Here’s how Waitrose got its name, and how we’re supposed to pronounce it
The correct way to pronounce the name of UK supermarket chain Waitrose has reportedly been ‘settled once and for all’.
Annabel Port, curator at The Other British Museum, regularly takes to social media to explore everyday items that have come to symbolise modern Britain. In a recent post, she delved into the origins of how Waitrose got its name. The UK history enthusiast, who aims to champion the “unsung icons of Britain and the stories behind them”, told her more than 88,000 Instagram followers that “you might have been saying [Waitrose] wrong”.
Annabel continued: “This is the number one poshest British supermarket. It was the first to sell organic food in 1983 and pre-packaged sushi in 1996. And we’ve been calling it Way-trose [sic], but is this right?”
Shedding light on the retailer’s roots, she explained that the chain grew from a single small grocer’s shop in west London, originally known as Waite, Rose and Taylor, “having been founded by Messrs Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose, and David Taylor”.
Several years later Taylor left, and in 1908 the name was shortened to Waitrose. Annabel got in touch with the supermarket directly to find out whether the name ought to be pronounced ‘Wait-Rose’.
She added: “I contacted them to find out and they said the pronunciation Wait-Rose is the original way as it comes from the founders’ last names, Waite and Rose. It’s unclear when this morphed into Way-trose but it slowly became the norm.
“If you want to be both correct and retro, you should say Wait-Rose.”
The social media post has racked up hundreds of comments, with one user writing: “Can’t tell you how many times I’ve just said ‘wait-rose’ and ‘way-trose’ trying to work out how they’re different. In my voice both sound exactly the same” [sic].
A second said: “My Mum (80) says Wait-Rose and I always give her a look” while a third added: “I’m going to start today. Just need an excuse to put it into a sentence.”
