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✓
There's a zero-waste shop near mine - take your own tupperware/bags etc, fill with what you need. Paid by weight, it's just a self-serve system where you weigh the empty box, put in required amount of "stuff" then weigh it again and tell the system what you have. (It does get checked, the final step is taking it to a manual checkout).
They even sell spices by the teaspoon so you don't end up with jars and jars of ancient spices lying around.
iirc irradiating fresh food extends the transport/shelf life of food, but when it does go off it go's much quicker. So non irradiated fruit and veg when it starts to pass its best you still have days where it is perfectly acceptable, you can adapt your meals and use it. Whereas irradiated food can just become unusable in a very short period of time.
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
We used to use Riverford so I've just looked at their current boxes. £22.70 for a large box and there aren't enough potatoes, mushrooms or peppers for us, although we are 5, not the suggested 3-4. But there are far too many onions. Who needs 1.6kg of onions? (Onion surprise every night girls! 😀 ).
We had some nice stuff from them - wet garlic, purple sprouting broccoli - but far too much stuff like cos lettuce which just bulks out the box and gets thrown. Luckily, we have a very good market less than a mile away which does good veg.
iirc irradiating fresh food extends the transport/shelf life of food, but when it does go off it go’s much quicker.
Irradiated food must be labelled, by law. It's not very widespread, afaik.
@idlejon I agree on the onions! especially as one of mine absolutely hates them (likes all other veg luckily). I also agree that sometimes the boxes are a bit meh so we generally check before hand whats likely to be in them and we don't have them every week - the app is pretty simple to chop and change stuff.
Farmshops are great but normall only open at certain times, not always where you are likely to be and you can't get all you need there - fine for when you have the time to 'luxury' shop so to speak but not when you are in a rush on the way home from work. Plus where we are in east sussex, some of the farm shops basically take the piss and price for townies down from London!
Plus where we are in east sussex, some of the farm shops basically take the piss and price for townies down from London!
We don't have that problem in Swansea! 😀
Danepak is a fairly big brand in scandi countries, germany and the like. Not a knock off at all.
Apologies. It's Danpak, not Danepak.
https://www.lancs.live/whats-on/shopping/compared-lurpak-cheaper-aldi-lidl-23188657
Heh. Lidl has Danish-sounding Danpak, Aldi has Norwegian-sounding Nordpak. I wonder what we'd get with faux-Swedish butter, Flatpak?
Freezer is full I'm afraid, currently a pan of home made vegetable soup is sitting on the hob waiting to be put in the freezer but there's no room.
I was a sous chef for about four years after college so know how to cook, storing the bluddy stuff is the problem. (and electricity costs money don't you know).
And to the point; 'supermarkets have always been like that'... they haven't. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options. Which obviously leads to greater food waste (and packaging containing food that will only be thrown is an extra waste as well don't forget).
Farm shops are great, organic butchers are great too but they aren't cheap, and this thread is more related to cost of living and how corporations could be mis-serving both the public and the environment.
And to the point; ‘supermarkets have always been like that’… they haven’t. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options. Which obviously leads to greater food waste (and packaging containing food that will only be thrown is an extra waste as well don’t forget).
Nobody is forcing you to use those shops. There must be alternatives - you're in the second biggest city in the country, I think?
My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options.
That must be local to you, can't say I've noticed it. Eg we still buy cheese in a small block, from Sainsbury, which I get through over a couple of weeks on my own.
One thing I have noticed, well my kids noticed before I did, is that increasingly our local supermarket prices are different at the till than they are as displayed in the shop. Pricing hikes so quick and often that the staff cant keep up with making the changes or sneaky tactics by the shop themselves? I don't know but as much as I want to I cant bring myself to bring it up for every item that it happens with when there's a queue waiting.
I agree partially with the OP, it's not always a PITA, but sometimes it is.
I like carrots, the OH doesn't, so in an average week I need perhaps 4?
