Enough. We're walking away from supermarkets

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

The qaulity of my fresh coffee, groceries fruit veg and meat have soared by going mostly independent. Plus I am closer to customer service and my money goes into small business, real jobs, actual companies that CARE.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

when we done this challenge many moons ago, I learned a lot.. Love them, hate them, supermarkets are here to stay..

I didn't walk into a supermarket for a long time, but there will come a point where you will nee to use one..

I now have a happy and healthy balance in using both.. supermarkets and independents

Kirri

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

when we done this challenge many moons ago, I learned a lot.. Love them, hate them, supermarkets are here to stay..

I didn't walk into a supermarket for a long time, but there will come a point where you will nee to use one..

I now have a happy and healthy balance in using both.. supermarkets and independents

^ I'd say that depends on what type of food someone eats - for me supermarkets are mostly full of the type of stuff I avoid and so all the basic wholefoods I can get quite easily elsewhere, it's actually harder for me to find the types of items I like in supermarkets although Waitrose comes closest. I'd say Abel & Cole and Riverford with the odd visit to an indie organic shop can supply everything I like and want and the handful of times I've been in a supermarket this year has just been if I've been passing and I know one of the organic/eco items I want is on offer there, but I could get them from the above so no real need to go in a supermarket at all. I'm trying to think of any item I want I can't get via indie or organic delivery means??

Had a quick look round the kitchen - marmite maybe, usually buy that in a supermarket - though probably is stocked in health shops?

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

I actually find using Independent Shops is putting me off Supermarkets so I can walk right pass Flour, Chillie Sauce, meat, aisles.
My use of Supermarkets is therefore limited to a few selected items they do very well.
My clubcard bill has gone down as well so now down to £5.50 in Voucher terms. If I can lower it I will!

pawsies

I have just renewed my home insurance policy with Sainsbury's. I desperately tried to avoid them but all insurance providers that I could find were huge corporate companies that were more expensive than sainsbury's (I also got a claim accepted last year, no troubles so that swayed me slightly), plus I suppose independent insurance providers would be more risky?

They did knock 20% off for me when I haggled though.

Does anybody use an independent insurer and how do you find them?

sams247

zenseeker wrote: »

:rotfl:

If you do then you've already failed. I don't give you a month before you're back in the supermarkets because they are quite simply cheaper and you'll realise this very very quickly.

Well here I am back again, life just been busy and I actually had work to do in the office rather than having spare time to browse the net.....!!

I am so happy to report that despite the doom outlook from dear zenseeker at the beginning, we are now on our seventh month of local, small, independant living and the supermarkets barely get a look in. I admit that on some days I have used W***rose as a quick stop gap, or when one guest turned out to be seven, or when I was ill, but even then it was for top up bits. I am really happy with the life style, people have more time and more care at the small independants. I have had some frustrations, of course, but mostly they have been resolved by a bit of research (to producers with lower delivery charges) or by a little negotiation. Our table is generally full of fresh, local food, food from small producers and a much wider variety than before.

When I have wandered into the supermarkets I have always picked up a couple of items I did not go in for....... a bad habit that was one of the minor reasons I stopped using them! My food bills are down and we cook more of our own food, and throw far, far less out now.

Not quite living the good life, but its working so far.

OK, a couple of sites I've been trying out, I'll add these to the fisrt email if I recall how to!

http://thehappybelly.co.uk/shop
http://www.formanandfield.com (dinner party help rather than regular)
http://shop.lochfyne.com/Categories/Salmon/Fresh_Fish
http://www.planetorganic.com/
http://www.thespicychef.co.uk/

The last one is a guy who sells street food in Maidenhead, it delicious, and he also provides a catering service, we used this for our sons bday meal recently. Food all turned up several hours in advance in containers, we cooked it when ready, and ate with gusto.

sams247

Just calling back in at the end of the year to reflect on what I have done, what I gave up on and what we still believe in.

