2012 no supermarket shop challenge

Looter

I saw on the news the other day about the proposal of a Tesco store in Barnoldswick which could destroy local businessess who protested by blacking out their shop windows to illustrate what the town would look like.

After seeing that I considered the possiblility of spending a year NOT buying from the big 4 supermarkets. Why not buy all my meat from a quality butcher, fish from a fishmonger, my fruit and veg from my local market, milk from a milkman/woman, bread from a bakery, all of which would appreciate my custom, and anything else you need from discount retailers eg Quality Save, Wilkinsons etc.

I'm considering doing this in 2012, and hopefully if a percentage of people reading this do the same we may keep our little towns in England vibrant and give the UK economy a good kick up the backside! Don't know if this has been suggested before but is anyone up for the challenge? We could share tips on where to shop along the way.

Lynsey

Looter wrote: »

Why not buy all my meat from a quality butcher, fish from a fishmonger, my fruit and veg from my local market, milk from a milkman/woman, bread from a bakery, all of which would appreciate my custom,

Probably price and convenience.
It would be nice if we could go back to the old way and buy as you suggest and I suppose if they smaller outlets could compete in price it may be a viable option.
It seems a vicious circle, the small shops need to be busy to be competitive, but are probably dearer due to less custom??
I find not everything in supermarkets is cheap anyway, it's just the "offers" which are worth buying.
I use the "big 4" less now and use them to suit my own purpose. I cannot honestly remember though the last time I used an independent butcher or fishmonger. Fruit and veg is a different matter and bargains can be had here with markets etc. A milkman?? I forgot they actually still exist!! If I could get 4 pints delivered for £1'sh I would use a milkman, but wouldn't even know now what the price of a doorstep pint is.

I wish you luck in 2012, it's a lovely thought - possibly an expensive one though and not everyone would have that luxury.

Lynsey

bearcub

We do try, in that we buy most of our meat from the local farm shop or the butcher, but we don't have a greengrocer, and there's no such thing as a milkman here. We used to use the local baker, but he closed down his shop a couple of years ago (the premises wasn't big enough), and has only just re-opened - at the far end of our very long village. However, we do use our local Co op a lot which, although still a supermarket, sells a lot of local produce. It's also a 10 minute walk away, while any other supermarket is at least 12 miles away. There's an independent grocers a couple of miles way and, although it's fairly expensive for some things, other items aren't too bad - and they do the best bacon!

beachie

I actually spent less! The reason being is that I was never tempted to buy anything I didn'r really need or by junk food.

I went to the bakery to buy bread (£1.20 a loaf), some cheese and mis-shape, lots of vege and normally spent around £10 but this would, in conjunction with some pasta or such last me a week.

I would only have enough food for that week. Since them a couple of supermarket deals have been to good an offer with £30 off a £50 shop etc but I will get back to buying local in the new year.

Looter

where there's a will there's a way: if there's no bakery why not buy a breadmaker and look look online for related recipes?

If you've got a big garden why not devote a part of it to "growing your own"?

We've got to admit we've become far too reliant on these supermarkets; I didn't realise I felt so strongly about the issue until I saw what it's doing to our local businesses. So who's in?

s_b

we do everything we can not to use supermarkets but we still have to
meat from local farm shop or meat market on saturday
some veg from our allotment or most from market (local greengrocer nearly made me cry when i paid the other week in the village)
milk comes from the supermarket or farmfoods as it is too inconvenient to find a milkman
we live in a village where the coop took over and squeezed the competition out a few years ago,they then did away with stamps and then targeted the new incomers with too much cash,as an example they want 99pence for a small made up trifle yet same thing different label in asda is 33pence
i would never use a supermarket if i could help it because i hate cartels but i also hated buying broken biscuits from the tin rancid butter and sugar in brown paper bags when i were a lad on an errand

Looter

Yeah I've heard Farmfoods do a good deal on milk. It's just the 4 big I'm going to avoid. Would be good to have others to do the same to have an effect and also keep motivated!

Looter

LOL, this is at a time when I've just signed up for the Santander cashback card with 1% off supermarket purchases. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

toontron

Its absolutely 100% not for me, but I wish you very well with your idea and will follow it with interest.

Looter

I should have done this a couple of years ago, when Sainsbury's did their "feed your family for a fiver", we used to take their menu cards then buy the ingredients from Lidl for about £3.80!!

A._Badger

I follow a middle way. In my experience, most supermarket meat (Waitrose excepted) is vile (my mind reels when I see posters on this forum praising a supermarket's meat - I can only assume they've never eaten better) and mass produced bread is just nasty.

So, I use local butchers, the local baker, buy fruit and veg from farm shops where possible. I also grow my own and have done for years - but feeding a family from a garden or allotment is fantasy thinking unless you can afford the time to become, in effect, a peasant farmer. We also have problems growing bananas, oranges and pineapples down here in Kent.

But for things like soap powder, toohpaste, canned goods, washing products, kitchen rolls, frozen foods, booze etc, I use supermakets. Why not? They are usually cheaper and buying those products from them minimises the harm done to local traders who add value to their goods - like butchers and bakers, or those greengrocers and market stall holders who take trouble over their fruit and veg - unlike many supermarkets.

Good luck with the project - but I predict you'll wince when you have to pay twice the price for a kitchen roll or a packet of frozen peas.