If you've got a large family then this probably doesn't apply to you. You buy food and the gannets Hoover it up before you get a chance to put it in the fridge!
However, if you live on your own or as a couple or flat share arrangement, shopping is becoming even more expensive than the effects of inflation are having on prices.
Living in a city centre, the only shops available are the myriad mini supermarkets, which serve a community of singles and couples, not families.
So why is it that if I want to buy some cheddar cheese I have to buy a block the size of a house brick? Why can't I buy a small tub of cream, not a 'supersized' pot. Why can't I buy a single mango, or avocado, or clove of garlic? I want a courgette, not three of them. The same goes for many other products that only a year or so ago I could buy from the same shops in smaller portions.
I've always hated throwing away food but I'm finding I'm throwing away lots of food that's gone off.
What percentage of supermarket profits are made from selling food that they know the customers will have to throw away?
I'm guessing it's at least 100%.
You should try feeding a large family where a block of cheese can last a couple of days not weeks.
I’m guessing it’s at least 100%.
Gotta be at least twice that 🤔
No need to throw away food. Make a family's worth of portions and freeze some.
If you’ve got a large family then this probably doesn’t apply to you. You buy food and the gannets Hoover it up before you get a chance to put it in the fridge!
Or if you're two adults and two children. GANNETS THE LOT OF US, well mainly me.
This goes back to that "can you cook?" thread...
Food delivery boxes. The right amount of raw ingredients delivered to your door. The only reason I go to supermarkets now is for basics like milk, cereal, coffee, fruit etc.
Everything else is right there in one box, no waste, no wondering what'll be left in stock.
Alternative is to do batch cooking. Buy what you need in bulk to make up a load of pasta sauce/bolognese etc and freeze it.
It's always been that way in supermarkets anyway. I remember doing shelf stacking in my mid-teens and there always being loads of 2-for-1 offers, buy 2 get 3rd free, buy any 3 of x for the price of 2... Always been way cheaper cooking for 2 or more people than cooking for 1.
Same if you buy a regular tin of beans, it's 20p, if you buy a half size tin, it's 18p.
When I think food delivery box. I think expensive way of buying veg. I’ve done no recent research on this.
Chest freezer and online supermarket shopping for me, mostly.
Fridges are for milk and beer.
Freeze stuff, or batch cook it. I batch cook. I've had freezer surprise 3 days a week when in work for the whole of January, and we are a family of 4 adults. Cook enough for 4, freeze the rest for lunch/tea.
So why is it that if I want to buy some cheddar cheese I have to buy a block the size of a house brick? Why can’t I buy a small tub of cream, not a ‘supersized’ pot. Why can’t I buy a single mango, or avocado, or clove of garlic? I want a courgette, not three of them. The same goes for many other products that only a year or so ago I could buy from the same shops in smaller portions.
It costs near enough the the same for the retailer to sell a cheese weighing 100g as it does one that weighs a 1kg - it'll cost fundamentally more.
Those small stores also have limited shelf space, so they do have a limited range.
Have you considered going to 'proper' local shops, depending on your area they may be those aimed at 'ethnic' groups?
Odd title too, based on your complaint.
the fact is that the economics of small pack sizes don't add up. The non food cost (packaging, transport, other overheads) of a small and large can of baked beens is almost the same so which is why the 400g tin is only a few pence more that the 200g one.
Im sure there was something in the Guardian last week about the premium of being single. As others have already said the answer is either to make in bulk and freeze or plan so that different meals in one week that have fresh ingredients share those ingredients.
Cheese keeps. Mangoes, avocados and courgettes also last pretty well. Mangoes and Avocados are never ripe when bought, buy a few and keep them to ripen.
Sounds to me like you want convenience rather than anything else but there's a cost to that.
Living in a city centre, the only shops available are the myriad mini supermarkets, which serve a community of singles and couples, not families.
...unlike the family homes, which are located handily right in the out-of-town retail parks alongside the big supermarkets?
I don't think supermarket food portion sizes have changed since the cost of living crises began.
Unless the fruit or vegetable is sold loose, which of course does happen, it is going to be more than just one portion, it's always been like that.
And imo you can buy fairly small quantities of cheese. Obviously it is sold in qualities larger than just one portion but I reckon most single people are happy to buy more cheese than they can eat in one go.
How do you feel about being forced to buy more than two slices of bread or one egg? Exploitation of the cost of living crises?
