The UK Supermarket Rip-off
Discussion
I had to do the shopping today for the two of us. No children yet so a fairly standard list consisting of mainly fresh ingredients, a little convenience food for mid-week and a few bottles of wine for over the weekend.
I normally go to Sainsbury's out of convenience as it's the closest and our cat will only eat their own brand cat food. Of late I have noticed that the prices are creeping up and up and quality is not always what you'd expect from this upper middling supermarket.
Occasionally we go to Morrisons which, although over the other side of town is slightly better value. Today I thought I would try ASDA which usually gives more for your money compared to Sainsbury's.
Today was different. I wanted some fruit and vegetables so I located those aisles and arrived at the cauliflowers. £1.24 for a tiny cauli' which were all different sizes but had been priced at a fixed cost.
Broccoli, equally as expensive and past its best. Next were peppers. 80pence each or 3 small ones for £1.60. Are they now a luxury item or am I missing something?
I won't bore you with the other items on my list but suffice to say that most things were ludicrously expensive, poor value or quality. They were priced to encourage you to spend more by overpricing the individual items making multi-buy look more appealing.
I spent £98 and had room left in a small trolley. Apart from the wine x 3 at £4/bottle there were no 'luxury' items and no red meat.
We are going to find a farmer's market over the next few weeks and make a special trip to buy our vegetables, fruit and meat from there instead of subscribing to supermarket culture any longer.
The amount of crap in people's trolleys was more apparent than ever. Processed, artificial convenience food and fizzy drinks taking the place of food that requires cooking rather than re-heating.
I know it's all under one roof, easy, quick and what we are used to but after today, a rethink for us is required.
I normally go to Sainsbury's out of convenience as it's the closest and our cat will only eat their own brand cat food. Of late I have noticed that the prices are creeping up and up and quality is not always what you'd expect from this upper middling supermarket.
Occasionally we go to Morrisons which, although over the other side of town is slightly better value. Today I thought I would try ASDA which usually gives more for your money compared to Sainsbury's.
Today was different. I wanted some fruit and vegetables so I located those aisles and arrived at the cauliflowers. £1.24 for a tiny cauli' which were all different sizes but had been priced at a fixed cost.
Broccoli, equally as expensive and past its best. Next were peppers. 80pence each or 3 small ones for £1.60. Are they now a luxury item or am I missing something?
I won't bore you with the other items on my list but suffice to say that most things were ludicrously expensive, poor value or quality. They were priced to encourage you to spend more by overpricing the individual items making multi-buy look more appealing.
I spent £98 and had room left in a small trolley. Apart from the wine x 3 at £4/bottle there were no 'luxury' items and no red meat.
We are going to find a farmer's market over the next few weeks and make a special trip to buy our vegetables, fruit and meat from there instead of subscribing to supermarket culture any longer.
The amount of crap in people's trolleys was more apparent than ever. Processed, artificial convenience food and fizzy drinks taking the place of food that requires cooking rather than re-heating.
I know it's all under one roof, easy, quick and what we are used to but after today, a rethink for us is required.
I Agee about. It being a rip off. We try and get as much food as possible from local market in cheltenham. Amazing value (3 cAuli for a pound, usually 7 peppers same price and if u go later on day almost half a bag of bananas same price) a meat seller is there also and recentley we bought 5 pounds of pork loin for ten pounds and they were fantastic. Tin stiff notusually too bad but fresh produce a rip off
P
P
Continue to feed these diabolical monopolies and this will only get worse.
A lot worse.
The only way you will get better quality (and avoid a totalitarian future) is for these pernicious entities to be broken up/censured by the state.
You may be worried about the quality of your food and the sort of sharp practices involved, others, the near gangster grade strong arm tactics used to destroy the means of production which give these organisations the monstrous power to evade immunity from that very censure.
Some of us recognise a development of truly horrific, socio-economic consequences, as their indomitability juggernauts forth, promising only the necrosis* of our liberty.
(* P.S. Big cheers to DJC for allowing me the derivation of his word, necrotic.
)
A lot worse.
