Harrods Means-Testing kids for Xmas Grotto

[mercalia]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/08/harrods-restricts-christmas-grotto-to-2000-plus-spenders

Father Christmas promises to visit every well-behaved child on 24 December but it turns out that only the children of high-rolling parents are able to visit him in his Swarovski crystal-encrusted grotto in Harrods.

Seems like Santa is a tory and a capitalist?

bits of coal for the poor and toys for the rich ( with an invoice)? Humbug

[Cyril Haearn]

Not sure if I might feel uneasy at Horrids, what class of people shop there?
Take them on a steam train to see Santa at the Watercress Line instead

[merseymouth]

Hey get fair Cyril Haearn! Virtually all Heritage Lines have a "Super Special Santa" visit available, so no need to just enlarge one' Carbon Footprint by going out of the way to visit the Watercress Line!!!!
You could easily visit the Llangollen Railway, Vale of Rhydol, Ffestiniogg et al, no it's a bit too far for Al .
So act your shoe size not your age . TTFN MM

[Cyril Haearn]

Yes of course MM, I am based
Mind, the Watercress Line has a direct connection by normaltrain to Waterloo, not far from Horrids

[peetee]

For a funny take on an over-popular Santa's grotto I can recommend listening to David Sedaris Santaland Diaries.

[Vorpal]

Members of my working class family have never been inside Herrod's, even as tourists. The only person I know who shops there is a flashily conservative sort with a posh medieval house, an SUV, and a purebred hunting dog (I take his word on the dog). Of course I might know folks who shop there and don't have to brag about it, but at the least when I've been in London with them, we're more likely to go to used bookshops. Or maybe the Lama's Pyjamas, if shopping for clothing

p.s.
I used to take the littles to the Chelmsford Society of Model Engineers' Santa Special, where we rode round on the model trains to Santa's grotto.

They did a fantastic job & there were hot drinks, biscuits, games, and more train rides afterwards.

[Bonefishblues]

Not sure if I might feel uneasy at Horrids, what class of people shop there?
Take them on a steam train to see Santa at the Watercress Line instead

People without class shop there.

[Cugel]

Not sure if I might feel uneasy at Horrids, what class of people shop there?
Take them on a steam train to see Santa at the Watercress Line instead

Funny you should mention that....

Long, long ago, in the olden days of the early 80s, there was a six-day cycling event in, I seem to recall, Earls Court. Somewhere in that London, anyway. A few of us cycling club lads went to watch for a couple of days. It turned out to be a bit boring really, with the good bits interspersed with what seemed hours of tedious circling. Anyroadup ..

Two of us decided we would go to Harrods just to see how the other 0.01% lived. I must say it was a rather good people-watching event, with all sorts of posh-posing and verbal bursts that we peasants could only see as some sort of TV comedy programme, of the often sarcastic type mocking the posh that were about at the time.

After not very long we were spotted and hustled out by some sort of security fellow. Still, I remember it much more than any of the six-day stuff. I wonder if one could get in to people-watch now? I vaguely recall that Harrod dupes - I mean customers - are now vetted at the door somehow ....?

Cugel

[mercalia]

Not sure if I might feel uneasy at Horrids, what class of people shop there?
Take them on a steam train to see Santa at the Watercress Line instead

Funny you should mention that....

Long, long ago, in the olden days of the early 80s, there was a six-day cycling event in, I seem to recall, Earls Court. Somewhere in that London, anyway. A few of us cycling club lads went to watch for a couple of days. It turned out to be a bit boring really, with the good bits interspersed with what seemed hours of tedious circling. Anyroadup ..

Two of us decided we would go to Harrods just to see how the other 0.01% lived. I must say it was a rather good people-watching event, with all sorts of posh-posing and verbal bursts that we peasants could only see as some sort of TV comedy programme, of the often sarcastic type mocking the posh that were about at the time.

After not very long we were spotted and hustled out by some sort of security fellow. Still, I remember it much more than any of the six-day stuff. I wonder if one could get in to people-watch now? I vaguely recall that Harrod dupes - I mean customers - are now vetted at the door somehow ....?

Cugel

Maybe wave a bundle of £50 notes (or maybe have a £1,000,000 note) under the door vetter's nose and claim to be an eccentric millionaire.

[merseymouth]

Hi all, I often see folk who will insist on using "Horrids" bags for all of their shopping, even in Aldi .
Must be the same type of people depicted in "Ab Fab", with an obsession for Harvey Nicks? Conspicuous Consumption!
Or as we would say around here - "All Fur Coat and No Knickers" .. IGICB MM

[Ben@Forest]

Members of my working class family have never been inside Herrod's, even as tourists. The only person I know who shops there is a flashily conservative sort with a posh medieval house, an SUV, and a purebred hunting dog (I take his word on the dog). Of course I might know folks who shop there and don't have to brag...

