In today’s @guardianweekend I interviewed the boss of @Pret – who left school at 17 and worked his way up from the shop floor to dream job. Only for it to go horribly wrong.
It’s not online yet. You’ll have to buy AN ACTUAL NEWSPAPER.
This is fascinating – @Pret’s best selling items pre/post lockdown.
In short, the takeaway breakfast – which has fuelled growth of high street cafés – is dead. For now.
The high street/takeaway breakfast has been a phenomenon in my lifetime. In 1980s almost no one had breakfast at their desks.
According to @npdgroup just before lockdown, 13% of entire eating out market was breakfast – worth 1.5billion visits & £6billion a year
I spent a week as a Deliveroo rider. And learnt a lot.
First up, Deliveroo likes to claim you should earn at least the minimum wage of £11.44 while working. Me?
I worked for 22hrs 50mins, rode 105 miles, did 27 drop offs and earned £120.38.
That works out at £5.28 an hour🧵
I spent one evening shift delivering to City law firms, Bank of America, McKinsey etc.
The sheer volume of meals delivered to these workers is amazing.
That trolley outside McKinsey went from empty to 16 orders in 10 mins. Bank of America has a special holding pen for riders
I also delivered *a lot* of @Dishoom meals. Think your Dishoom curry comes from a restaurant? Nope. It likely is from a dark kitchen down an alley in Stepney. Or behind Pentonville prison.
Enraging that @NadineDorries – representing the Govt – contemptusouly dismissed warnings by @MartinSLewis etc that average bills could increase by £2,300.
"Some, *some* bills may increase by that amount," she told @BBCr4today
Does she not understand how averages work?
"Action is being taken. That's why £400 hit people's bank accounts only last week," she said airly.
But the price cap went from £1,223 last summer, to £2,100 this summer. It's likely to hit £3,500 or £4k this winter. That's for *typical* homes.
£400 doesn't touch the sides
Just to be crystal clear. The warnings about £4,000 annual energy bills are based on @ofgem's "typical household consumption" (2,900kWh of electricity, 12,000kWh of gas), based on a 2.4 people household.
For many large families/badly insulated homes it will be much higher.
Nigel is officially extinct as a baby name. @ONS has released full 2020 baby names data. There were 189 boys called Kylo, 142 called Kacper, 86 called Aadam, 64 called Cai. Not a single* Nigel
*It is possible there were 2 Nigels. ONS only records a name if 3 or more children are called that name, for data protection purposes.
Other boys names on the way out: Trevor – just 8 boys called that, 8 called Stuart, 7 called Gordon.
Jonathan is outside the top 200 names, with just 192 boys called that.
When I broke story about @Argos_Online axing its catalogue, I was contacted by someone who explained her sister-in-law was severely autistic.
"Throughout the last 2 decades, the Argos catalogues have been her only source of entertainment and comfort." 1/3
"Zina looks and plays with the catalogue all day/every day, using up one a week as she rips the pages off. She also takes it with her everywhere e.g. hospital and respite".
She was distraught that her supply of catalogues was going to end.
Was there any way I could help? 2/3
So I emailed someone senior at @Argos_Online.
This week, this happened...
Yes, that's over a 1,000 Argos catalogues and a very happy Zina. 3/3
The incredible rise of chicken over last 70yrs. In 1958, what did people eat for Sunday lunch? (survey of 4k people asked during winter):
- 37% had beef
- 17% had lamb
- 12% had pork
- 3% had mutton
- 2% sausages
- Just 2% had poultry
Stats taken from an amazing UK-wide survey by a market research company, WS Crawford, published in 1958: “The Foods We Eat”
Now @ONS stats suggest we consume weekly 99g of beef or veal a week vs 203g of poultry
Baby Names. @ONS data shows last year 1,356 boys were called Jaxon, 1,433 were called Mason, 1,400 were called Albie.
A mere 11 were called Trevor, 11 called Vince and 13 called Gordon
Baby names. @ONS data shows last year there were 1,213 girls called Luna, 1,156 called Aria, 777 girls called Aurora.
Just 8 called Janice, 7 called Susan, only 3 called Carol.
Jaxon has become hugely popular as boys name. As well as 1,356 Jaxons there were 23 Jaxon-James, 8 Jaxon-Lee, 5 Jaxon-Jay, 3 Jaxon-Paul, and 385 boys called Jax.