Mystery surrounds origin of foul ‘Waitrose whiff’
Town centre: Builder denies nearby site is cause of supermarket sewage smell
Waitrose has apologised to shoppers affected by a nasty stench in its Maidenhead store.
On Thursday last week, users took to social media to complain about the smell at the Moorbridge Road supermarket.
One shopper, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Advertiser: “Last week the smell was unreal. I’m in there and you could see the older folk were thinking ‘this is unreal’.
“And people – you could see them going in to pick up a basket and going ‘god this is horrendous’.
“It was like standing in a sewer.”
However, according to the shopper, problems with the whiff in Waitrose had been ongoing for months.
“There’s been a problem at Waitrose since I noticed a foul smell back in December time,” they said.
“I mentioned it to them then and I said ‘look there’s definitely a sewage smell’ and they said its to do with the building work across the road on Moorbridge Road with the new-build flats.
“Progressively the smell has been getting worse and worse.”
Bellway Homes’ Cooper Square development is currently under construction across the road from
Waitrose.
On Friday, a Waitrose spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry that there’s been an odour in our shop caused by building work at a neighbouring site.
“Our partners are working hard to improve the situation for customers with air fresheners and improved ventilation.” But a spokesperson for Bellway said: “There are no known issues, nor any complaints from our occupants on site, so we do not believe this relates to the development.
“The foul drain connections for our site were completed over a year ago now, and we’ve not undertaken any further work recently.”
While air fresheners were helping to ‘mask’ the smell, the shopper said concerns remained over the safety of the store continuing to sell food.
“The smell was so strong that it suggests to me there are particles of [sewage] it in the air,” they said.
“They’re trying to mask it with these scented things they’re pumping in.
“Yes I’m still shopping in there, no its not as bad as it was – but they’re still not addressing the problem.
“Now it’s getting warm, I think they’ve realised it needs addressing pronto because they’re getting a lot of bad press.
“The wealth that John Lewis has, they could fix this in a day.”
Asked what Waitrose was doing to address health and safety concerns, a spokesperson added: “The situation has improved, and we apologise to customers who were inconvenienced last week.”