This sounds like the sort of inverted snobbery that Brits get criticised for and for Americans who hold it that all men (which l think can be read women too now) are created equal are supposedly immune to.

Harrods has a huge number of Christmas shoppers who don't fit the stereotype you paint at all. They are often making a special Christmas shopping trip to London and Harrods is part of that experience. They may buy nothing but enjoy looking round the Food Hall, and might treat themselves to ice cream in the ice-cream parlour; that doesn't mean they are especially well-off, let alone rich. Next you'll be saying that everyone who's visited a Hard Rock cafe is a rich rock star.

[Vorpal]

Members of my working class family have never been inside Herrod's, even as tourists. The only person I know who shops there is a flashily conservative sort with a posh medieval house, an SUV, and a purebred hunting dog (I take his word on the dog). Of course I might know folks who shop there and don't have to brag...

This sounds like the sort of inverted snobbery that Brits get criticised for and for Americans who hold it that all men (which l think can be read women too now) are created equal are supposedly immune to.

Harrods has a huge number of Christmas shoppers who don't fit the stereotype you paint at all. They are often making a special Christmas shopping trip to London and Harrods is part of that experience. They may buy nothing but enjoy looking round the Food Hall, and might treat themselves to ice cream in the ice-cream parlour; that doesn't mean they are especially well-off, let alone rich. Next you'll be saying that everyone who's visited a Hard Rock cafe is a rich rock star.

I'm not generally one to stereotype. I don't think I have reverse snobbery and I wasn't really thinking of 'painting a stereotype'. I do find the flashy conservative (he's an extended family member by marriage) kind of amusing when it comes to those sorts of things. But your post is fair criticism, even if it's not how I was thinking about it. I was merely stating what I know.

I have been to a couple of Hard Rock cafe's though I don't have any t-shirts to prove it.

p.s. I have suggested tea in the tea rooms at Herrods to visiting Americans, but I don't know if they did so.

[Ben@Forest]

I have been to a couple of Hard Rock cafe's though I don't have any t-shirts to prove it.

p.s. I have suggested tea in the tea rooms at Herrods to visiting Americans, but I don't know if they did so.

I went to Fenwicks in Newcastle the other day. It's the first time I've ever been in there and though it's not my thing in the way shopping is not my thing it is impressive in its opulence (it is the original Fenwicks store). I had a coffee which cost no more than a coffee in Costa or Caffe Nero.

What did strike me (other than it was very busy) was that it felt like a place to visit if you are a 'shopper'. And though I've no interest in conspicuous consumption it made me feel that that is necessary if we want high streets to survive. I can imagine people wanting to go to Fenwicks in a way which they'd never think 'l want to go to Debenhams'. And l think in that way Harrods will survive too.

[Cugel]

Members of my working class family have never been inside Herrod's, even as tourists. The only person I know who shops there is a flashily conservative sort with a posh medieval house, an SUV, and a purebred hunting dog (I take his word on the dog). Of course I might know folks who shop there and don't have to brag...

This sounds like the sort of inverted snobbery that Brits get criticised for and for Americans who hold it that all men (which l think can be read women too now) are created equal are supposedly immune to.

Harrods has a huge number of Christmas shoppers who don't fit the stereotype you paint at all. They are often making a special Christmas shopping trip to London and Harrods is part of that experience. They may buy nothing but enjoy looking round the Food Hall, and might treat themselves to ice cream in the ice-cream parlour; that doesn't mean they are especially well-off, let alone rich. Next you'll be saying that everyone who's visited a Hard Rock cafe is a rich rock star.

Ha ha - Unlike Vorpal I yam guilty as charged of the reverse snobbery. All sorts of snobberies in fact. This is a well-known pleasure of all Blighters I know, probably including you.

Only the toff-snobs, though, take this being snobbish seriously. They deny the hoi-polloi member a job or the hand of their daughter! Rascals. Me and the run of the mill snobs merely employ our snobbing as a means to take the mickey; to laugh at an over-pose; to mock the fellows purporting to be "grander than thee".

Some feel that mocking of, or being sarcastic to, those whose behaviour we find amusing, pompous or otherwise rather jumped-up is somehow disrespectful. It is .... but only in small degree; and to the behaviour not the person. I mean ... I let a toff marry my daughter. I even allow friends to play me their pop music, as I wince inside at the cacophony and later rush orf for some Radio 3 antidote.

Cugel

[Tangled Metal]

Hi all, I often see folk who will insist on using "Horrids" bags for all of their shopping, even in Aldi .
Must be the same type of people depicted in "Ab Fab", with an obsession for Harvey Nicks? Conspicuous Consumption!
Or as we would say around here - "All Fur Coat and No Knickers" .. IGICB MM

We use aldi bags in Tesco, Asda, sainsbury's and booths. Reverse snobbery?