The Labour row over Waitrose’s ‘free coffee’ is swept under the carpet

After Bill Esterson initially raised concerns about Waitrose’s offer of free coffee in the House of Commons, it emerged over the weekend that Andy Sawford, a fellow Labour MP, had joined the bandwagon. Just as soon as he did, the motion was swatted away by Chuka Umunna, seen as a leading light of the Labour Party, who was keen to emphasis that the comments were not at all representative of the party as a whole.

The supermarket’s plan is to give away a free hot drink every member of the myWaitrose loyalty scheme; additionally, customers who spent over £5 would also receive a complimentary newspaper of their choice.

Mr Sawford, MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire wrote to fellow MP’s with a Waitrose located in their constituency asking them to put pressure on the retailer to withdraw the scheme ‘in the spirit of fair competition.’

If you remember, Waitrose initially received a substantial amount of backlash from their own clients who felt that by giving away free hot beverages the shop would consequently attract ‘the wrong type’ of shopper. It was labelled as ‘the middle class revolt’ by The Independent.

In the letter the MP argued that whilst the ‘policy may be providing [Waitrose] with some competitive advantage in relation to other supermarket rivals but this is at the cost of the impact on these local small business.’

Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose, described the claims as “nonsense.”

If that response was bad enough to stomach, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna shot the notion down and applauded Waitrose.

“This is all, if you’ll excuse the pun, a bit of froth,” Mr Umunna said before distancing the Labour party as a whole from the issue. “It doesn’t represent party policy; he is a constituency MP raising a local matter.

“Waitrose employs thousands of people and promotes the type of practices we want to promote. It is great business.”

Naturally, the Conservatives leapt on the conflict of statements and claimed that Mr Sawford’s actions showed that Labour is ‘anti-business’.

Yet, the point surely remains valid. If supermarkets take away the custom of the independent coffee shops, of which many populate the UK high street, then that not only significantly impacts one of the fastest growing sectors in the United Kingdom at the moment, but it could also further devalue our traditional inner-city shopping centres.

Waitrose, and its competition, may be able to soak up the minimal cost of this promotion but other outlets may not be able to move forward due to lost revenue.

Chuka Umunna, and the hierarchy of Labour, may have swept the matter under the carpet for now, but for how long?

Will it raise its head again? We think it could if local business continue to suffer and ‘local’ matters turn into national ones.

photo: Geoff Welding (Creative Commons)