When we started this change in shopping I thought that missing the convenience would be the biggest worry, or maybe trying to keep costs down. Not so, the biggest headache has been delivery. Late deliveries, deliveries that never did turn up, high delivery charges (£11 min charge on one occasion!), and items missing from delivery. The second thing that I assumed was that small, indepdendant shops and stalls would be frinedly and willing to help. Sadly not. Many have been, and I still shop with them now. Some have not been., some have had couldnt-care-less attitudes and I no longer shop with them. It has been hard to stick to.......... but stick to it we have.

We do shop in W***se on occasion, for top ups and forgotten items, and we're ok wiht that. Our main shops are still with small firms, farmers markets, independant providers and farm shops. I still enjoy the thrill of fidning a new small outlet selling things that are excellent quality for very good prices.

Our meals have improved in quality and diversity, our budget has been slightly improved but that does tend to depend on the month - if my store cupboard needs repleneshing then its a highwer budget month. On the whole I have enjoyed the challlenge despite how hard the producers have made it for me I intend to carry on as it now seems to be the way we do things

ALIBOBSY

Interesting read OP, glad you managed to keep it up. I suspect it depends on where you live as to how easy this would be.

We are lucky, we live in a semi rural village on the edge of a small town. Within about 1 min by car or 15/20 mins walk in opposite directions I can reach two local farm shops that have been going for years. One does meat-the family are butchers as well. The beef is there own and is higher welfare and slow grown as well as well hung and is unbelivably tasty and yet is only slightly more than supermarket meat. TBH the mince is so meaty you can use less anyway. The chicken and pork is locally produced and free range and is actually mostly cheaper or the same price as the supermarket stuff-often even the non free range. They do their own dry cure bacon and make their own sausages. They also sell pies and puddings from another local producer and locally these are referred to as better than hollands lol, for northerers that a big deal .

The other farm shop do veggies and fruit alongside cheeses and other dairy products, alot of the veg is off their own farm, the rest is almost all local except when they can source it in the area. Everything is clearly labelled with origin-obviously much of the fruit is from abroad.

They also do various cakes and breads either made by the family themselves or from other local bakers. Plus two days a week a brilliant fishmonger parks up his van on the car park and sells lovely fresh fish.

They are on the whole miles cheaper and much higher quality than the big stores. Currently you can get local Maris piper for £2.50 a half bag or £4.00 a sack, no supermarket comes close to that.

So other than dried/tinned food we could avoid the big stores.
But to save more I do a combo, I use the farm shops for most stuff, plus aldi and/or lidl every couple of weeks, I also bob into pound stretcher and b and m bargains as they are just by lidl to check for good prices on stuff we like.
The local market and the one in another small town about 20 mins drive away are also good for various bits, again cheap but good quality.

When it comes to the big supermarkets we rarely go in them, but occasionally frozen stuff, tinned stuff, dried stuff, bottled stuff etc may be on offer plus the free yeast from the instore bakeries is handy. But if we bob in it is for specific items and to check out the reductions. If we had to could easily cut them out completely, but get more satisfaction by taking advantage of their knockdowns/offers whilst not falling for all the marketing hype lol. It is very freeing to know you needn't rely on the supermarkets.

Ali x

alfsmum

sams247 I can second your comments on local stores; some are lovely, staff are friendly, well-informed about their products, usually willing to order something in if they don't stock it and think it will sell well. These I use as often as I can. Others I won't go back to because of unhelpful, offhand staff who, as you say, demonstrate a couldn't care less attitude. Although we are semi rural, I would have to go out of my way to the nearest farm shops so use box schemes to top up our own produce and deliveries have always been fine. Some of our milk is via doorstep delivery (too expensive to buy it all that way but I like to support them and they are utterly reliable). I will use the odd SM for top ups but avoid them like the plague at this time of year. Also use Ocado for home delivery, easy website, good offers and again, reliable deliveries.

sams247

I did have something of a nightmare with Abel & Cole but to be fair they worked hard to redeem their mistake and were really keen to be helpful and check all was well, so I have returned to them.

Some places seem to think they are doing you a favour by allowing you to shop there! I cant abide rudeness no matter where its found.

I envy you Alibobsy, sounds an ideal place for shopping well where you live. We live in a riverside town on the outer skirts of London, very built up and very quick shop-24-hour-shop thinking here. Few small and individual places survive the competition