On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:50:10 -0000, "michael adams"
wrote:


"Bruce" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:26:34 -0000, "michael adams"
wrote:


"djc" wrote in message ...
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Can you name a Waitrose within easy reach of a 'chav' area?

Bloomsbury http://www.waitrose.com/branches/branchdetails.aspx?uid=207

Though the interesting question re that particular branch is where
all the non-chavs shopped before it opened.

There used to be a Safeway in the Brunswick precinct - which is what Waitrose
opens out onto, in the days when Safeway used to be quite upmarket stocking
stuff like black pumpernickel bread etc.


That was Safeway at its best - under American management, and with
only four or five stores in the whole of the UK. I used to shop at
the branch in Manchester. It was the largest delicatessen in the
north of England.

Some years later, the franchise for the UK was bought by Sir James
Goldsmith, whose much larger (and much more downmarket) Presto chain
of supermarkets was merged with the UK Safeway, and the whole lot was
rebranded Safeway. For the flagship Safeway stores, there was a
lowering of standards, but the Presto stores went sharply upmarket.

The result was positioned somewhere above Tesco and probably slightly
below Sainsbury's in the pecking order. It was quite an achievement
to pull Presto up to that standard.


Jimmy Gulliver actually. The Scotch bloke who ran Argyll foods who owned
Presto among other stores. Jimmy Goldsmith was the looney memeber of the Cleremont
Set who sued Private Eye and stood for Parliament, and owned Marmite and other brands
under his Cavenham Foods label. Gulliver bought them as late as 1987 and
it was downhill after that. Mainly under his successor Alastair Grant. They
were doing o.k. before he bought them as well. Later on they had another revamp
with fancy lighting etc but the magic had gone. Just remembered they really went
downmarket near the end with special offers on Pringles in almost every aisle
and loads of other "offers". There were probably still warehousefuls of
unsold Pringles when Morrison bought them out.


Thanks for that! Fascinating background.

Sir James Goldsmith used to own Presto - he sold the store chain to
Argyll Foods in 1982. But you're right, it was Gulliver who
masterminded the takeover of Safeway by Argyll Foods in 1987.