Buy Local? I'd love to....

[junior]

Let's also not forget that buying locally is MUCH better for the environment and local economy.

I disagree strongly. I can drive to the supermarket once and buy everything in one place. Or get in and out of the car driving all round town to lots of different shops. Which is better for the enviroment?

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Actually I've just been to the Evil Tesco hanger in Hove, & the rate they're sticking their prices up every friggin' week can only be good news for local independent retailers. I'll cheerfully f*** the greedy major supermarkets off if this rip-off doesn't stop. Enough already.

 

[The Large One]

I disagree strongly. I can drive to the supermarket once and buy everything in one place. Or get in and out of the car driving all round town to lots of different shops. Which is better for the enviroment?

I'll try and gather myself after being momentarily lost for words there.

Firstly, the point of buying locally sourced food is that it hasn't travelled across the world - or even a couple of unnecessary laps of Britain. It's only travelled a few miles.

The point of buying local is that you don't need your car. Even if you did, you could still drive to one location, and walk the rest. You could still buy in one place (Fiveways has an excellent butcher, baker, grocer, greengrocer and off licence all within 50 yards of each other).

And you're someone who lives in France...

 

[Mr Banana]

I disagree strongly. I can drive to the supermarket once and buy everything in one place. Or get in and out of the car driving all round town to lots of different shops. Which is better for the enviroment?

I've never really been that into the ethics of it all, but off the top of my head, buying from North Street keeps two Brightonians in business, not to mention that they often use the money to f***ing brilliant effect by getting totally f***ed in the Brighton Tavern.

They buy the food locally (when the suspension on his van doesn't cut out), which has got to be better than the peppers from halfway round the world Tesco are selling at the moment.

Dunno exact figures but I guarantee they sell cheaper than the supermarkets and there's more choice. They definitely taste nicer. They don't use loads of unnecessary packaging.

 

[TheJasperCo]

I get all my fruit and veg and meat from small, local market stalls, far cheaper than any big supermarket, with better customer service, and next to no queuing. I've done this for months now. And, I can get just what I need, not multi-pack buys that can feed a small village with a best before date of tomorrow. Today, I got 6 days' worth of fruit, veg and meat for 6 quid. Can't complain, and I'd recommend the same to anyone else in two minds.

 

[CheeseRolls]

TLO your message is lost on people who are not really interested in cooking and food.

If you live on a limited range of ready meals, why bother going anywhere other than the supermarket? It isn't necessarily unhealthy when portion control is imposed by the supermarket financial accountants.

Live like that though and you miss out on one of life's great pleasures.

 

[The Large One]

TLO your message is lost on people who are not really interested in cooking and food.

... nor the environment, nor the local economy.

 

[Meade's Ball]

As a plump veggie i am waiting for the arrival of a local quornery in which the chemical factory out back freshly puts together the impersonatory scampi, a view of the breadcrumbing available to any customer, and even has a tank full of fidgeting pretend lobsters for me to select and have boiled, a look of desperation and a plea for mercy pre-painted on their phony eyepoles.

 

[brakespear]

The local shop to me is a Tesco Express - there is a Londis nearby which sells much the same stuff but more expensive. There is a butcher about ten minutes walk away but I very rarely go there as we order all our groceries from Tesco and have them delivered (we don't drive). Theree isn't a greengrocers nearby and not much in the way of local produce I wouldn't imagine.

edited to remove 'Updated' duplicate.

 

[trueblue]

The supermarkets seem cheap but the way they package things in bulk makes it a rip-off a lot of the time compared to getting the amounts you want locally (and often better quality).

 

[brakespear]

TLO your message is lost on people who are not really interested in cooking and food.

If you live on a limited range of ready meals, why bother going anywhere other than the supermarket? It isn't necessarily unhealthy when portion control is imposed by the supermarket financial accountants.

Live like that though and you miss out on one of life's great pleasures.

We do all our shopping at supermarkets and I love cooking and food - I'm not really sure what your point is here besides trying to make yourself look superior when compared to others.

