Comment: Supermarket which Asda be avoided

Just what you long suspected: a Lloyds Bank survey finds that houses near to a Waitrose branch command a premium of £36,480 compared to average prices in the wider locality.

A Waitrose store in your neighbourhood may add value to your house

Properties close to a Marks & Spencer have the second highest premium, with homes worth an average of £29,992 more. Asda was near the bottom of the premium score – just £4,117 – while you definitely don’t want to be seen with an Aldi shopping bag – the store was found to have a negative premium of £2,902.

But in weekly food shopping, things are never so simple. Aldi, for example, has a wine range popular with affluent households. The discerning shopper may use cut price supermarkets for such bargains in order to generate savings for selective ‘treats’ from Waitrose.

Better still for the more affluent area is to have both a Waitrose and an Aldi nearby - though not too close to each other in case you are seen entering the ‘wrong’ one.

The truly status conscious shopper would, of course, only be seen with a shopping bag of clearly continental origin. An Asda cabbage spied therein? “Heavens, no - Milan, darling!”