Janet Street-Porter has a go at Nick Clegg in the Independent:
Nick reveals that his wife is "gravitating towards Sainsbury's from Ocado" in order to save money. WAKE UP LOVE! Haven't the Cleggs heard that Netto, Aldi and Lidl are the shopping destinations of thousands of voters who can't even afford Sainsbury's, let alone Waitrose?
Nick Clegg seems have started something. The Telegraph reckons that his revelation that he has, amongst other belt tightening measures, switched from Ocado to Sainsburys for his weekly shop, "must have resonated with families across the country".
The paper compares prices and finds that Nick Clegg's family could get even better bargains elsewhere:
Analysis of 30 popular items from a range of stores, however, reveals he could have saved even more. A typical weekly basket, worth £76.86 at Ocado, costs £70.69 at Sainsbury's, £69.43 at Tesco and £65.67 at Asda.
I am very disappointed that they didn't include Lidl or Aldi, or indeed using the local market for some items, in their survey. Despite having a name for the place that, allegedly, "chavs shop", Lidl is popular with "foodies". Their buying strategy seems to be misunderstood. Rather than selling cheap produce cheaply, Lidl seem to keep their prices down by bulk buying reasonably quality items across Europe in single lines. So, you might only have one choice of sliced meat, for example, there and the label is in German, but by golly it is cheap. Over at Ocado/Waitrose you have 53 choices of different sliced meat but you pay through the nose to shop where Mrs Bucket shops.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
That Ocado moment
Written by Paul on Sunday, August 24, 2008
Labels: Liberal Democrats, NIck Clegg
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5 comments:
It was still a pretty stupid piece for Nick to run with.
Given that he was meant to be the great communicator he's not exactly lived up to that billing.
I mean he earns £61k - his wife probably something similar and they get £20k+ to pay for renovations to one of their houses. If he's "mortgaged up to the gills" on discounted rates and at comparatively low interest rates than you have to question his financial judgement. What if rates rise a couple of percent?
(and your right about Lidl etc - I reckon it's £3-4 cheaper for my weekly shopping compared to Tesco)
Agreed Hywel. I am not sure how much this sort of thing just spills out in interviews unintentionally. But I do not feel great sympathy for his position and it is a very dubious ploy to put such matters into the public domain.
The Telegraph did have a separate Lidl article - they just didn't do the shopping basket comparison, probably because you can't buy the same things in Lidl!
see also the daily mail on the 23rd August:
He said: 'I'm much luckier than other people. My wife and I are not really struggling to put food on the family supper table. My wife works and I work, so we have two incomes.
'We are very lucky, but we need every penny of those two incomes. If we do, I can't imagine what it is like for the many millions of British families who aren't as lucky as we are.'
A source close to Mr Clegg insisted he was not claiming financial-hardship, adding: 'He is not saying- 'I feel your pain'.
'He is saying, if times are slightly tougher for him, they must be huge for other people who are less well off.'
Crikey - it's coming to something when someone other than me is having to do the spinning for Clegg on this blog!!!!!
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