“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone…..,” Eggs Etcetera, Botley Road’s failsafe one-stop-shop for sandwiches, newspapers, groceries, bread, fruit and veg has gone, swept away almost as soon as Waitrose opened its doors. Progress they call it.

And while, after 30 years, the family business has shut its doors, all is not lost. Because it has moved into the old cake shop next door and is back doing what it does best – sandwiches, bread and really good coffee, drinks and newspapers, under he guise of a new name Country Grains (although they are yet to paint the sign above the door).

Owner Joe Devlin says Waitrose can have the grocery side of the business but judging by the flock of customers pouring through his doors at 7.30am, it’s a canny move.

We ordered some of the delicious pain au chocolat, some croissants, lattes and sandwiches for lunch – the trusty spinach ciabatta with tuna and peppers and a chicken and mayo baguette, some rye bread for later and trundled back out to the car secure in the knowledge that Eggs Etcetera may have gone, but it is fighting back. The coffee is great, the bread delicious, fresh and bouncy, the rye wonderfully chewy and I could eat their sandwiches every day of the week.

As for the empty Eggs Etcetera, Joe has plans for it. And while he is, as yet, unwilling to divulge any details, it will be food related.

We wait with baited breath.

In the meantime I hope you all support Country Grains and pop in on your way in and out of Oxford for a loaf of bread, a damn good coffee or your take-away lunch.

Because the Waitrose effect isn’t all good.