Supermarkets Vs Butchers

SoWhatIsNext

geordie_joe wrote: »

Reputations don't pay bills. If an independent butcher is in financial trouble, or just greedy, he may be tempted to risk his reputation for money, and there isn't anyone above him to stop him doing it.

A supermarket manager has people above him checking up on him. Even the CEO answers to the shareholders, so he knows if he does wrong they will hold him to account.

How many people from the supermarkets were fired or prosecuted due to the horsemeat scandal?

[Deleted User]

stephen77 wrote: »

Your missing the point.
There is this belief on here of
Supermarkets = evil
Butchers = Saints.

Threads like this are just about snobbery:

"I buy all my meat from the local butcher"
"I cook everything from scratch"
"I wouldn't be seen dead in Tesco"

etc, etc.....

If you want to understand the dynamic behind status competition read Miller.

[Deleted User]

A._Badger wrote: »

Which is why I very specifically said good butchers. One word of bad publicity would finish a quality butcher. Unlike Tesco, Asda et al, who seem to carry on regardless.

And how do you define a "good butcher"?

geordie_joe

SoWhatIsNext wrote: »

How many people from the supermarkets were fired or prosecuted due to the horsemeat scandal?

None because it wasn't there fault. The supermarkets ordered certain items from suppliers, the product supplied had horsemeat put in it at source. Nobody employed by a supermarket could have known that.

That is completely different from a butcher buying mutton then labelling it as goat because he can charge more for goat.

stephen77

SoWhatIsNext wrote: »

Supermarkets will always be pushing the boundaries to cut costs. Perhaps they won't be quite as aggressive with cutting corners as they used to for a while. However an independent butcher has an accountability that a supermarket doesn't in that if they are found to be cheating, they will lose their reputation and most likely lose their livelihood in addition to the local community knowing who the person responsible is.
.

cutting cost, there is a price war going on.
however regarding food safety, they are spending more and more and it will keep rising.


There are cheap food suppliers out there who have stopped trading with the supermarkets as they can not adhere to food safety standards, so the super markets have moved to more expensive suppliers.
Cost is important but there are other factors that effect where a super market choose to purchase from.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_meat_adulteration_scandal people were arrested, just not in the UK.

A._Badger

stephen77 wrote: »

Your missing the point.
There is this belief on here of
Supermarkets = evil
Butchers = Saints.

.

No there isn't - you made up that silly exaggeration in an attempt to justify your position.

What people are saying - certainly what I am saying - is that a good butcher will usually sell better meat than a supermarket and that meat is more likely to be local and reliably sourced.

And if you don't believe that, then you either haven't found a good butcher, or wouldn't know high quality meat if you were offered it.

A._Badger

jack_pott wrote: »

And how do you define a "good butcher"?

Much the same way as I judge an intelligent comment - by using my judgement.

A._Badger

geordie_joe wrote: »

None because it wasn't there fault. The supermarkets ordered certain items from suppliers, the product supplied had horsemeat put in it at source. Nobody employed by a supermarket could have known that.

.

It is the retailer's job to know. If they don't, they are not doing their job properly. It is simply double standards to criticise a butcher for defrauding his customer by describing one meat as another, while excusing a supermarket for doing the same thing.

This is, in the end, about trust and accountability. As consumers we make decisions all the time - what garage to use to service our cars, which garden centre sells good quality plants and whom we trust to sell us safe and high quality food: in this case meat.

For me, I find most supermarket meat (certainly from Sainsbury's Tesco and Asda) pretty low grade. Morrison's tends to be better - cheaper too. Which, among other things, shoots down the silly notion that this is about status. It's not - it's about discernment and the amount of trust we can safely place in some large corporations.

geordie_joe

A._Badger wrote: »

It is the retailer's job to know. If they don't, they are not doing their job properly.

No, they ordered products, those products arrived along with paperwork stating they were exactly as ordered. The only way a supermarket could know if the products contained anything that was not ordered would have been by opening the boxes and testing them.

They had no reason to suspect there was anything wrong with the products and opening them would mean not being able to sell them. Which would defeat the purpose of buying them in the first place.

A._Badger wrote: »

It is simply double standards to criticise a butcher for defrauding his customer by describing one meat as another, while excusing a supermarket for doing the same thing.

Are you serious, do you really think it is double standards?

1. A supermarket orders a box of beefburgers from a supplier.
They arrive labelled as beefburgers and with paperwork stating they are beefburgers.
The supermarket has no reason to doubt this, and cannot actiually see the burgers as they are inside a sealed box which cannot be opened, and sells them as beefburgers.
It is later found that the burgers contain horsemeat which was added at source.

2. A butcher orders mutton, it arrives labelled as mutton along with paperwork stating it is mutton.
The butcher is, well....a butcher, he can see the meat and can see it is mutton.
He decides he can charge more for it if he labels it as goat, so does just that.

Are you really saying both the supermarket and the butcher are equally guilty?

The way I see it is the supermarket were conned by their supplier and unwittingly passed the items to their customers.

But the butcher was not conned by anyone, he got exactly what he ordered and it was he who deliberately conned his customers.

A._Badger wrote: »

it's about discernment and the amount of trust we can safely place in some large corporations.

You mean do not trust supermarkets because they got conned, but trust butchers because they con you?

geordie_joe

A._Badger wrote: »

No there isn't - you made up that silly exaggeration in an attempt to justify your position.

Nope, Stephen is correct, I've just read back through all your posts.