Hard to imagine how you did that Waitrose, given all the publicity about
escalating rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Your current promotion is
entitled “Kick Start Your Health”, with special displays, recommended recipes
and 25% discounts on supposedly healthier ingredients. How on earth did this
become a prominent promotional display, featuring banks of golden caster sugar
(25% off)? It stopped me in my tracks when walking into my local store.
After some discussion with you, Waitrose, I now realise that the whole
display relates to a free recipe for scones, upgraded with carrots and pumpkin
seeds aimed at making them “healthier”. Ironic that fruit scones are one of
the few types of cake that can be made without added sugar. (Though they do cry out to be smothered with cream and
jam, thus cancelling out any low-sugar credibility.)
When I cornered one of your senior managers in my local store he was
defensive about the recipe, telling me, “It’s healthier because it contains carrots and
seeds”. When “Oh no! how did we get it
so wrong?” might have been more convincing.
In a written response on your Facebook page, I got more of the same, passed
down from “the team in head office”. I conclude, Waitrose, that you are still not
seeing this from the point of view of your customer.
Did no one on “the team” spot that
customers, who did not have recipe leaflet in their hands, would either:
a)
be somewhere on the spectrum between bemused and outraged that sugar was being promoted as healthy
or
b) think that this light brown sugar was a “healthy” product?
How did you mess up so badly? And why, when I point out your error, do you persist in talking about the recipe? I am disappointed and definitely in the outraged camp, to see that such a
reputable food retailer has got “healthy eating” so badly wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment