The picturesque village of Lymm in Cheshire has much to recommend it. It can boast a mention in the Domesday Book, the Bridgewater Canal, and distinguished residents such as Sir Bobby Charlton, the actor Chris Bisson and Matthew Corbett, former presenter of The Sooty Show.

What it unfortunately can’t add to that list, as its residents learnt last week, is a new Waitrose. The locals were aghast to learn that the “upmarket store” they had been promised on the site of an old service station was in fact going to be the Danish discount store Netto instead. Up in arms, 500 have signed an online petition opposing the shop. One resident said angrily: “Netto is anything but an upmarket, or even a middle-class market,” while Conservative councillor Sheila Woodyatt added: “I am absolutely certain there are those who think Aldi and Lidl are wonderful stores - my daughter shops there - but I just hoped if we had to have a store it would be Waitrose or Booths.”

I, too, have felt that pain – I waited for Waitrose to come to my part of south London for years, and my hopes were dashed endlessly. But I’ve since come to my senses.

For gone are the days when it was a measure of pedigree to pull up in the M&S car park. Research published in The Grocer last week found that one in three shoppers at discount stores such as Aldi and Lidl is now from the wealthy AB demographic – up from one in 10 a decade ago.

These days, discount stores are the only place for the upper and middle-classes to be seen. So if the good burghers of Lymm want their village to remain exclusive and desirable, they need to encourage all the Nettos they can get.