Try living on an island - the only shop here decided to change (well, Co Op head office did) from a supermarket to a convenience store. We have no own brand stuff, just premium brands at silly prices - no 30p tins of beans, just Heinz for £1.20. Fruit and veg range is derisory, short-dated, poor quality - we often go weeks without basics like oranges - avocados and mangos? Exotica we have to go to the mainland. We do have freezers chock-full of ready meals, frozen pizza, ice cream and ice cubes. Mrs DB came out with 6 items the other day for 18 quid, including a small bag of flour costing £2.40 (99p on the mainland).
Having been single, a couple and now a family I understand your problem but when I was single I solved it within about a month of moving away from home.
I just went to a big supermarket, planning basic meals packed my one shelve on the fridge well and froze some small portions. Now if I could solve all my other problems so easy i would be sorted
Who would only want to buy one clove of garlic? Buy a tube of convenience garlic and squeeze one out
Although occasionally I buy one carrot if cooking mince as that's all I require, I do get strange looks but maybe only costs 11p
or eat beans on toast. cheap and contains all 10 amino acids
This reminds me of when As lad I worked in a stationary shop and one customer came to the till with 1 envelope and told me it was 3.7p (or whatever but it wasn’t a round pence). They’d split a pack of 50 and The label gave a per unit cost. Since the concept of buying the whole pack was the usually accepted approach was lost on them I refrained from asking him why he chose that envelope when he could have had the exact same one for 3.5p if he’d taken it from the 100 pack!
Average cost per unit is fairly standard labelling now so have you considered a just buying what you need from each pack?!
I don't understand. Why would you not want a brick 'o' cheese? It's a great comfort to know that just on the other side of the fridge door there is a block 'o' cheese with the dimensions and heft of a housebrick.
Shopping when single is easy. Just go to deli counter.
When I’m in away for work and get fed up eating out I just ask for cheese for one, just enough ham to put in a sandwich.
Next trick is high end delis 30 mins from closing. Before you know it you walking out with beef Wellington at 70% off.
I want a courgette, not three of them.
Horrible things. Why do you want them at all?
As far as the cheese problem goes, just make a huge dish of lasagne and freeze single serving portions. Then you can have lasagne breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day.
Batch cooking and plan ahead. The only veg I have trouble using up is the mystifyingly massive bags of spinach - I put a load into a batch of aloo gobi that I made last night, but still have a fridge full. Not much in financial terms, but I hate food waste.
Eat more.
I thought this was going to be about the fact supermarkets made megabucks during lockdown yet now "are forced" to increase prices due to global fubar. Same with fuel, heads we lose tails they win.
I thought at one stage they were going to stop the 3 for 2 offers as it encouraged buying wastefully. I only but what I need, even if the special offer gives me something for free, but if I don't need it, it is staying on the shelf.
Most major cities will now have a zero waste shop - Locavore are great ones in central Scotland. Go in there and buy exactly what you need. The veg is actually decent as well.
Batch cooking, buying the biggest quantity of non perishables, late shopping for bargains of perishables
etc
Is there a market (street market type place) near you? These stalls usually sell loose fruit and veg, cheeses, meat products etc, where one can buy as much or as little as needed.
Supermarkets are always ripping people off, but it's usually the farmer.
I thought at one stage they were going to stop the 3 for 2 offers as it encouraged buying wastefully.
There’s also transport from the shop that can be an issue. I often do my family shopping on the way home from work on my bike. This means I have just 2 panniers of volume available. Then the supermarket decides that loo roll will only be in packs of 16, how the **** am I supposed to fit that on the bike?
Likewise tinned tomatoes are nearly half the price per tin if bought as a pack of 4. Same tins but with an additional cardboard wrap. I get the logistics saving mentioned above but in this case all they save is the shelf stacking as the shipping units for 4xtin and individual tins are identical.
The end result of this is that I end up being forced to do a trip out in the car for shopping as I can’t buy what I need when I need it at reasonable prices due to the volume I’m forced to purchase.
You can continue to make a problem out of anything if you try hard enough
Hasn't it always been the case that small convenience type supermarkets are more expensive and have less choice than big supermarkets?
Surely thers an Aldi or Lidl not too far away, they're bloody everywhere!!
If you don't have a car, there are quite good car clubs nowadays where you just walk up to a car on the street and rent it for an hour. or just ride a couple of miles to a big shop.
Living in a city centre,
We have a whole range of small shops which sell loose veg, as well as a dedicated green grocer within a 5 min walk.
Pretty sure our local Coop sells most veg loose as well so you could buy a single courgette.