The only way you will get better quality (and avoid a totalitarian future) is for these pernicious entities to be broken up/censured by the state.
You may be worried about the quality of your food and the sort of sharp practices involved, others, the near gangster grade strong arm tactics used to destroy the means of production which give these organisations the monstrous power to evade immunity from that very censure.
Some of us recognise a development of truly horrific, socio-economic consequences, as their indomitability juggernauts forth, promising only the necrosis* of our liberty.
(* P.S. Big cheers to DJC for allowing me the derivation of his word, necrotic.
)Edited by derestrictor on Saturday 16th January 17:54
Does my head in too.
Noticed just before Xmas that cucumbers in Sainsburys went from 70p to 80p, that's a crazy price increase and the Blue Dragon Coconut milk has gone from around 50p to £1.60 in 18 months. What's that about, especially when they sell the Jamaican brand in the next aisle for only 60p.
Had to get that off my chest. Cheers.
Noticed just before Xmas that cucumbers in Sainsburys went from 70p to 80p, that's a crazy price increase and the Blue Dragon Coconut milk has gone from around 50p to £1.60 in 18 months. What's that about, especially when they sell the Jamaican brand in the next aisle for only 60p.
Had to get that off my chest. Cheers.
We used to spend circa £70 a week at Tescos, after I had a falling out with them over there silly alcohol policy.
We started using a butcher close to home and a farmers green grocers type thing and nipping bookers once a month to get house hold stuff and our shopping bill has come down to an average of £50 a week and the quality of all the stuff we buy is far better, I especially notice it with the meat but even more so with the Veg if i have to pop into a Sainsburys to pick something up we need extra or have forgotten , the Veg is terrible in Sainsburys have started using Aldi if we didnt buy from farmers market
We started using a butcher close to home and a farmers green grocers type thing and nipping bookers once a month to get house hold stuff and our shopping bill has come down to an average of £50 a week and the quality of all the stuff we buy is far better, I especially notice it with the meat but even more so with the Veg if i have to pop into a Sainsburys to pick something up we need extra or have forgotten , the Veg is terrible in Sainsburys have started using Aldi if we didnt buy from farmers market
Edited by rich0411 on Saturday 16th January 18:23
Some of you people worry me, you really do.
You notice the price of fruit and veg in the supermarket? You actually shop for your fresh stuff on price?
Are you really that f
king stupid? Seriously...are you really that mindlessly idiotic that you think this is even vaguely sensible?
Tinned crap, processed crap fine. Shop on price all you want. Most of it is bland tastelessly irrelevent dross anyway. But fresh produce are your raw ingredients. In order for you to make your own food...which is why you are buying the raw stuff anyway...you buy on quality of goods alone. If you do not then you quite frankly lose the ability to have any direct control over the quality of any of your food.
Thats before we even get onto the social aspects of Dels post. Be in no doubt supermarkets are interested in little more than the bottom line. By pushing as many prices of more things as cheaply close to the lowest price of all things possible, their sole aim is to get more folk through the door to buy them. The end game is they would like to offer everything possible to sell at the lowest possible prices to everybody. To be OmniCorp. They are the necrotic eaters of dead flesh from the wasted underclasses.
You notice the price of fruit and veg in the supermarket? You actually shop for your fresh stuff on price?
Are you really that f
king stupid? Seriously...are you really that mindlessly idiotic that you think this is even vaguely sensible? Tinned crap, processed crap fine. Shop on price all you want. Most of it is bland tastelessly irrelevent dross anyway. But fresh produce are your raw ingredients. In order for you to make your own food...which is why you are buying the raw stuff anyway...you buy on quality of goods alone. If you do not then you quite frankly lose the ability to have any direct control over the quality of any of your food.
