Fancy food halls and freebies are tactics in the store wars. But do customers truly care where they shop?

“We’re sorry the machine isn’t working now.” This was the crushing notice greeting shoppers looking for a free hit last week in Waitrose’s Finchley Road store in north London. The unpalatable fact was that neither of the two complimentary coffee makers were in operation.

Taking into account apocalyptic fires and geopolitical instability, this mechanical breakdown may not have qualified as a harbinger of global crisis. Indeed, customers took the malfunction in their stride, gamely going about their business uncaffeinated.