Now, I could go into the town and buy 4 carrots from the greengrocers, or 10 miles to the "farm shop" which is just a posh greengrocers, hardly any of it is local.
Co-Op (x2), Lidl, Aldi are the three supermarkets within ~3 miles cycling distance only sell carrots by the bag. It only cost's ~80p for a bag, but I end up binning at least half of them!
Cheese on the other hand, what is this concept of waste cheese? At worst your cheddar slowly matures into "surprise cheese" as it gets inoculated with other bacteria so begins to taste a bit brie-y, stilton-y, gouda-y.
At worst your cheddar slowly matures into “surprise cheese” as it gets inoculated with other bacteria so begins to taste a bit brie-y, stilton-y, gouda-y.
No it doesn't. It grows mould on the outside surface, which when cut off exposes a perfectly edible cheese with an almost identical taste to the original cheddar. Mild cheddar doesn't start to taste any different in the few weeks it's likely to be kept until it becomes an entire lump of mould. (Can you guess what I used to do in another work-life? I did quite a lot of work on shelf-lives and packaging of cheese. 😀 )
It only cost’s ~80p for a bag, but I end up binning at least half of them!
Ummm.... Then eat more carrots!
Seriously.
And to the point; ‘supermarkets have always been like that’… they haven’t. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options.
That might be in response to demand, generally the margin is better on smaller portions but the decision on what to stock is based on what people actually pick up and take to the till - supermarkets don't care what you buy, just that you buy.
I know you;re talking about city / town centres being populated by smaller households rather than families and thats true in terms of who's resident but a city's population is bigger in the day than it is at night. Plenty of people commute into city centres to work and shop there (at least for convenience if not for their weekly shop) and have families to go home to. It maybe those people are in greater number as a customer base than local residents and as a result larger portions are what sells. Smaller supermarkets have less shelf space so are less able to offer a variety of sizes of the same product.
But - it might also be worth just chatting to the shop staff - supermarket managers usually have some say in what they stock - not a lot but a bit - and you can just ask them to stock something / a range of things if you think its what you and your neighbours would buy.
Veg boxes? Meh, frozen veggies FTW!
My freezer is full of chopped and prepared vegetables, even diced onions and chopped garlic. No faffing around making a mess with the beastly veg, just pour it in the pan and crack on. Perfect for the busy single chap/chapess who likes to eat but despises physical labour and washing up.
And to the point; ‘supermarkets have always been like that’… they haven’t. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options.
There has definitely been a change. I love a 5 minute walk from a small Tesco. 2 or 3 years ago Tesco decided to consolidate all their Tesco Metro and Tesco Express shops. I forget which way round it is, but anyway ours was turned into the other type and stopped stocking about 30% of the lines that it did. The staff didn't seem too impressed either!
It's about 200 yards from an Aldi. The Aldi is always absolutely rammed. The Tesco, not so much...
Having been single, a couple and now a family
Was that by mitosis? Did you just keep dividing in two?
I guess I'm lucky to have a good greengrocers nearby.
As for Lurpak at £7, how big is that? 250g at Waitrose (not the cheapest I imagine) is £2.65 for 250g. Waitrose own is £2.20. All diary produce has shot up in price over the past year.
Perfect for the busy single chap/chapess who likes to eat but despises physical labour and washing up.
A chopping board and knife?
2 or 3 years ago Tesco decided to consolidate all their Tesco Metro and Tesco Express shops
Interesting move - the reason they had all their 'extra' metro' 'express' and so one was as a way of getting round the Competition Commission which had legislated to prevent one grocery supplier dominating the choice in and given area. The idea being that a company shouldn't be able to run all of, the vast majority off the supermarkets in the town. But Tesco managed to argue successfully that an extra and a metro and an 'express; are all different kinds of shops.
Thats how you end up with towns like Bicester with a population of 29,000 and five Tescos - all of which Tescos claim are different kinds of shops serving a different kind of need.... but all selling the same stuff.
