Going to the market vs going to the supermarket

lynzpower

Berwick st is dead on its feet im afraid Bitter, I was there the other day. Theres loads of roadworks on Berwick st itself.

Theres about 3 produce stalls all selling the same thing, there used to be a chocolate/crisps seller, but seems to have gone. Theres a fishmonger in a van, occasionally. Theres a guy selling posh unrefridgerated focaccia sandwiches/ olives/ that sort of thing. Its really disappointing down there at the moment...

Penelope_Penguin

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Alison_c

I love our local market also - if I get my day of on a friday / saturday I always nip up there - quite usually I split the items with my mum so it works out even cheaper

Not only that the produce seems to keep better than supermarket produce imo. lettuce and mushrooms imperticually

Fire_Fox

Guapa1 wrote: »

I wrote this blog entry and thought I would share it here.

This week I wanted to see if it really was worth the effort going my local market instead of going to the supermarket.
My market still has most of their signs in pounds. I’ve converted it to grams for comparison. Now 500g is 1.102 pounds, but for ease I’m going to go with 500g=1lb.
I used Asda as the comparison because it came up as the cheapest when I used mysupermarket.com.

I got more than I had set out to buy for less than the original shopping trolley!
As long as I can get a friend to help me, I’ll definitely be making more use of my market.

What level of Asda product did you price up, please? Standard or Smartprice?

frugalswan

I love our local market. I get my bacon ends from there as you get 2 really large packs for £2, and it's really good stuff! I have difficulty buying fruit and veg because I can't keep it cool (the fridge at work is always full of other people's stuff) and it tends to go a bit funny before I can get it home. I shall work on that, because the fruit and veg are always really nice from there, and are excellent value.

Mmm, we have a man that sells cakes in our market. Good value, and although I don't buy from him often, I do every now and again as a treat or when I don't have time to bake. The meat van also does some very good deals, too. Very nice.

x Frugalswan x

Gigervamp

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

That doesn't surprise me at all. I suspect the rejection has more to do with uniformity of size rather than the actual quality. I can't remember the last time I ate an apple with a skin blemish, never mind a bruise.

True. When I was peeling the potatoes this morning, I remembered the times in the past when you'd find a potato or a tomato with a nose or a willy and we'd all have a laugh! You don't get that now.

Guapa1

Kedger, your market sounds like mine near the end of the day. Unfortunately my mum has a tiny freezer, and I'm the only one who eats a lot of fruit so a lot of that would be wasted.

SunnyGirl, that sounds like me. I didn't have lime or melon on my list and yet... I stayed within budget though so I'm not complaining too much.

B&T, I find that market fruits are ready to eat as well. What I do though is buy fruit that they pick and weigh as opposed to those whole bowls for a £1. They seem to last a tad longer.

Lynz I was bought up near East St market. I used to love the doughtnut lady near the top of the road. I also used to go to Brixton market too. I believe Brixton market are trying to get themselves listed as there was a bid put in for a shopping centre. My gran would go mental if that ever shut down.:mad:

It's not just about the shopping, but seeing her friends and moaning about the prices and gossiping about people children who are bringing shame on their family. :rotfl:

I love going back there with her sometimes and seeing all the old butchers still there from when I was little, and she still makes me stand to the side with the trolley while she looks at produce. LOL

Guapa1

Fire_Fox wrote: »

What level of Asda product did you price up, please? Standard or Smartprice?

All fruit and veg are compared with the loose price, not anything in packs and are like for like. So for example I bought gala apples, and so compared it with gala apples not smartprice apples.
The eggs are not smartprice, but they are still cheaper than 6 smartprice eggs at 88p

Sweetcorn is smartprice. HTH

AlexRed

Hi Guapa1 :hello:

What a great idea of listing the produce you bought from the market and comparing it with Asda - it is really thought provoking and shows the savings to be made clearly for what I find locally is better quality food.

Before I became pregnant I was using the local market and greengrocers on a weekly basis but since have been more tired I've let things slip and just being doing one big shop at the supermarket. Also the old excuse of working full time means that I sometimes think "stuff it, I''ll just do a big shop in Mr T/Asda this week and go to the market next week". This has the habit of turning in to weeks and weeks of just shopping at Mr T then!:rolleyes:

I'm a teaching assistant and we used to get an hour for lunchbreak which meant I could nip to the local market (Pontypridd in my case) and get some veg etc. Since the beginning of the year we have quarter of an hour less which doesen't give me enough time to go shopping and come back and have lunch though the upside is that the school day finishes a quarter of an hour earlier so am out of school by half three so should go then instead! You've inspired me to return on a weekly basis to the market / butcher / greengrocer rather than just going in an ad-hoc fashion.

One thing I can say is that I did buy some lovely vine tomatoes just over 1lb / 500g on Friday from a greengrocer for 58p and I had 8 lovely juicy tomatoes that actually tasted like tomatoes rather than water! I'm pretty sure that in Tesco's they are £1.99 for 6 much smaller ones on the vine. The greengrocer is Stokes on Taff Street in Pontypridd for any local people on here! (Hope I'm allowed to say the shop name and its not against the rules!?)

Also in Pontypridd market itself there is a lady who sells lovely large fresh chicken and duck eggs and I am positive they are 80p for six, the same as at your local market. I will check and post back on this in the week. I think I am lucky that the fruit and veg from the local shops have always seemed to me better in taste and quality to the big supermarkets offerings, and as has been said in much less packaging.

I noticed you mentioned the special offer on fruit at Lidl, thought I would say that I picked up a punnet of cherries, 6 kiwi fruit and a Galia Melon for 49p each in Aldi, so they all came to a grand total of £1.47, they also had pineapple, plums and other fruit and veg on their weekly offer if this helps anyone.

You've inspired me to write a similar list for markets / grocers / butchers in the Pontypridd area and I will post the comparisons soon. Will probably get funny looks from stallholders and shoppers as I scribble down prices in my pad! :rotfl:

Keep up the good work, it's a great idea you've had here and maybe board members from all over the country could so similar comparisons and post results. I think the big supermarkets are banking on us all being too busy to notice the price differences in some cases!

Have a good Sunday

Alex Red

1carminestocky

Is the OP comparing like with like though? Reason I ask is at my local market they tend to sell what i would call 'misshapes'. Nowt wrong with it at all, they taste the same. But these 'misshapes' would most definitely be sold in the supermarket's value range. I haven't ckecked beyond the first product but certainly the value/smartprice shrooms in Asda are currently £1.36 for 750g - which is actually cheaper per 100g than the market ones. Just a thought.