shopping the supermarkets

[serenity]

Just watched this programme for the first time and am completely disgusted by the way the top supermarkets rob our farmers. I can't pretend that I knew nothing about it but seeing real people being driven out of business by underhand dealings is disgusting. Even more so when supermarket proffits grow each year

[beefy]

Ive been saying it for along time Serinity. Im a farmers son that had to leave home and look for a job because when my father and I totaled up the accounts at the end of the year there was not enough for three people.We had 120 milking cows and grew 95% of the fodder for the cows . We also grew 100 acres of wheat and barley for feeding .
Heres a simple one that no body will answer - You pay Aprox 90 p for 2 litres of milk . My father is paid 32 p for 2 litres of milk . Who gets the other 58 p?

[muckdiva]

Two books I read last year are an eye opener on treatment of farmers and suppliers, amongst other things:

Not on the Label (Felicity Lawrence)
Shopped (Joanna Blythman)

But be warned, you may never want to set foot inside a supermarket again...

[dexterdoglancashire]

Agree with your serenity! I sort of knew this kind of thing was going on - but now - I'll buy my milk from my milkman! Its shamefull what the supermarkets do to normal, law abiding farmers and veg producers! Bernie aka Dexterdog

[Two_Sheds]

The supermarkets will say they are only doing what the consumer demands...ie, cheaper and cheaper food by whatever means.
Perhaps one day our farmers will come under the 'Fair Trade' banner to receive a fair price for their produce !

[TPeers]

Do be brief! The only part of the normal comunity which has no voice is the middle class, middle of the road, native white Englishman.

If that is our governments attitude to the masses, why do you think they will ever bother to listen to the farmer, especially when 'common market' is a euphemism for political junket and nothing to do with the food market the populace voted about all those years ago!

[Two_Sheds]

The only part of the normal comunity which has no voice is the middle class, middle of the road, native white Englishman

Do you mean like the media? (majority middle class, white men). the Sun? No voice? You kidding?

[TPeers]

Given the nature of this thread I am not going to go off on a full rant here - try me one Sunday evening and remember to stand well back!

[Sue]

Sue
I hate supermarkets and what they do - to their suppliers, to the surrounding town and to other retailers. If I possibly can I spend every penny elsewhere. It's more effort but I like to think that they're not getting their hands on my money at least.
If you try to eat seasonal food and not cook with imported ingredients then it's possible to get most stuff from the farmer's market or box deliveries.
I haven't seen it yet but there's a book about Tesco coming out soon called Tescopoly based on the website. I did get my hopes up one Saturday morning when the side of the Tesco building fell down but it was not sabotage, just shoddy building. They're still there.
I do hope there is a growing movement away from using them.

And as for Sainsburys and what they did to our beautiful old Victorian Railway station which is now a horrible Beefeaters Restaurant. Sainsburys wanted acres of carparking space so the station and the line (now preserved) are either side of the carpark! Partly the council's fault I know but if you read Rosy Boycott's new book you can see the pressure they're put under to not only accomodate the buildings but reroute traffic and road systems.
Sue

[serenity]

the problem is that where we live there is very little alternative, there are only 2 farmers markets a month nearby which I am aware of (I buy from both in as large a quantities as I can). The local shops are not up to much, jack fulton, greggs and coop. My local greengrocers went out of business after YEARS about 18 months ago.

[Geordie]

Sorry, but the one thing Supermarkets deliver on is price. Yes I understand all the arguments surrounding this, and if you are in the fortunate position that price is not your prime consideration then great. But Supermarkets supply what their customers want, if a new product doesnt sell its gone, no ifs or buts. And yes I realise what role the Supermarket plays in selling us goods, but you come back to the same position every time.....they are perceived as good quality at a good price. Consumers fear that if they look too hard behind the advertising at the real costs paid for the food then the cheap prices will disappear....principles are great as long as you can afford them!

[Sue]

Serenity
Have you got box deliveries? Ours does fruit and veg and I get all my milk from them (organic from Dorset, there is NO organic supply from Kent where I live...) butter, cheese, flour, rice etc and they can supply loo rolls and cleaning products etc. And once they get to know you it's worth asking them to stock things you use a lot.

It's got a lot easier now I've given up eating meat and fish too, as we've lost our fishmonger and don't have a "real" butcher anymore. We have got a small organic shop and they too will get stuff if you ask for something not in stock.

Ideally I'd like to buy from the organic wholesalers but can't find enough like minded to share the costs.

I'm lucky in that I work at home so can make forays out to different parts of the town each day. A real problem if you're stuck for time, I know.

The one thing I have to go to Sainsburys for is a particular brand of cat food, one of my cats favourite things. Trying to find an internet supplier so I can finally walk away from supermarkets altogether.
Sue

[Eden]

hi there, my dad has a pig farm in Bath and supplies Sainsburys. They insisted he he change all his normal ways of looking after the pigs and told him he either does it their way or not at all, so he had to go with what they wanted. They also insisted that he changed the sperm supplier, saying that this new supplier would result in bigger better pigs. The result was a wonderful mixture of pigs, mostly black patches all over them but some totally black. When Sainsburys found out they told my dad they couldn't sell the pork, the 'customer' would not buy it. Totally b***** ridiculous. He informs them that the pigs need certain vaccinations at certain times, Sainsburys didn't give him the go-ahead and had an outbreak of deaths, can't remember what it's called but over half a litter can be still born. Dreadful business. My dad has farmed 55 years and retires very soon, he can't wait to get out of it. When I was a girl he worked on a farm which just supplied the local butchers, how times have changed (for the worse!!).

[Snadger]

Sorry, but the one thing Supermarkets deliver on is price. Yes I understand all the arguments surrounding this, and if you are in the fortunate position that price is not your prime consideration then great. But Supermarkets supply what their customers want, if a new product doesnt sell its gone, no ifs or buts. And yes I realise what role the Supermarket plays in selling us goods, but you come back to the same position every time.....they are perceived as good quality at a good price. Consumers fear that if they look too hard behind the advertising at the real costs paid for the food then the cheap prices will disappear....principles are great as long as you can afford them!

I usually shop at a very local Hypermaket because I believed that the local shops couldn't compete on price because of the buying power of the conglomerates.
Recently, because I was in a hurry and the corner shop is on the way home from my allotment I went in and bought quite a lot of groceries and a bit of alchohol to watch the match with. To my surprise the shopping I got, including the wine, was cheaper than Tesco's.
The only thing I can imagine would justify this is that even though the corner shops pay more from the wholesaler, they work on lower profit margins than the conglomerates and pass the savings on to the customer. I am now a corner shop advocate, and use them as much as I possibly can!

[Tyto Alba]

People are waking up to this I think.

Our plot has been innundated recently with supermarket shoppers wanting a plot....must be summat on the TV.

All in all it's a good thing. Who wants to eat potatoes that are all squeaky clean, exactly the same size and have about as much taste as the plastic packaging they come in.

Apparently, 50 years ago, a pint of beer, a loaf of bread and a pint of milk were all the same price......not now though eh?