Local fruit and veg stalls - cheaper?

mentat_2

Hi all, having spent my adult life buying my fruit and veg in supermarkets, I was wondering, even though it would give me a warm glow inside to know I am ssupporting a local businessperson... (getting to the point, bear with me), is there much price difference between buying your fruit and veg for the week in a supermarket and the local F+V shop/stall?

shays_mum

yep def are!, my local market is wayyyyyy cheaper & the fruit tastes better!

calleyw

At my local market there is one fruit and veg stall does mixing bowls full of fruit and veg for a £1. So you get say 10 bananas for a £1. The other day it was 3 small melons and a pineapple for a £1. And new potatoes etc etc.

So yes they will be cheaper and it more likely to be fresher.


Yours


Calley

cattie

As a big fruit eater I used to save a fortune on buying fruit when I lived not to far from a very popular market in London. I always bought from the same stallholder & it was great quality. I could get at least 2 kilo's of apples for much less than the price I now have to pay for just 1 kilo in my local supermarket, twice as many oranges for £1 etc.

Also the stallholder would encourage me to try before I bought if there was something I was unsure about, wondering say if the plums or strawberries were really sweet. Because I was a good customer he often popped a couple of extra apples or oranges into the carrier bag for me.:D

Sadly I have to pay a lot more for my fruit now there is no market nearby.

hex2

As a student I used to buy 'bargain' fruit from the market as it was much cheaper but I got fed up with getting home to find half of it rotten. Shop round till you find a decent one and then stick to them.
Farm shops are a good compromise if you can find one who visits the wholesalers regularly. Two very good ones that I use - one at Rothley and one near Bradgate Park in Leicestershire.

mcallister1

In Chelmsford market there is a great stall- the only downside is not having a trolley to take it home- maybe I should get a bag on wheels.
For instance- 5lb bananas for £1, 2 melons for 50p, 4lb tomato for £1. It does vary according to the seasons and what they have a lot of- if you go at 3 o clock then there are real bargains. Also there is a stall that sells lots of African food which has great plantain...
I am not convinced by greengrocers shops however, which seem no better than the supermarket. So -there are my thoughts- but get a good carrier bag because all those 2 and 3 lbs really add up ...

jet77

I'm also going to start shopping at the Farmers Market in Birmingham on 1st and 3rd Wed of every month in the hope that I will be able to buy organic produce for the same price I'm paying currently at my local supermarket - has anyone else done this and is it realistic?

marklefty

Like all the above we use the local market with string bags of onions for £2, fruit by the £s and save a lot of money.

Where we use to live I used to go to the local wholesale place and as long as you bought bags or boxes of stuff they didn't mind. From memory a box of cooking apples £5.

Anything that goes off goes into the compost so the next year free potting compost.

lily_the_pink

jpet77 wrote:

I'm also going to start shopping at the Farmers Market in Birmingham on 1st and 3rd Wed of every month in the hope that I will be able to buy organic produce for the same price I'm paying currently at my local supermarket - has anyone else done this and is it realistic?

imo you might be better getting a box delivery scheme - www.riverford.co.uk seem to be serving larger parts of the country, ABEL and COLE serve large tracts of South East area (not sure about rest of country). I have always found farmers markets expensive which is why I started doing this - plus it is sooooooo convenient having everything delivered (and it makes me actually cook with vegetables as I dont want to waste anything). When ever I price it up, buying like for like in organic veg in supermarket would always cost more than my organic box - pllus my veg always looks and tastes fresher (Riverford source most of their stuff directly from their own farm or one of number of farms local to them).

comicmankev

Better check that it's really 'organic' your buying - lol! I always buy from the market if possible, it is always much cheaper. Never buy supermarket bought F&V, ever put some fruit or veg from tesco in the fridge for a while? It either dies straight away or last for months, even things which should last that long! I'm testing a Mango bought from Tesco before Xms, it's still in my fridge alongside a rock solid pear. Just wondering how long it will take for these to demise -lol

mcallister1

I thought of this thread when I read this in the Times yesterday...
in 'a study of Queens Market, Upton Park, a typical street market which is under threat from a proposed ASDA dev elopment.The report ( from the New Economics Foundation) says that ...items bought from the market were, on average, 53% cheaper than the local ASDA.':eek: