IT STARTED innocently enough. “Booked my Christmas slot!!!!!” texted my friend B, accompanied by a row of Santa emojis. “Amazing!!!!!” I replied, adding three Christmas trees and a champagne emoji. She is Christmas’s number one fan. B starts planning her Christmas dinner in August. As life events go, bagsying one of Waitrose’s prized Christmas Eve delivery slots is right up there with getting front row tickets to Hackney Empire’s Christmas panto.
Her sortedness made me feel as though I should get sorted myself, in that antsy way that people who run households will recognise. I logged onto waitrose.com. No Christmas slots available: I couldn’t book more than two weeks ahead. It didn’t make sense. Curious, I tweeted Waitrose. They confirmed that they released early Christmas slots to a small number of online customers. Happy with Waitrose’s explanation, I went back to getting a life, which lasted about 10 minutes before I logged onto Ocado to find that their Christmas slots had been released, but were fully booked.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
"We're building a Spurs squad to compete now. This is not a project for five years time
BACK in December, in the run up to Christmas, Tottenham's technical director Johan Lange travelled to Stockholm on a special assignment. Lange's mission was to persuade Lucas Bergvall, one of the most exciting young players in Europe, to visit Spurs in the New Year.
England's breakthrough star faces biggest challenge yet
Pakistan, the Ashes and fatherhood now lie in wait for Jamie Smith
Bizarre search results, battles in court - is it game over for Google?
RICHARD GODWIN asks if time could finally be running out for the all-powerful behemoth
Finneas
He's won Grammys and Oscars, but his proudest achievement? His relationship with his sister... Billie Eilish
Has this legend of the London restaurant scene lost its cool?
Once upon a time —not so long ago, less than a decade — being a D&D restaurant meant something. Back then, Le Pont de la Tour and Coq d’ Argent were governed by swathes of the most moneyed City regulars; Sartoria offered a hangout on Savile Row as stylish as any of its neighbouring tailors; and Quaglino’s, until recently, was the place mere mortals were most likely to bump into Prince Harry or Mick Jagger.
Message to the Jews
Beware your liberal values those you see as allies are the vultures waiting for your demise
Are these the 18 ways that we could transform London?
The capital could actually be good, but we need some radical new rules
Change or die... London's eternal lesson to us all
Like the city it serves, the new Standard must build on the best of the past
The Tories are their own unique brand of special
Like Republicans, they're on a journey, but it couldn't be more different
Plane truths...the world's most loved and loathed airlines
From endless delays and frightening mishaps to delightful cabin crew, the differences between airlines can be astonishing. So which ones rule the air and which dontimpress?
