, nowhere in the press release or on any of the posters is there a single mention of the Royal family or of her famous daughter. It is a delicate balancing act - but this subtle approach has won fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Where Meghan has exposed every piece of royal dirty laundry she can find, Carole has never traded on her eldest daughter's marriage. 'America is obsessed with Kate and her family because of how poised but also how discreet they all are,' says British-based US journalist Helen K){kind=link}
Carole Middleton muscles into Tony Soprano territory as she launches Party Pieces across supermarkets in New Jersey
No one expects to see Carole Middleton in ShopRite, one of New Jersey’s biggest supermarkets and one of most popular retail chains in north-eastern America. And while shoppers are unlikely to be bumping into the grandmother of our future king down the aisles, they will be able to buy products from her Party Pieces ranges across the Garden State’s stores.
And she isn’t the first woman to launch her product range at this ShopRite in New Jersey. Three years ago Teresa Giudice – the star of Real Housewives of New Jersey – sold her peach and raspberry-flavoured sparkling wine at the same supermarket. New Jersey is pure The Sopranos territory: multi-lane highways, strip-light malls and a strong Italian immigrant population. Guidice fits right in; Carole Middleton – the mother to Britain’s next Queen – not so much.
Hence the surprise at the recent news that Carole had taken her Party Pieces business outside the UK for the first time, and that the supermarket collaboration would begin in New Jersey but later expand to some of ShopRite’s 321 outlets across six states.
“It’s a bit of a head-scratcher because this is not our version of Waitrose,” says New York-based writer Eloise Parker, “and it’s definitely not Macy’s. It’s also not somewhere I could see Carole shopping.”