21 Mar21 March 07:48

        Who knows how this is going to affect people’s spending habits in the future. All I know is my son and colleagues are getting no protection from the abuse the wonderful general public think is their right to dish out. I’m just thankful he works nights and his store is no longer open 24 hours.

        • Kabita says:

          21 Mar21 March 08:06

          It’s the same in the NHS – call for the retired to come back in and work. Really, they are going to have a huge amount of abuse. I left the NHS due to the terrible behaviour of the patients and family and I wasn’t even clinical!

        • TGLoyalty says:

          21 Mar21 March 08:12

          No idea one spending habits but I hope people don’t take self isolating as an excuse to consume 2/3x their daily calories for the next 12 weeks. That’s the only way they consume all the food they’ve panic bought.

        • Spursdebs says:

          21 Mar21 March 08:15

          @ Kabita my friend works for NHS doing repeat prescriptions she says the abuse she’s had is shocking. And she’s quite a tough woman.

        • Erico1875 says:

          21 Mar21 March 08:44

          Why is abuse allowed ?
          I was in ALDI last night and the checkout lady said they banned someone for dishing out abuse to staff earlier

        • Cat says:

          21 Mar21 March 11:57

          It’s the same at school – reception bears the brunt of it, when they get screamed at because “I deserve a bit of respite from my [expletive deleted] kids”, or because “My kids are vulnerable too, because I’m going to [expletive deleted] murder them if I have to put up with them for another day”. Last week we had one parent who was supposed to be self-isolating deliberately coughing into the face of a member of senior staff, when they refused to take their child, who was also supposed to be self-isolating. It’s been reported to the police as assault. I’ve only had to put up with a small amount of this, when I attempted to phone parents to let them know how their children are getting on in Maths, as next week’s parents’ evening has obviously been cancelled. I got as far as 5 phone calls, was shouted at by two parents, decided this was a bad idea, and gave up.

      • The Urbanite says:

        21 Mar21 March 08:20

        @TGLoyalty true – but now people can’t go to restaurants or pubs, or takeaways/deliveries being an expensive luxury with home cooking being cheaper some of it will be a genuine uplift in demand!

        • Tom1 says:

          21 Mar21 March 10:09

          Exactly. I used to eat one meal per day at home max. Now I eat three, 7 days a week (Plus snacks every 30 minutes, but minus some takeaways).
          So my ‘normal’ shop increased by ~3x.

          There are wholesalers and foodservice companies that used to supply restaurants, schools, office canteens, cafes etc who will now have lots of extra capacity they didn’t expect. The supply chain will adapt and find a way to balance the supply and demand.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          21 Mar21 March 10:18

          If they are replacing restaurant/pub with takeaway then it’s like for like spend, though it will reduce due to financial uncertainty.

          Agree that this means more home cooked meals so more business for supermarkets. I don’t know what sort of stats supermarkets are churning out But if the number of calories being sold is more than 2k per day per person (Which is what I suspect looking at people’s trolleys) then at some point it will significantly slow down.

          When you consider the market as a whole the number of calories required/consumed will probably fall as people eat at home more.

• Rich says:

  21 Mar21 March 06:36

  HfP loyalists in London will find cheap disguises available on Amazon just in case they have to go to a Tesco store now that the “wonderful” Waitrose have stopped dishing out Virgin miles ……..Heaven forbid!!
  An empty shelf is an empty shelf for goodness sake – what’s wrong with you lot?

  • Fenny says:

    21 Mar21 March 09:54

    Worse than losing airmiles on my daily lunch purchase, Waitrose have suspended their free coffee for customers. These are truly unprecedented times!!!

    • Russ says:

      21 Mar21 March 11:35

      Yes they have but there are a lot of things changing in a negative way under the corona virus banner in much the same way BA enhances products. My wife queried the stopping free coffee with a Waitrose employee she’s chatty with. She said it was because everyone and everyone touched the buttons. Fair enough. But when she asked if they were closing the pin machines as the same people touched them as the coffee machine she laughed and said they’d never do that.

      I was also quite surprised and frankly disappointed how little money JL have said they will set aside for employees who may encounter hardship. One million seems rather stingy.

    • Rob says:

      21 Mar21 March 13:11

      Harrods food hall remains open and has everything in stock inc London’s biggest pile of dried pasta and pasatta if anyone is desperate! Was in this morning.

    • Lady London says:

      21 Mar21 March 20:01

      Nooooo!!! TBH I think they were looking for a way to stop doing that anyway, and we won’t see it come back

• Michael C says:

  21 Mar21 March 07:02

  A very mild Waitrose whinge: our next-day delivery which has taken 10 days is arriving today: a couple of hours after the “you can’t change”, 15 items cancelled and 10 replaced with rubbish. No prior warning possible?!

  • Spursdebs says:

    21 Mar21 March 07:31

    We’ll adapt stop whinging and adapt! What is wrong with you people.

    • Michael C says:

      21 Mar21 March 08:48

      But they’ve replaced our quinoa with bulgur wheat! I can’t go a whole week without my vegan gluten-free organic 5-grain salad bowl!

      • Spursdebs says:

        21 Mar21 March 09:24

        Tough times ahead for you and now no points to add to the horror. I’ve heard there’s loads of rocket left on Tesco shelves if that helps you out lol

      • Peter K says:

        21 Mar21 March 09:33

        @Michael C. I take it from your comment you have no food intolerances/allergies then…..

    • Anna says:

      21 Mar21 March 10:08

      Ha ha my last Asda delivery was funny, it was like someone had just guessed what I might want for my grocery shop! But it was mainly nice premium brands and I got a £15 refund so it’s all good and we’re looking forward to trying some unfamiliar brands.

      • Russ says:

        21 Mar21 March 11:49

        You can’t really do that at Waitrose as we’ve already got the best brands sussed. Besides, we’ve already changed from Craster kippers to boil in the bag ones though if it gets any worse we’ll just start eating the Koi.

  • Genghis says:

    21 Mar21 March 09:06

    It’s a new world. Our Tesco delivery (regular shop, not “stocking up”) arrived last night with loads of stuff missing and weird substitutions. But I went out this morning and picked up most things we need.

    • Spursdebs says:

      21 Mar21 March 09:23

      I quite like the weird substitutions I normally keep them and try new stuff.
      I’ll adapt a lot easier than a lot , I’m housebound most of the time anyway and I grew up with empty cupboards I’m used to cooking with very little.
      Our little local shops seem to be coping quite well.

      • Anna says:

        21 Mar21 March 10:10

        +1 on all that (and see above). I remember as a child when the (plain) biscuits ran out before the end of the week and the excitement when the weekly shop arrived home!

        • Spursdebs says:

          21 Mar21 March 11:05

          Anna my Mum spent all the money on her horses, we knew what day of week it was by what was put on table. Fortunately I grew up in a road with all my family in a small village in Bucks , Aunts, Uncles, grandparents all sorts so I leant to cook from my Grandmother a Yorkshire woman who was in service as a cook. Which is probably why we all pronounce Bath, water and glasses like northerners lol

        • Shoestring says:

          21 Mar21 March 11:20

          @Spurs Debs – anywhere close to Bierton/ Wingrave? (where I was born)

        • Spursdebs says:

          21 Mar21 March 12:15

          @ Harry no I grew up in Seer Green near Beaconsfield. But now I live in Winslow not far from places you mention.

  • Lady London says:

    21 Mar21 March 20:03

    Isn’t there an option when you order that says “no substitutions”. I always choose that.

• Tom1 says:

  21 Mar21 March 07:12

  If you want to vote with your feet , M&S £5 credit when spend £30 on my Amex offers this morning.

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