I'm boycotting Waitrose after appalling sacking of Walker Smith: Sarah Todd

But the company’s frozen aisle, the lemon tart and salmon fishcakes for anyone wanting a tip, meant the exceedingly rare “nip ins” when passing through the nearby city centre had started to creep back in.

Like an addict, it will be hard, but this expensive vice is now going to be kicked in a cold turkey way. That’s it, no more tasty treats. In fact, like a shopaholic with a credit card, this particular supermarket’s store loyalty piece of plastic has been ceremoniously cut up with the kitchen scissors.

Readers are used to this correspondent banging on about supermarkets mis-labelling products, making it hard for the poor stressed shopper to spot the likes of Thai chicken when so many foreign offerings are packaged in red, white and blue or are emblazoned with the name of some wholesome sounding British farm when the livestock concerned has never seen our country’s green and pleasant lands.

What has got her fully mounted on her high horse is the recent story, which at first sounded like an April Fools’ Day tease, that a Waitrose worker - with 17 years at the upmarket firm under his belt - was shopped after tackling a shoplifter who was trying to steal luxury Easter eggs.

The cut of shop assistant Walker Smith’s jib is already appealing, as rather than shrugging his shoulders and doing nothing - as has happened to this shopper when both stealing and drug dealing have been reported in a local supermarket - he sprang into action when he was approached by a customer in a Waitrose store in Clapham Junction, South London, who told him someone had filled a shopping bag with Easter eggs.

Recognising the culprit as a repeat offender, Mr Smith is reported as jumping into immediate action and grabbing the bag of seasonal swag.

The thief is said to have snatched the bag back and a tug-of-war ensued between the pair before the bag ripped and Lindt Gold Bunny eggs, which retail for £13 each, fell to the floor with one smashing to pieces.

With his plan foiled, the shoplifter sprinted out of the shop whilst the 54-year-old member of staff picked up a piece of broken chocolate and ‘threw it out of frustration’ in the direction of some shopping trolleys, although insists he did not directly aim it at the thief.

He was reprimanded by his manager and apologised for the angry outburst, but the matter was escalated and, despite pleading that the firm was like ‘family’ to him, Smith was fired. Of course, there is always two sides to every story.

In mitigation for the firm, Smith has admitted that he had been told not to approach shoplifters and there are all kinds of sensible reasons for this, such as the danger of any have-a-go hero getting injured.

But really? While in our increasing litigious society encouraging staff to step up to the plate and apprehend shoplifters is obviously not the wisest tactic, there can’t be a law-abiding member of society who doesn’t think he should have been hailed as an asset to the store. His moral compass - if not his actual actions - praised.

There are several elements to this story and one that has tugged on the old heartstrings is the fact that having his job had enabled Mr Smith to recently move into a small home of his own and away from quarter of a century of flat sharing with other people.

He is now worried that he could become homeless.

It’s to our benefit-grabbing nation’s disgrace that this is another nail in the coffin for the old-fashioned notion that working hard and knowing right from wrong pays.

Hopefully, some kind businessperson will step in to secure him work and save his home. It’s surely impossible not to applaud his frustration at a world in which scoundrels steal items from right under supermarket staffs’ noses, knowing full well they are not allowed to do anything about it.

On reflection (nothing to do with lemon tart or fishcakes) this isn’t a Waitrose problem, it’s society’s problem.