There's also a greengrocer on the market most days in the center of town.
This OP's problem only exists if you only visit large supermarkets.
If you don’t have a car, there are quite good car clubs nowadays where you just walk up to a car on the street and rent it for an hour. or just ride a couple of miles to a big shop.
Or shop online!
If you're that keen on buying twin packs of loo roll then bike to another shop - no one is forcing you to buy anything.
Sorry but I'm not getting the argument. I buy [fresh] food in normal supermarket sized packs - when I come to cook a meal I look at what's in the fridge and tailor the meal around that not the other way round.
I'll always use up what needs eating rather than throw it away.
weekly shop yesterday, family of 4, incl 16 and 20yr old boys - they eat a lot ... Think it was a bit over £200 (I wasn't doing it but wife and i were talking about it later on). The item that jumped out at me was the pack of Lurpak, which lasts about a week, and was £7 🙁
On the plus side, we got a Ninja soup machine last month and it's in almost daily use - currently it's cooking away downstairs with some oldish cauliflower and bendy celery 🙂
I buy online for a big family and have the opposite problem, I ordered one kilo of sprouts for Christmas dinner. I must have pushed the wrong button as I received one sprout.
The item that jumped out at me was the pack of Lurpak, which lasts about a week, and was £7 🙁
I stopped buying Lurpak for exactly this reason. About the best compromise I've found between taste / quality so far is Clover. Lidl's knock-off (Danepak?) isn't half bad either.
bendy celery
Finally! A brexit benefit!!
I buy online for a big family and have the opposite problem, I ordered one kilo of sprouts for Christmas dinner. I must have pushed the wrong button as I received one sprout.
🙂
I stopped buying Lurpak for exactly this reason. About the best compromise I’ve found between taste / quality so far is Clover. Lidl’s knock-off (Danepak?) isn’t half bad either.
Lidl's spready butter (yellow pack with red writing IIRC) really is excellent.
I've been converted from real butter while the weather is cold.
For those saying veg boxes are expensive - well they aren't cheap but the stuff is normally super fresh and lasts literally weeks longer than supermarket produce. I've noticed 'fresh' supermarket fruit and veg goes off a lot quicker these days - I guess a symptom of a converluted supply chain made worse by Brexit and other more local logistic issues - plus supermarkets can just get away with it. We never used to throw fresh stuff away but now we do so something must have changed. However anything from Riverford just doesn't go off in the same way (plus it isn't in plastic either). I'd rather pay more for something that tastes nicer and lasts longer every time - but I appreciate that this option is not possible for some
weekly shop yesterday, family of 4, incl 16 and 20yr old boys – they eat a lot … Think it was a bit over £200 (I wasn’t doing it but wife and i were talking about it later on). The item that jumped out at me was the pack of Lurpak, which lasts about a week, and was £7 🙁
Family of 5, (with three teen daughters who train every weeknight) and I do the shopping and cooking. £100 - £120 per week for 3 shops per month, so less than £360 a month including a few bottles of wine. The 4th non-shopping week is to try and clear the cupboards and freezer a bit. We eat take-aways maybe 2 or 3 times a month. I don't buy brands (or very, very rarely) and because I used to work in the food industry tend to spot when prices are changing so the thought of spending £7 on Lurpak horrifies me. (I'd actually spotted that a few weeks ago not that I'd ever buy Lurpak.)
Supermarkets rely on shoppers blindly buying the same expensive brands every week regardless of pricing.
Lidl’s knock-off (Danepak?) isn’t half bad either.
Danepak is a fairly big brand in scandi countries, germany and the like. Not a knock off at all.
I’ve noticed ‘fresh’ supermarket fruit and veg goes off a lot quicker these days – I guess a symptom of a converluted supply chain made worse by Brexit and other more local logistic issues
I was talking to the guy who runs the farm shop by Delamere Station and he supplements his local stuff with imports but reckons a lot of produce he gets now goes from France to ROI, then N. Ireland, then Scotland which adds another 2-3 days.
Brexit is the gift that keeps giving.
Farmshop for the win, just buy exactly what u need, 5 mushrooms, 8 carrots etc. Cash goes straight to farmer too, no packaging, no waste.
Theres a chap selling short dated foodstuffs near me,cheap as chips. Saves it going to waste.
Dried stuff like oats, coffee beans,crisps, maltesers,all have sell by dates on. It all gets scoffed on arrival anyway.
Supermarkets are v good at what they do.
