Cheap groceries from "unusual" shops

dasophster

Turkish shops are great. Loads of them around here as I have moved to a part of East London with a massive Turkish community, because its a bit of a hipster area they have a lot of vegan and organic products often cheaper than the supermarkets too.

dlusman

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Shops catering for ethnic minorities are often good value and give you a chance to try new things as well. I'd think most towns would have some access to these nowadays.

geordie_joe wrote: »

Not always, my town doesn't have any "ethnic" shops, even though we do have a large East European community.

Two or three years ago a Polish supermarket opened, but it was so expensive even the Polish people wouldn't shop in it. It closed after a couple of months.

Agree with Geordie on this. A lot of people of these boards appear to think that where they live is "average" - and most other UK towns are the same. Just isnt true.

surfsister

well my town in the south has oodles of polish/turkish/asian/chinese shops and only a small sainsburys and a small waitrose for English shopping. Asian/chinese shops great for spices/herbs/nuts/pulses.

mrsHall2b

we have one small poilish run shop, buy a piece of ham and you get a free bread roll & sarnies for 99p, Ive never been in because its only small and theres always lots of people in there and ive usually got the pushchair with me, but I really want to go have a look when im in town without littlies.

JuzaMum

There is a sweet shop in Bournemouth that sells American food and I am sure that the cereal was £8 for a box!!!!
There are lots of shops near me that sell 'exotic' food. Things like falafel mix and coconut oil are much cheaper than standard supermarkets and health food shops and if I ever need a sheep head I know I can pop out and get one easily.

Cornucopia

Poundshops often have good food purchases - especially when they are 2 or 3 for £1.

Unfortunately, they also have some food lines that are overpriced at £1.

So you have to know what you are buying.

My best ever buy was a box of Gullon Sugar-free Biscuits from the 99p Store - when I looked online, I found them on sale at up to £10/box on diabetic specialist websites.

JP08

We pop into the Chinese supermarket on the A1 at Sandy on a fairly regular basis. BIG bags of rice, a nice range of "alternative" noodles for stir fries etc. Scallops (yum yum yum) at a good price, prawns also.

The farm shop at Oldhurst (near Huntingdon) is our main meat supplier. My other half reckons they are cheaper than the supermarkets. I'm not convinced on that, but I'm utterly sure the quality is significantly better whilst the prices aren't significantly more so I'm happy !

esbm

I get big bulk size bags of spices from Asian supermarkets (and lentils etc) I decant them into glass jars that I label

Kernow666

although its not unusual Home bargains and B&M have branded items that are intended for the international market , have picked up various Heinz sauces that you dont ever see in the main supermarkets , some may have arabic or asian writing on them but still produced in the UK/Ireland