After customers were furious by an advertisement showing cream tea made ‘the Devon Way’ in a Cornish shop, Sainsbury’s apologized again.
Anna Mace saw the picture, which shows a Scones with cream and jam, as she paid for coffee in Penzance’s supermarket.
The Devon tradition is to slather the scone with cream first before topping with jam, while the Cornish – who also lay claim to inventing the cream teas – prepare their scones the opposite way, with jam first before adding the cream.
The customer – who said she is a ‘proud Cornish maid’ said she was in ‘total disbelief’ over the advert
After apologizing, the supermarket chain confirmed that the display had been taken down and declared: “This imposter now has scone!”
This follows an April incident, when Truro Sainsbury’s regulars threatened to boycott the store after seeing a similar cream tea photo.
Anna Mace saw the picture (above) of a scone with cream first, then jam on top. She was paying her coffee at Penzance’s cafe.
Sainsbury’s Truro customers threatened to move their money away earlier this year after they saw an advertisement for a cream tea that was supposedly bogus.
CornwallLive spoke with Ms Mace, who said that the screen flashed up several photos on a loop. So I watched as the screen displayed several images on a loop and then returned to my original photo.
“The lady was just about to make payment. I asked her if she could please pause for a moment. It’s unbelievable that there’s a scone with no jam.
“The lady laughed, and then said that she had all observed it. It isn’t designed for customer focus, it seems. Although I confess that I am terrible at seeing these things, I can proudly call myself a Cornish maid.
One person responded to Ms Mace’s photo on social media by saying: “WTF Sainsbury’s!” This insults the locals.
Customers threatened to withdraw their cash after they saw another advertisement for a cream tea that was supposedly bogus earlier this year.
After spotting all the Twitter furore, local media site posted: ‘Sainsbury’s what’s this? A fruit scone!
“With the cream on top!” In a Cornish shop. It’s funny! Is this acceptable to you?
The supermarket responded: “An imposter! What store saw it? They’ll be in touch about the blasphemy.
Sainsbury’s later tweeted that they had learned of the shop’s location: “That’ll Never Do at All Truro!”
The local news website noticed the Twitter furore at that time and tweeted: “Sainsbury’s, what’s the matter?” A fruit scone! “With cream on the first!” In a Cornish grocery. You have the cheek to do it!
“I have sent feedback to the manager to make sure they know about this fraud and fix it.”
In 2018, a similar dispute erupted after another poster was published by the National Trust in Cornwall advertising cream tea events. This time, it showed a cream-on-first scone.
Locals branded the advertisement ‘unacceptable, shocking’ and disgusting’ after it was uploaded to social media by Lanhydrock Garden.
Lanhydrock said later that ‘we’d like to assure our Cornish community, that our caterers would never make such an heinous error and that jam and cream are often served in small pots so that their order is not affected by such appalling errors.
“Rest assured. You mothers are safe.”