Thats before we even get onto the social aspects of Dels post. Be in no doubt supermarkets are interested in little more than the bottom line. By pushing as many prices of more things as cheaply close to the lowest price of all things possible, their sole aim is to get more folk through the door to buy them. The end game is they would like to offer everything possible to sell at the lowest possible prices to everybody. To be OmniCorp. They are the necrotic eaters of dead flesh from the wasted underclasses.
lingus75 said:
I Agee about. It being a rip off. We try and get as much food as possible from local market in cheltenham. Amazing value (3 cAuli for a pound, usually 7 peppers same price and if u go later on day almost half a bag of bananas same price) a meat seller is there also and recentley we bought 5 pounds of pork loin for ten pounds and they were fantastic. Tin stiff notusually too bad but fresh produce a rip off
P
where's this then?P
derestrictor said:
Continue to feed these diabolical monopolies and this will only get worse.
A lot worse.
The only way you will get better quality (and avoid a totalitarian future) is for these pernicious entities to be broken up/censured by the state.
You may be worried about the quality of your food and the sort of sharp practices involved, others, the near gangster grade strong arm tactics used to destroy the means of production which give these organisations the monstrous power to evade immunity from that very censure.
Some of us recognise a development of truly horrific, socio-economic consequences, as their indomitability juggernauts forth, promising only the necrosis* of our liberty.
(* P.S. Big cheers to DJC for allowing me the derivation of his word, necrotic.)
Amen to that.A lot worse.
The only way you will get better quality (and avoid a totalitarian future) is for these pernicious entities to be broken up/censured by the state.
You may be worried about the quality of your food and the sort of sharp practices involved, others, the near gangster grade strong arm tactics used to destroy the means of production which give these organisations the monstrous power to evade immunity from that very censure.
Some of us recognise a development of truly horrific, socio-economic consequences, as their indomitability juggernauts forth, promising only the necrosis* of our liberty.
(* P.S. Big cheers to DJC for allowing me the derivation of his word, necrotic.
)Shouldnt have been allowed to grow so fat.
edit for formatting
Edited by Furyous on Sunday 17th January 09:02
DJC said:
Some of you people worry me, you really do.
You notice the price of fruit and veg in the supermarket? You actually shop for your fresh stuff on price?
Are you really that fking stupid? Seriously...are you really that mindlessly idiotic that you think this is even vaguely sensible?
Tinned crap, processed crap fine. Shop on price all you want. Most of it is bland tastelessly irrelevent dross anyway. But fresh produce are your raw ingredients. In order for you to make your own food...which is why you are buying the raw stuff anyway...you buy on quality of goods alone. If you do not then you quite frankly lose the ability to have any direct control over the quality of any of your food.
Thats before we even get onto the social aspects of Dels post. Be in no doubt supermarkets are interested in little more than the bottom line. By pushing as many prices of more things as cheaply close to the lowest price of all things possible, their sole aim is to get more folk through the door to buy them. The end game is they would like to offer everything possible to sell at the lowest possible prices to everybody. To be OmniCorp. They are the necrotic eaters of dead flesh from the wasted underclasses.
Give the guy a break, he drove from Doncaster to Richmond (N. Yorks.) to buy a quarter of my slow reared, free range pig - He was the first PHer to do so and in my opinion is committed to the idea of properly raised meat.You notice the price of fruit and veg in the supermarket? You actually shop for your fresh stuff on price?
Are you really that f
king stupid? Seriously...are you really that mindlessly idiotic that you think this is even vaguely sensible? Tinned crap, processed crap fine. Shop on price all you want. Most of it is bland tastelessly irrelevent dross anyway. But fresh produce are your raw ingredients. In order for you to make your own food...which is why you are buying the raw stuff anyway...you buy on quality of goods alone. If you do not then you quite frankly lose the ability to have any direct control over the quality of any of your food.
Thats before we even get onto the social aspects of Dels post. Be in no doubt supermarkets are interested in little more than the bottom line. By pushing as many prices of more things as cheaply close to the lowest price of all things possible, their sole aim is to get more folk through the door to buy them. The end game is they would like to offer everything possible to sell at the lowest possible prices to everybody. To be OmniCorp. They are the necrotic eaters of dead flesh from the wasted underclasses.
