WH Sugar!
TV chef lambasts stationer for the ‘candy canyons’ of sweet treats that shoppers face to get to tills
BuyInG a greetings card or newspaper at WH Smith these days is rarely quite as simple as it sounds.
Before you get to the till, you have to resist temptation from a corridor of sweets and chocolate.
Then at the till itself, staff often ask if you’re interested in their latest offer – usually sugary – or the self- service screen will flash up a deal.
In a nation whose waistband is growing ever bigger, these sales tactics cannot be helping. So celebrity chef and TV campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has decided to go to war with the store – dubbing it WH Sugar.
The retail giant sells the equivalent of 900 chocolate bars every 45 seconds, according to the campaigner. He says the experience of walking through the checkout is in stark contrast to ‘shame- less’ claims made by the chain that it is supporting efforts to combat obesity.
on its website, WH Smith boasts: ‘With increasing concerns about levels of obesity in the uK, healthy eating is another example of an issue which has grown in importance and where we now have more programmes in place to ensure that our ranges and promotions offer our customers more healthy eating choices.’
But the furious presenter said this is completely at odds with reality. ‘I walk into WH Smith, I do not see more healthy choices,’ he said. ‘As if the wall of sweets and chocolate isn’t enough, right on the screen in front of you it says, “Would you like to buy a f****** chocolate orange? yes or no?”
‘Sorry, but it is madness. We have got to a bonkers place where they are just trying to push our buttons. “Buy chocolate, buy chocolate, buy chocolate”.’
The campaigner launched his attack in the first episode of a new BBC series, Britain’s Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
In the programme, which aired on Wednesday, he argues firms such as WH Smith are contributing to a ‘health crisis like we’ve never seen before’. He said: ‘In the uK, obesity is already the leading cause of premature death after smoking. Today, 25 per cent of us are obese. If things don’t change, by 2050 that will be 50 per cent.’
He added that virtually every shop on the high street, from chemists such as Superdrug to Topshop and toy stores, is selling sweets. But he said: ‘It is Britain’s best known stationer, WH Smith, who seem to me particularly
‘Cashing in on our cocoa cravings’
intent on taking advantage of our sweet tooth. Britain eats more chocolate than any country in Europe and WH Smith seems determined to cash in on our cocoa cravings.’
He filmed a trip to the store where he navigated a ‘candy canyon’ of chocolate from Cadbury, Thorntons, Toblerone and Quality Street. After paying at a manned till, he was handed six vouchers for Mcdonald’s burgers. WH Smith refused interview requests from the programme.
However, it insists it is a responsible retailer and said that fewer than 20 per cent of vouchers offered at tills are for fast food and it sells ‘only’ 2 per cent of the confectionery eaten in the uK.
It added that it had moved healthier snacks such as fruit and nut bars to the front of stores.