Life without supermarkets....is it possible?

Cisco001

Not for me.
It is paid parking if go anywhere near high street.

trailingspouse

Such an interesting question. In my local town (and I can walk to the High Street in about 5 minutes) I don't think it would be possible at all. We have a butchers, but no wet fish shop, bakers or greengrocers.



Having said that, food shopping in general has improved in the last 5-6 years. There used to be just one mediocre Co-op, but now we also have a Sainsbury's Local, an Aldi, a Lidl, and an M&S Food. But there's absolutely no choice when it comes to independent traders.



There's supposed to be a local market on a Saturday, but if the weather's bad not many stall holders turn up, so you can't rely on it.

thriftwizard

trailingspouse, speaking as a market trader, we tend not to turn up if we think the customers aren't going to! (Different in my case, I'm selling stuff that doesn't go off in time, but does damage easily if it gets wet or muddy.) It's a bit heartbreaking to spend hours lugging heavy stuff around, then standing there getting wet & chilly, if you don't even earn your pitch fee back because your customers have (quite sensibly) stayed in bed.

I'll post on my FB page if I'm cancelling at short notice so that people don't turn up specially, and some other traders do too, though we're not selling food. I'd rather lose my pitch fee than my stock, but none of it matters if I lose my customers!

elsien

No butcher, no baker, no candlestick maker.

If I didn't work full time I could drive to a near butcher and farm shop however they are closed by the time I get home. There's no alternative to a supermarket for bread unless I make my own.
And I don't want to spend Saturday shopping, aside from which my lifestyle doesn't suit a big weekly shop.
There is a rather nice homemade chocolate place but no independent wine store. And the dog would starve.

There is a place selling end of line veg for charity which I would like to support , but it is only open on weekdays 10 -3.

I suspect the practicality very much depends on where you live.

mummygems

I always remember as a kid walking to our local high street and going to the bank, greengrocer, baker and butcher and getting everything we needed (I'm 40 so maybe 25 years ago). I loved this and do often reminisce about these days.

I live in a big town. We have 3 large tesco's, 2 large asda, 1 sainsburys, 2 lidls and an aldi all within a 10-15 minute drive! We also have a farm shop and market in the town centre along with a multitude of greggs, butchers, B&M etc. Other than the time aspect (working part time, running the house and shopping at multiple places) I always find the fruit and veg goes off so quickly from the farm shop or market and it always always smells of fumes (like diesel fumes from a truck). My dad lives half an hours drive from me and he has a few local independent stores which always looks lovely but they are much more expensive unfortunately. When I visit him or go that way for work I do try and buy and few bits from the butchers just to try and help (the local butchers is a family run business and has been trading for 80+ years so would be a shame to lose that as well as everything else) .

So for me where I live not using a supermarket would cost more and would mean some inferior foods.

One thing I do always think is that there is just too much choice of everything. When I take my nan shopping (shes 91) we always get onto the subject of this. Like how many different washing powders/tablets/pods etc there are. Always baffles me!

PipneyJane

D&#8517 wrote: »

I would love to have access to shops like yours do you know I don't even know where there is a proper old fashioned greengrocers local to me now. Croydon still has the market but that's about it!
I went to Epsom on 'market day' and there were three stalls...

This saddens me. I used to work in Epsom and, a decade or so ago, the Market would be crammed with stalls.

We tried out a new-to-us butcher shop on Saturday. I was impressed with their wares but the only day it is feasible to get there is a Saturday. They are still operating with pre-War opening times, as is the baker next door to them. Both are within two hundred yards of our local Underground station and neither are open during the evening commute. You'd think they'd stay open until 7pm, once a week, just for the passing trade...

To the original poster, the only way to shop when you want to avoid the supermarket is to forget about doing a weekly shop or buying for just a couple of meals. You have to shop to restock your freezer and your store cupboards. I buy my veg and eggs from a farm shop every fortnight, my meat from a butcher once every couple of months, and only go to a supermarket for the things I can't get elsewhere (toiletries, pasta, dairy products).

- Pip

Bellisima

I can remember my mum in the 50s/60s shopping locally (no supermarkets then) - butchers, greengrocers, hardware store etc, but it took up so much time and carrying home the shopping was hard work (she didn’t drive). It used to be the woman’s job, what joy, but now more women are working and really don’t have the time to shop in smaller shops, and who can blame them. Supermarkets revolutionised the shopping experience, and made things cheaper.

I’m disabled and can no longer trudge round the shops so supermarket home delivery has been a life saver. If I’m in the town on my scooter I may buy fruit and veg from the market and look in the independant shops, but to be honest most of the stuff is way out of my price range. There is no shame in supermarket shopping.

THIRZAH

In the 1950/60s shops would deliver to the house. The baker came three times a week, both grocers in our village delivered and the butcher had a delivery van too. We didn't have a greengrocer. Most people grew fruit and veg. In the winter we seemed to eat sprouts, leeks or cabbage every day.My mother bottled fruit. There was very little fresh fruit around in winter once the apples were finished-a few tangerines at Christmas but not much else.