Some of us have seen the supermarket's game and are fighting back and Tom was fully supportive of this, I don't think he's your stereotypical supermarket drone - I think he may be simply highlighting the misconception of supermarket pricing rather than displaying an ignorance to it.
We're out here producing decent stuff - but it's up to people to find us, we simply don't have the resources of the supermarkets.
Edited by Mark Benson on Sunday 17th January 01:17
I get most of my meat from the local butcher, far tastier then the supermarket and often no more expensive, in fact his topside is cheaper than Sainsburys Silverside! Unfortunatly don't have a greengrocers locally, and most of the markets tend to be on week days when we can't get to them, however we've started growing some of our own veg over the last couple of years and you really can't beat cooking your veg 5 mins after it was picked.
RizzoTheRat said:
...Unfortunatly don't have a greengrocers locally, and most of the markets tend to be on week days when we can't get to them, however we've started growing some of our own veg over the last couple of years and you really can't beat cooking your veg 5 mins after it was picked.
This is the problem for many (self included). And the online "local producers" stuff doesn't allow you to examine the produce etc...I guess this is due to "us" allowing the supermarkets such a hold (they've killed the "locals"). But we're in that position now. Not sure how it can be changed.
It's like the critical mass of proper imbeciles we have in this country now. There's no hope for people who can think for themselves as the imbeciles all have a vote...which is why our governments (local and national) get elected on the back of stupid policy. Which I suppose includes allowing the proliferation of things like supermarkets...
We started using Abel & Cole for all our fresh fruit & veggies, milk and meat (would prefer to use local shops but there isn't a greengrocer and I generally don't have time to get to the butcher) - I don't think their prices are too extortionate, the quality is good, the veg/fruit tastes much better than the stuff int he supermarket and apparently their van is run on biodiesel (not that I'm particularly bothered by that but some people are).
I can really recommend them if they deliver in your area.
I can really recommend them if they deliver in your area.
Mark Benson said:
Give the guy a break, he drove from Doncaster to Richmond (N. Yorks.) to buy a quarter of my slow reared, free range pig - He was the first PHer to do so and in my opinion is committed to the idea of properly raised meat.
Some of us have seen the supermarket's game and are fighting back and Tom was fully supportive of this, I don't think he's your stereotypical supermarket drone - I think he may be simply highlighting the misconception of supermarket pricing rather than displaying an ignorance to it.
We're out here producing decent stuff - but it's up to people to find us, we simply don't have the resources of the supermarkets.
Thanks Mark. I've been frustrated by it for years and have previously bought locally from markets. Sometimes I have found the produce (I'm talking about fruit and veg here) to be good but sometimes what looks like good value has ended up being more expensive and occasionally inferior. As a result I have gone back to the supermarkets. Some of us have seen the supermarket's game and are fighting back and Tom was fully supportive of this, I don't think he's your stereotypical supermarket drone - I think he may be simply highlighting the misconception of supermarket pricing rather than displaying an ignorance to it.
We're out here producing decent stuff - but it's up to people to find us, we simply don't have the resources of the supermarkets.
Edited by Mark Benson on Sunday 17th January 01:17
This time I am making a concerted effort to buy local, good quality, seasonal produce from someone who I can build a relationship with over time.
As was said earlier in the thread, you buy with your eyes but that's easy to say when you're not constrained by budget. Luckily I'm not on the breadline but refuse to be ripped off. The second response to my initial post just sums up the general understanding of many people. 'Don't go to ASDA then'. Oh dear
As an aside, the pork is lovely and I am still serious about buying from you again. Let's talk in due-course about producing some more!
i want an aero said:
lingus75 said:
I Agee about. It being a rip off. We try and get as much food as possible from local market in cheltenham. Amazing value (3 cAuli for a pound, usually 7 peppers same price and if u go later on day almost half a bag of bananas same price) a meat seller is there also and recentley we bought 5 pounds of pork loin for ten pounds and they were fantastic. Tin stiff notusually too bad but fresh produce a rip off
P
where's this then?P
I don't know as much as I probably should about the economics of meat production, but I can't see how that could be done outside of an industrial process?
Perhaps others could comment.
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