Pick Your Own fruit (strawberries, raspberries etc) prices reasonable?

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Doc_N
Doc_N Posts: 8,270 Forumite
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in Gone off!
With good quality fresh English strawberries selling at around £3.50 per kilo in Waitrose and £2.99 in Aldi and Lidl, is anyone still bothering with the Pick Your Own places?

Round here they're charging between £3.50 and £4.50 per kilo, and for that you've got to drive there and spend valuable time picking the things.

What's the going PYO rate in your neck of the woods, and does that represent good value?
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  • alanq
    alanq Posts: 4,216 Forumite
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    The farmers probably price in the fruits that are consumed before reaching the basket.
  • VfM4meplse
    VfM4meplse Posts: 34,269 Forumite
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    PYO is expensive, but it's also the experience that makes the fruit worth its price. I don't see it as labour, I love it!
    Value-for-money-for-me-puhleeze!

    "No man is worth, crawling on the earth"- adapted from Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio

    Hope is not a strategy :D...A child is for life, not just 18 years....Don't get me started on the NHS, because you won't win...I love chaz-ing!
  • sarah1972
    sarah1972 Posts: 18,897 Senior Ambassador
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    My local PYO in Surrey is £6.50 a kilo for strawberries :eek::eek:
    I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Competitions Time, Shopping & Freebies boards, Employment, Jobseeking & Training boards If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,270 Forumite
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    sarah1972 wrote: »
    My local PYO in Surrey is £6.50 a kilo for strawberries :eek::eek:

    Hell's teeth! Why on earth would anyone pay that price?
  • sarah1972
    sarah1972 Posts: 18,897 Senior Ambassador
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    Doc_N wrote: »
    Hell's teeth! Why on earth would anyone pay that price?

    Exactly !!! I thankfully havent but I saw it on my local community board on Facebook :eek:

    They also have people walking round and charge you £3 if they think you or your children have eaten anything while you are doing the pick your own. (I can see why they do that but its hard if one of your children eat something and you don't notice )
    I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Competitions Time, Shopping & Freebies boards, Employment, Jobseeking & Training boards If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,270 Forumite
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    Incredible, Sarah! Sheer profiteering, and round this way they never advertise the price they're charging (even on the answering machine message you get when you phone and the websites) so it's difficult to know what the price is until you get there.

    I did find out a couple of prices and added it to the Google reviews for those places to warn others of the rip-off pricing. I also added it to one of the Facebook pages (which drew a sharp response!).

    It's a shame that prices aren't advertised, and it's difficult to see that as anything other than sharp practice.

    When we lived in Kent, some years back, prices were about half the supermarket price, and that seemed reasonable, given the savings to the farmer in not having to have them picked. Those savings are still there, but to be charging more than the supermarkets charge (when those same supermarkets are probably paying the farmers about a third of that price, if that) is just plain greedy.

    Still, if people are daft enough to go, farmers will get away with it, but I do think they should be prepared to put a price to all their adverts.
  • olgadapolga
    olgadapolga Posts: 2,273 Forumite
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    Our local farm charges £2 per person to go into the fields but will knock this "deposit" off the cost of the fruit. They don't refund any, so if 5 people go in, they charge you £10 - if you then pick £8 worth of fruit, you don't get £2 back so you pay £10 for £8 of fruit.

    I think that they are charging £5/kilo at the moment. They usually have a special offer on around Wimbledon where it's £10/12 to fill one of the big baskets.

    They do taste a little better than those from the supermarket though.
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    PYO is an activity - in many places it's indoors too, under polytunnels. You don't PYO these days to save money, but to "go out and do something, usually with others". Like a theme park for skinny people :)

    For price, don't forget you're not paying for what you put on the scales in the basket at the end... there's all those you eat as you pick!
  • VfM4meplse
    VfM4meplse Posts: 34,269 Forumite
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    sarah1972 wrote: »
    My local PYO in Surrey is £6.50 a kilo for strawberries :eek::eek:
    I think you may be referring to a Crockford Bridge Farm? Which is a lovely place, incidentally, very well kept (I love the notices designed to stop cross-contamination of the autumn squashes).

    The reason it charges so much is because of the area, it's in multi-millionaire territory.
    Value-for-money-for-me-puhleeze!

    "No man is worth, crawling on the earth"- adapted from Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio

    Hope is not a strategy :D...A child is for life, not just 18 years....Don't get me started on the NHS, because you won't win...I love chaz-ing!
  • sarah1972
    sarah1972 Posts: 18,897 Senior Ambassador
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    VfM4meplse wrote: »
    I think you may be referring to a Crockford Bridge Farm? Which is a lovely place, incidentally, very well kept (I love the notices designed to stop cross-contamination of the autumn squashes).

    The reason it charges so much is because of the area, it's in multi-millionaire territory.

    No the one I am referring to is in Milford near godalming x
    I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Competitions Time, Shopping & Freebies boards, Employment, Jobseeking & Training boards If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
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