London

2026-01-04 — 2026-01-18

Wherein the city’s social order is traced through supermarket choice, with Waitrose, Tesco and Aldi being singled out as class markers, and Kew Gardens being noted as the empire’s botanical hub.

Europe
place
Figure 1

A list of things that interest me about London.

1 Understanding the UK class system by shopping

I’m baffled by the UK class system, but I think I can see it in the shopping choices people make. In Britain, supermarkets seem to map out social class as much as they sell broccoli. While Australia’s Coles or Woolies don’t carry any real status baggage, in the UK the choice of supermarket tells people something about a person’s social position and taste. It’s a mix of habit, postcode and vibe — and price, but not only price.

At the top end is Waitrose, famous for organic veg, nice wine, and “tasteful” interiors—basically shorthand for the comfortable middle class. Marks & Spencer (M&S) sits alongside it, with pricey ready meals and a food hall full of treats rather than essentials. Sainsbury’s is a polite middle zone—solid, reliable, slightly aspirational but still everyday. Tesco is the country’s main supermarket, stretching from basic to premium. I find this confusing because the first time I saw Tesco was in Thailand, where it was coded as fancy.

Below that, Aldi and Lidl are generally “cheap”-coded, but with the cost-of-living crisis even people who look rich often have Aldi groceries at home.

Also, department stores still seem big here and heavily class-coded. They’re at least culturally salient; I’m less certain what their actual turnover is. Harrods is old-school luxury—tourist heaven, chandeliers and caviar counters. Selfridges is modern luxury, more about design and art. M&S is also in this category, again playing its middle-class role: safe, familiar, not flashy.

AFAICT, people don’t go to department stores at all if they’re lower-class-coded; instead they get their stuff at Argos, I guess?