We are not ‘Dr Evils’, says Waitrose chief

Supermarkets are not “mind-controlling Dr Evils” and only sell unhealthy food because customers buy it, the head of Waitrose has said.

James Bailey, the executive director of Waitrose, said it was up to consumers to “vote with your feet and your purses”.

“The most important people in this debate are not people like me; they are not necessarily politicians, although those politicians have an important part to play. The most important people are the customers, the consumers,” Mr Bailey told the Oxford Literary Festival.

“I know there is a simple and comfortable caricature of supermarkets as mind-controlling Dr Evils who control everything you do, and point you down different parts of the store and try to get you to buy lots of chocolate. And that is true, we do sell all those products and a lot of them are unhealthy.

‘Commercial creatures’

“But, ultimately, we are commercial creatures. We will be guided almost immediately by consumer choice and if consumers started to buy more environmentally-sustainable, more healthy products that supported change in the food system – trust me, supermarkets would be the first people putting them on the shelves in greater numbers.”

Asked about supermarkets raising awareness through messaging about how food is produced, Bailey said: “Customers are not shopping in a library. One of my favourite facts about supermarket shopping is that, on average, from driving into the car park to leaving at the other end, someone looks at seven words on the entire journey.

“So if you think supermarkets can educate and inform about the pros and cons of different sorts of food systems – if we’ve got seven words per visit, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Bailey, who joined Waitrose in 2020 from Sainsbury’s, said: “If you want to be part of a revolution in the way we eat, consumers have to be prepared to pay more. I spend half my life talking to people from other supermarkets and there isn’t a single person who doesn’t think this is everyone’s responsibility. It’s a collective effort.”