As for Lurpak at £7, how big is that? 250g at Waitrose is £2.65 for 250g
£7 for a 1kg pack at Costco, although they had it reduced to £5.60 or something a couple of weeks ago.
They're increased many items well above inflation.
Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%
All diary produce has shot up in price over the past year.
You can't compare diary pricing year on year. They always drop the price once the year has begun.
They’re increased many items well above inflation.
Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%
Inflation is the average price increase on a basket of goods. Some products will increase more than average, others by less than average, that's how averages work. If everything increased by exactly the same amount, we wouldn't need an average, we would only need to find the price increase of a single product and all the others would have the same percentage increase. So, having some products increase by more than inflation will just mean that others increase by less. If you have a mixture of imported goods that are difficult to substitute locally plus locally produced goods, plus a huge event like Brexit on top of pandemic supply chain issues, you would expect some big differences in inflation between different goods. In a competitive market, inflation isn't driven by cartels artificially jacking up prices, it's driven by supply not meeting demand. If you want cheaper goods, you need economic policies that will increase the supply of goods.
Oh, I got my block quote codes mixed up in the previous post. Should look like this:
They’re increased many items well above inflation.
Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%
Inflation is the average price increase on a basket of goods. Some products will increase more than average, others by less than average, that’s how averages work. If everything increased by exactly the same amount, we wouldn’t need an average, we would only need to find the price increase of a single product and all the others would have the same percentage increase. So, having some products increase by more than inflation will just mean that others increase by less. If you have a mixture of imported goods that are difficult to substitute locally plus locally produced goods, plus a huge event like Brexit on top of pandemic supply chain issues, you would expect some big differences in inflation between different goods. In a competitive market, inflation isn’t driven by cartels artificially jacking up prices, it’s driven by supply not meeting demand. If you want cheaper goods, you need economic policies that will increase the supply of goods.
Inflation is the average price increase on a basket of goods.
Technically that's CPI. Inflation is a measurement of change that can be applied to individual items, services, etc.
As a very small shop owner we only sell large blocks of cathedral city cheddar as it's the best value for money for the retailer and customer. If I sold smaller packs the majority of my customers would complain as they would be getting less for more money (not enough shelf space for range).
As for fruit and veg, it sells with an ok margin but takes up large amounts of shelf and, even worse, fridge space. Our fruit and veg range doesn't pay for the running cost of fridge we keep it in any more! We do however make sure no fruit an veg is prepackaged so you can have as much or little as you want.
Just make sure you don't buy stuff that goes off quickly (i.e. bagged salads) and you will be fine. Cheese lasts for ages, most fruit and veg lasts for ages in fridge and some out of fridge (squashes, sweet potatoes etc,).
Bit of a non issue with 10 seconds of thought into what you are buying.
They’re increased many items well above inflation.
Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%
You also have to remember supermarkets work on increasing smaller profit margins, Tesco is around 2%, but their running costs have risen far above inflation. It's a very fine line of trying to provide the best value for money in competition with the others, and not making on mistake that could lead to the complete collapse of the buisness. Before Tesco in the UK we didn't have this 'every thing in the supermarket must be as cheap as possible' mentality - Tesco was the original Aldi/Lidil in the 1960’s.
The electricity cost (the biggest per month bill I have, other than wages) in my shop for example has doubled for the next three years and I'm on a comparatively 'good deal' - I've heard from some retailers where their utilities bills have quadrupled. Costings of around an extra 5k a month have been banded about - those costs have to be passed to the customer, if they can't you'll fold.
Items that sell well have always had high margins for supermarkets, milk, bread, eggs - especially if they can control the price that they buy in at (remember the supermarket egg shortage earlier this year?). The supermarkets are trying to manage running costs with staples as that's where they actually make their money - high turnover short shelf stay items.
They’re increased many items well above inflation.
Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%
You'll know for the work your do yourself that price increases aren't spread evenly between commmodities just from buying wood. Just over a year ago the inflation rate was under 5% but the price of chipboard I was buying quadrupled over a few months. And that was before the Ukraine invasion and the great vanishing of all the birch ply.
