Suzy Hutchinson / 17 July 2025 / Categories: Useful Guides

Parking Peril at Waitrose, watch out for Britannia Parking Attendents

What the hell Waitrose. If you spot a Britannia Parking attendant sulking around your local Waitrose be careful they haven’t got your car marked ready to give you a £70 fine it will be tough to challenge within their rules. The supermarket chain who pride themselves on calling you Madam and giving you a free cappacino and glossy magazine on the one hand are slapping customers with parking fines with the other.

The marketing spiel bills the parking attendants from Britannia parking are in place to help customers find spaces, yep, assist with traffic flow and move and collect trolleys.

They also are there to issue PCN, penalty charge notices like the government to anyone who has spent too long inside the store, the maximum time allowed to complete your shopping now is 90 minutes and god forbid you forget something and have to return to shop, I know I’ve NEVER done that, the truth, it happens to me virtually everytime I am in there; I go in for one thing and come out with everything but the thing I went in for.

Well if Waitrose’s new car park police catch you coming back to Waitrose twice in one day you may find yourself slapped with a £70 fine.

I know times are hard but come on John Lewis. If you really expect your loyal customers to tolerate this crazy way to boost earnings even if a few people are abusing the free car park I think you are mad.

The minute I saw the parking policeman walking around taking peoples numbers down like a traffic warden I was on edge and didn’t want to go into the shop until I found out what was happening.

It has definitely made me think twice about shopping at Waitrose when I read online all the people ranting about genuinely been caught out having forgotten something they needed and returning to store inadvertently, to be slapped with a £70 charge, completely unaware of the no return rules now in place.

Waitrose I think you should consider placing big warning signs at the very least at the entrance to every free Waitrose car park explaining to your customers, the charging system in place and what will happen if you visit your local Waitrose too much in one day.

I haven’t had a ticket yet myself. I’ll probably be choosing a different supermarket chain in future to avoid this happening to me as so many people have said you cannot get out of the charges if you get a ticket even if you appeal. Although Britannia Parking are not as brutal with county court judgements as the local council, as an independent business they don’t have the same power to immediately prosecute you, if you don’t pay they do have the ability to take you to court for non payment which could affect your ability to get credit in the future and could mean you are dealing with the bailiff anyway.

I don’t know if other supermarkets are doing this too. I know Aldi have a system where you enter your registration in a machine but I don’t think you are restricted on how long you can shop or returning if you need to. I could be wrong. I do know I had to enter my registration at the doctors the other day to enjoy free parking.

Has the situation of people using free parking car parks meant for customers patients got so bad we are all paying the price?