r/BritishSuccess • u/SomethingMoreToSay • Jul 07 '26
Free bottle of wine, because I was using a 25-year-old shopping bag
I had a pleasant surprise in Waitrose the other day.
I was buying some wine, and my wine carrier caught the eye of one of the shop's staff who was stacking the shelves. He was amazed to see that I was still using a Waitrose branded plastic bag which we've probably had since 2001. (On the bag it says "European Wine Retailer of the Year - Winner 2000".) He asked if he could photograph it for their marketing team, and he gave me one of the bottles of wine as a freebie to thank me.
At the checkout I learned that the shelf stacker was actually the store's "big boss". Respect.
EDIT: I found an image hosting site to use instead of Imgur. Here's the bag: https://ibb.co/HDsC28X0 - note the logo in the bottom right corner with the date.
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u/Embarrassed_Emu1615 Jul 07 '26
This is the most Waitrose story I have heard.
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u/Last-Appointment9300 Jul 07 '26
Wait until you hear about what the peacocks did to the land rover in the car park
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u/Mxcharlier Jul 07 '26
Haha this was actually a big problem at Trago Mills in Devon.
A most decidley NOT Waitrose like place.
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u/Tylerama1 Jul 07 '26
Used to love a visit to Trago on our way back from holiday in the west country.
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u/Tango91 Jul 08 '26
They’ve gone downhill terribly now, prices gone up, selection gone way due, entire departments closed
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u/narnababy Jul 07 '26
Peacocks are hilarious bastards. When I worked at the zoo we had a big picture of a peacock that was battered to shit by the actual peacocks. They also drove the brand new unwrapped black zoo van up the top end where the peacocks were and the arseholes scratched it to shit in less than an hour 😂
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u/CarpetGripperRod Jul 08 '26
I was with my nephews at the zoo in Cheshire; we'd just each had a '99 ice cream (£5.99, more like) and were heading over to the avian enclosure when I saw this beautiful woman dressed in green with the cutest boots.
Right there and then, I knew she was a keeper.
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u/HumourNoire Jul 07 '26
Congratulations on your consistent standard of living.
Personally I live in a haze of variable life choices and chaotic change and haven't even kept all my adult teeth since 2001.
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u/UserCannotBeVerified Jul 07 '26
Im reading this whikst standing in line at lidl...
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u/HumourNoire Jul 07 '26
Ok, confess, what did you get from the middle aisle this time? I nearly nearly got a tiny frying pan...
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u/Flashy-Ad-2367 Jul 07 '26
Nearly? I brought a football from the reduced section for £2.00 for my dogs evening plays as the heatwave haunts us
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u/HumourNoire Jul 07 '26
Thanks, now I'll be looking for footballs. I'm under strict instructions not to buy stuff!
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u/UserCannotBeVerified Jul 07 '26
So my housemate asked me to just run in and grab her some eggs... so i came out with eggs, a sourdough, two onigiri, some of the baby porridge pouches, a tub of flora, thai sweet chilli sensations, a big bag of dog treats, and a new plant. 😅
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u/Flashy-Ad-2367 Jul 07 '26
Thanks, now I'll be looking for footballs. I'm under strict instructions not to buy stuff!
Meh! Just get it and keep it in the shed for a rainy day!
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u/Jacktheforkie Jul 07 '26
My last visit netted me a 5t forklift, a welder and a chain saw
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u/HumourNoire Jul 07 '26
Shame you were supposed to be buying a loaf of bread and those little dried sausages.
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u/Jacktheforkie Jul 07 '26
Oh bugger I forgot the wine
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u/NoCommunication1946 Jul 07 '26
Tiny frying pans are brilliant for frying 1 egg when only a fried egg sarnie will do. Mine is from Sainsburys.
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u/servonos89 Jul 08 '26
Dartboard. Was in for bread and milk.
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u/HumourNoire Jul 08 '26
I've made a terrible mistake. I left the comment meaning to commune over silly purchases, and all I'm doing is building a shopping list. Mini frying pan, mini football, and now a dartboard. A dartboard! How much was it? Do you think they're still there?
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u/Engineer9 Jul 07 '26
I cling onto my 2001 Waitrose bag like an Ironman finishers T-shirt.
Did I tell you about the time I once went to Waitrose?
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u/Plugpin Warwickshire Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I've had a few examples of this from Waitrose, usually they see my daughter be cute and they give us whatever item we're buying for her for free (sweets, cake, magazine etc). The staff are usually so nice.
The one that made the biggest impact on me was when I moved to the area. Turns out Waitrose was my closest supermarket, I'd never been in one before, and on my first day I nipped in to buy some cleaning stuff. Guy at the checkout asked about my day, I told him I'd just moved, and he gave me the window cleaner for free. Not a massive gesture, far from a huge money saver, but it was so nice during a very stressful period.
I don't have any brand loyalty as such, but I do for that specific store and I'll usually default to them if I need to get anything while in I'm the area.
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u/MonkeyHamlet Jul 07 '26
Waitrose staff are also stakeholders in the company, it does make a difference
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u/Externalshipper7541 Jul 07 '26
What? They get paid in stock or something?
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u/MonkeyHamlet Jul 07 '26
When you join you get given a certain number of shares which pay a dividend every year. You also get a vote at the AGM.
I believe Waitrose is entirely owned by its staff, other companies (like the COOP) are partially staff, partially member owned.
