As a little light relief for Friday afternoon, may we offer this fantastic story found on the blog Nether Regions – described as a "one stop shop for regional news hilarity" Enjoy!
It must have been a slow news day in the seaside town of Whitstable, Kent, when the local paper decided to run with the story of a woman who wanted to buy custard, couldn’t find any, eventually found some, but it wasn’t the brand she would really have liked. There are few words to describe such a series of events, but somehow the Whitstable Times found 652.Thank you to Thomas Oppe for spotting this story and illustrating that the proof of the pudding is in the bleating-on-about-custard-stocks of a 43-year-old holiday rental company director.
Whitstable Times, 25 March 2009:
Whitstable mum in custard shortage
A MUM of three is dis-custard after a hunt for the dessert sauce in the town proved fruitless.
Keen baker Jules Serkin, 43, of West Cliff, Whitstable, needed a tin of custard powder to top off her apple and blackcurrant crumble.
But she was left with a sour taste in her mouth after getting no joy in either Co-ops at Oxford Street and Canterbury Road, and in Somerfield, in the High Street.
Even a trek to Tankerton’s Tesco Express – a corner shop version of its superstores – was wasted.
“I try to support my local businesses, but in the end I had to resort to going to one of the big supermarkets to get what I needed,” said Jules, a holiday rental company director.
The article is too long to reproduce in full here because the Whitstable Times appears to have interviewed all and sundry about this saga. Some of the most telling comments are from Somerfield spokesman Pete Williams, of undisclosed age, who displays an admirable, almost freakish, awareness of his large national supermarket chain’s current stocks and a dogged refusal to adhere to the customer service dictat that the customer is always right.
“We are a bit perplexed about your reader’s trouble in finding custard in the store. It offers a variety of custards including: tinned, fresh, cartons and in powdered form.
“Today (Monday March 23) it has both Somerfield own brand tinned custard and tinned custard made by Ambrosia. The store stocks Somerfield Instand (sic) Custard Mix – to which you simply add water.
I think he’s calling her a liar. Good.
Follow the link for the full lowdown on this woman’s battle to get her just desserts.
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