Yesterday I bought 'Meadow Churn' British butter from Iceland @ £1.80 per pack, bargain.
If people are bulk buying fruit and veg, cheese or anything else, can you share it please with neighbours?
We live in a cul du sac and share a lot of food (only with the neighbours we like :o) )
I cannot abide food waste and would rather eat a piece of moldy cheese or a slightly bendy leek, by cutting out the 'bad bit' or give the food away, rather than 'bin it'.
As for wood, it's so expensive now and some of the suppliers have been cashing in on the supply and demand chains.
Yesterday I bought ‘Meadow Churn’ British butter from Iceland @ £1.80 per pack, bargain.
Another part of the food industry that I worked in! 😀
Most butter is the same, blended from big blocks and wrapped in different packaging. You get different salt content butter, and speciality butters, but pretty much every butter blended in the UK for mass consumption is exactly the same. You literally are just paying for slightly nicer packaging if you buy a more expensive butter.
As for Lurpak at £7, how big is that? 250g at Waitrose (not the cheapest I imagine) is £2.65 for 250g.
It was spread, not butter. (Although people use the terms interchangeably.) It's currently £4 for 500g of Lurpak spread at Waitrose. https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/search?&searchTerm=lurpak%20spreadable
You literally are just paying for slightly nicer packaging if you buy a more expensive butter.
Does that include organic stuff?
You literally are just paying for slightly nicer packaging if you buy a more expensive butter.
Does that include organic stuff?
I don't know, sorry. That's a sector that expanded significantly after I moved on, but I'd guess that it doesn't because of the requirements for proving organic status.
You also have to remember supermarkets work on increasing smaller profit margins, Tesco is around 2%, but their running costs have risen far above inflation
Tesco's total gross margin is around 6.5% currently.
Bit of a non issue with 10 seconds of thought into what you are buying.
I have to agree TBH, as someone who lives alone and rarely buys "individual" portioned foods - just 2-pint milk carton rather than the 4-pinters.
Just learn a bit about food and cooking, utilise the freezer and it's not a problem at all.
Just learn a bit about food and cooking, utilise the freezer and it’s not a problem at all.
The OP worked as a chef and his freezer is full, he said.
The OP worked as a chef and his freezer is full, he said.
Is it possible he's not making optimum use of the freezer then?
Mine was full last week, so I've been eating some stuff out of it and now it's not.
🙂
Mine was full last week, so I’ve been eating some stuff out of it and now it’s not.
🙂
My thoughts as well, but, you know, your freezer capacity may vary. 😀
Just learn a bit about food and cooking, utilise the freezer and it’s not a problem at all.
As someone who moved from a house with a large kitchen last year to one with a small kitchen - batch cooking is only doable if you've got a big freezer.
We're currently restricted to a small under-counter one and it holds sod-all!
increasingly our local supermarket prices are different at the till than they are as displayed in the shop
Happily, the Sainsbos local near me has had the 2.2 litre jugs of milk wrongly priced at the till for about 6 months, despite the shelf price going up about 50%. We do a lot of milk in our house.
Tesco’s total gross margin is around 6.5% currently.
Sorry I should have been clearer I was talking profit margin, not gross margins. But again that's a good example most small shops have a gross margin of between 20 and 30%, a 6.5% margin is incredibly small and shows how tight supermarkets have to work too - which was the point I was trying to make.
Tescos revenue in 2022 was just over 61billion, it's declared net profit after tax was a little under 1.5 billion or around 2.4%
This was around a 3x increase on 2021 and double 2020. I'd hazard a guess that Covid and the trend to move to online delivery or collection seems to have done the super markets well as people moved away from face to face.
I didn't intend to start a freezer argument and I don't pretend to fully understand the OP's circumstances.
But living alone myself, I find an under-counter freezer is fine for my needs (which includes feeding regularly visiting kids).
I've actually been surprised how much I can cram in there.