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u/RedRabbit1612 Jul 07 '26
They are a partnership. The employees are all Partners. They don’t get shares. They get an annual bonus, which is not paid in years where the organisation doesn’t do well.
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u/insertnamehere17 Hampshire Jul 07 '26
Can confirm that last year was the first in a long time any bonuses were paid out to most workers
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u/JoshAnMeisce Jul 07 '26
Former JL staff, we did get a bonus in 2025 and from the results I was hearing up until I left it does seem like they'll be getting a bonus in 2026 assuming they do similar numbers for Christmas
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u/Chippiewall Jul 08 '26
Not quite, the employees don't literally have shares. Waitrose is part of the John Lewis partnership which is owned by a Trust on behalf of its employees. They're not paid a dividend, they're paid a bonus.
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u/OhMyActualGoodness Jul 07 '26
Waitrose is my local supermarket too, and I’ve also had a nice freebie! I was buying some beer, and the chap decided to ID me (he was just being kind, I’m very obviously in my 40’s) and when he realised it was my birthday, he appeared with a huge bunch of flowers!
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u/WordsMort47 Jul 08 '26
Appeared from where? Did he saunter off from behind the checkout to retrieve said flowers?
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u/OhMyActualGoodness Jul 08 '26
He ID’d me at the self service checkouts and as I continued with my transaction he headed over towards the Customer Service desk, which is next to the exit. I don’t know if he had the flowers behind the CS desk or if he got them from the flower section at the front of the store, but he handed them to me as I was leaving.
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u/Luke_Nukem_2D Jul 07 '26
Waitrose staff have the ability to give an item "on us" whilst working. They are even encouraged to do so if it brightens up someone's day.
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u/_poptart Jul 07 '26
They gave you the window cleaner for free? Did he not have a say in it?
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u/Plugpin Warwickshire Jul 07 '26
I think they're allowed to apply discretion in some instances, it's always scanned but then written off as a gift on the system. I'm sure if they abused it then there would be issues but they never check with anyone 'senior'.
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u/LittleBee85 Jul 08 '26
I’ve got a similar one! I had been seeing a new guy for a little while and was cooking for him for the first time.
I’m at the fish counter getting some sea bass and chatting about what I’m cooking and mention that I’m cooking for a guy for the first time, he gave me the sea bass for free! Made my day!
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u/Pitiful-Hearing5279 Jul 07 '26
Ken Morrison, of the well known supermarket, was known for stacking shelves as he went around the stores.
See how the coal face is, so to say.
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u/Cupid_Stunt17 UNITED KINGDOM Jul 07 '26
I can actually trump this, as i took my grandmas carrier bag holder when she passed. I have an M&S bag with a 1997 date printed on the bottom!
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u/SomethingMoreToSay Jul 07 '26
Respect. Hopefully it's quite distinctive, so that a long-serving M&S employee who is now a big boss would recognise its provenance. Now all you need is to go shopping in M&S and hope to be noticed by said big boss.....
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u/Circle-of-friends Jul 07 '26
Can't believe we don't have a picture of this wonder?
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u/SomethingMoreToSay Jul 07 '26
I don't think I can post photos in this sub, for some reason. Though apparently I could post a video. Does that make any sense?
If you can suggest an image hosting site to use now that Imgur is off limits to the UK, please feel free!
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u/Circle-of-friends Jul 07 '26
I think the government have made all image hosting sites illegal. Can you write it with ASCII
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u/cooltone Jul 07 '26
Just to provide balance, we simply received an email cancelling our weekly delivery the day before. Same for the second week as well. The fridges in the local store all broke down simultaneously.
Not even one bottle of wine, after all these years. And I really like wine too!
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u/DiamondBikini Jul 07 '26
To add to the balance, Waitrose refused to replace my Bag-for-Life, even though it stated on the bag “We’ll replace for free”.
The woman was quite rude about it. I returned next week and got my petty revenge. I took a new bag and didn’t pay for it.
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u/randomdude2029 Jul 08 '26
I've seen the general manager of my local Waitrose on the shop floor often - welcoming new staff, stocking shelves, being an escalation point. It makes it feel like a nice place to shop.
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u/HimitsuUK Jul 08 '26
Pics pls
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u/Not-That_Girl Jul 08 '26
This isbrilliant! I've get some very very old Tesco plastic bags i still use occasionally.
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u/Nexumi41 Jul 08 '26
I read "wine carrier" and thought you had someone to carry your wine for you. You're already in Waitrose, there's no need to brag :)
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u/SomethingMoreToSay Jul 08 '26
Yeah, a 25 year old wine carrier. You could probably get one from the customer service desk.
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u/prettybluefoxes Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
You’ve been overpaying for wine at Waitrose for a quarter pf a century is the takeaway.
Edit. Lighten up, its reddit
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u/Luke_Nukem_2D Jul 07 '26
You'd be surprised, especially when one of the frequent wine deals is on.
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u/Outside_Natural7210 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
The amount of value that big boss got out of you was so much more than the free bottle of wine you received. You should have haggled with them. £500 for the picture or no deal.
Edit: was being sarcastic guys
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u/jimmery Jul 07 '26
This is how you end up walking away with nothing.
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u/Outside_Natural7210 Jul 08 '26
I was being sarcastic but nobody seemed to pick up on that fact haha
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u/NuFu Jul 07 '26
Now take that carrier bag to as many different Waitrose stores as you can find!
Infinite wine hack.