An American who moved from a place where it’s “normal to spend senselessly on food” to the UK was blown away by the prices in Waitrose, but then they “went to Tesco”
An American who moved from a country where it is “normal to spend senselessly on food” to the UK has expressed her shock at the price of groceries in Tesco. Having “stared down a $13 (about £9.50) carton of eggs” in the US, Ashley Baker was so delighted by Waitrose’s UK prices that she called her mum to marvel at the cost of bin bags.
In comments that appear to highlight the cost-of-living gap with neighbours across the Atlantic, she described food shopping in Britain as “paradise” — until the excited shopper “went to Tesco”.
She claimed that unless they’d heard Lily Allen’s 2006 track, LDN, which mentions it, most Americans would not know the supermarket that offers a “similar bounty at two-thirds of the price”.
In a piece for The Times, Ashley said: “So when I spotted one on the Cromwell Road, I pulled over. It delivers a similar bounty at two-thirds of the price, along with a wider assortment of Little Moons mochi and all sorts of additional discounts for loyal Clubcard holders.
“And best of all: a free car park and a Waves Car Wash, where the lovely chaps have my junker looking like it’s fresh off the lot for £25. If pressed, I will declare that Kensington Gardens is my favourite place in London, but I think we all know that’s a bare-faced lie.
“When I’m really feeling evil, I like to blast my American group chats with pics from the produce aisle. Wonky carrots reduced to 43p. Brussels sprouts down to 85p. An entire sleeve of Jaffa Cakes for less than a Zone 1 ride on the Tube.”
Ashley amusingly noted that her friends had initially told her to “sod off”, but they have since stopped replying, leaving the writer fearing she may have “gone too far”.
It comes after another US expat in the UK shared a “culture shock” that left them “frustrated”.
Taking to Reddit last year, the unnamed person claimed there was a difference in how “closing time” operates between the two nations.
They wrote: “Something I’ve noticed living in the UK is how differently ‘closing time’ works. In the US, if a place says it closes at 9pm, you can usually walk in at 8:55 and still get served — ‘closing’ means that’s when they stop serving new customers.
“In the UK, closing time is when employees expect to be walking out the door to go home. Restaurants shut their kitchens an hour before the posted time, and grocery stores might even stop letting people in 20–30 minutes before closing.
“This caused some frustration my first year here: I’d walk into a café ten minutes before closing, hoping to grab a coffee, only to find the machine already turned off.”
They added that they might head out to buy milk or eggs shortly before a shop’s closing time, only to discover staff would not allow anybody in.