LOVE that new vegan cafe or organic chocolatier? Prefer not to know these adorable independent businesses are run by insufferable privileged bastards? Bad luck:
The hipster florist
A bunch of flowers brightens anyone’s day, though less so when the people you buy them from are foppish arseholes who made a fortune in pharmaceuticals and now run this as a retirement hobby at the age of 39. And will still make millions off it.
The wine merchant
Everyone pretends to know about wine, but no-one condescends more than this Eton and Cambridge graduate. Anything under £50 is ‘plonk’ to him and he has been known to recommend that you pair the Malbec with roast pheasant while sneering superciliously because he knows you won’t.
The rustic bakery
This wood-panelled, artisanal bakery only makes one type of bread a day and it always has an edible flower in it. The service always makes you feel as if your very prescence is emitting some sort of foul odour, and they roll their eyes at your pronunciation of ‘ciabatta’.
The bougie bookshop
Ordering books off Amazon is what the Nazis did. Real readers prefer the simple charm of a local bookshop with velvet furnishings and a live-in cat. It’s the perfect place to peruse Proust, if the boorish owner could stop loudly complaining that he doesn’t think he’ll get round to his Verbier chalet this year.
The coffee shop
Why go to Costa when you can support a quirky independent retailer? Because it’s run by two former hedge fund twats who fly to Colombia to choose their beans and have a business plan to go global by 2024. A latte costs £8.40.
