An Orthodox Jewish woman was left shaking and in tears after a man launched a vicious antisemitic tirade at her inside a Waitrose supermarket in Harrow, north London, last week, with staff at the store initially refusing to call police even as witnesses begged them to intervene.
The incident, first reported by the Jewish Chronicle, unfolded while the woman was standing in line to pay. A fellow shopper began loudly abusing her, declaring that the problems facing the United Kingdom were caused not by immigration or the government, but by "the f****** Jews." He then shouted "F*** the Jews" and "kill Zionist Jews" before paying for his shopping and walking out of the store unchallenged.
A witness who confronted the man told the JC he had no phone on him and immediately turned to Waitrose staff, asking them to contact police. They refused. He escalated the request to the branch manager. The manager also declined, saying the individual had already left the premises. The Jewish woman, described as "highly distressed," had fled the store before police could be summoned. The witness described the staff's response as "astonishing."
It was only after the witness himself later filed a report that authorities were notified.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism did not mince words in its response. "Has antisemitism become so normalized that supermarket staff refuse to report it to police?" a spokesperson said. "It beggars belief that Waitrose did not immediately treat this incident with the urgency it deserved."
Waitrose subsequently acknowledged the failure, saying its branch management "was not given the full details of the incident at first" and apologizing for the delay. The chain said it had since reported the incident to police and would cooperate with the investigation, including handing over retained CCTV footage. The Met Police confirmed it received an online report of a religiously aggravated hate crime on June 22 and is working to identify the victim.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism is now calling on Waitrose to implement clear, binding procedures across every one of its branches for responding to antisemitic hate crimes, so that what happened in Harrow can never happen again.