 

[Bozza]

We have a great little Tesco Express just round the corner from us. I can be there and back with some milk, bread and cider in less than 5 minutes.

It doesn't get much more local than that.

 

[dougdeep]

The OP has obviously never run a shop. He should try to sell produce that costs you more to buy than the supermarkets sell it for.

 

[Woodchip]

That's the joys of living in a country where the supermarket lifestyle isn't as huge as in the UK. We still have fruiterers and butchers using locally sourced food. We also have big chain butchers where the meat is more skanky than supermarket meat (@topbanana36 can probably work out which company I'm referring too).

At one point the fruiterers by me were selling 6 avocados for $5 and punnets of strawberries were $2

 

[CheeseRolls]

We do all our shopping at supermarkets and I love cooking and food - I'm not really sure what your point is here besides trying to make yourself look superior when compared to others.

Yes I'm great aren't I ? Either that or the point I was making does not cover every conceivable reason for shopping at supermarkets.

There are lots of reasons for shopping at supermarkets and yes I do as well, just not for everything.

 

[Arkwright]

Running a small village shop we try to get a mix of brand goods on price mark with local products such as bread, jams, cakes, beers, wines, ect. I'm an independent retailer and can safely say that our sales price is on par with Tesco Express but not Tesco or any other supermarket. At times it's cheaper for me to buy brand goods for a supermarket than it is for my wholesaler.

The problem with our local produce is the price as the suppliers can't buy the ingredients cheap enough or sell in the volume of household brands. That said if you want quality buy local from a source you know or mass produced and untraceable for less.

Our local farmshop is expensive but you can see the stock in the field out the back.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for!

 

[Big_Unit]

If the local butchers, greengrocers and cornershops weren't so bloody expensive. Dunno what it's like elsewhere in the country but Brighton loves to exploit it's citizens by charging a fortune for local produce and castigating us when they make it too expensive to buy. No wonder loads of these local shops are going down the pan, it's not just supermarkets that are ruining them, they do it to themselves.

There are two types of butcher's shop though, for me - there's "geezers who sell meat" and then there's the designer hippy-dippy 'lifestyle' / deli nonsense... one is very much more expensive than the other.

 

[CheeseRolls]

The local shop to me is a Tesco Express - there is a Londis nearby which sells much the same stuff but more expensive. There is a butcher about ten minutes walk away but I very rarely go there as we order all our groceries from Tesco and have them delivered (we don't drive). Theree isn't a greengrocers nearby and not much in the way of local produce I wouldn't imagine.

edited to remove 'Updated' duplicate.

Where is it you live ?

Locally I have a great fishmonger, a quality wine merchant and a pretty good monthly farmers market. A few miles inland a brilliant butcher (most of the meat comes from Scotland), a top local smokery (Salmon from Scotland and Canada) and a really good farm shop. The local greengrocer has just shut, but I am contemplating trying a local delivery service.

I am currently using Ocado, topped up by visits to the likes of Aldi, Lidl and Wilkinsons, to pick up bargains and non-food stuff.

I like local stuff, but anyone who has been to a Farmers market will know there are plenty of stalls selling expensive rubbish. This month I mainly bought meat. A whole rabbit, a Chorizo and some wild boar sausages. I try to buy food that is in season, but over all I would probably fail the TLO test as well.

 

[beorhthelm]

Quite. The food miles for supermarkets are horrific in comparison.

really? so the trip for a box of Birds Eye Fish Fingers is more for the supermarket than the cornershop?

or is everyone talking at cross purposes here? for me buying local is Sussex reared meat, Sussex grown veg and Sussex brewed beer.

problem is even where one can do so, its probably gone off to central distribution depot, wether its for the supermarkets or the wholesalers. Tesco's and Sainsbury's are probably best here as they are just north of London. the other problem is there isnt a Birds Eye Fish Fingers factory in sussex, nor Cadbury's, Heinz or Andrex. theres not alot of joy buying fresh fruit anywhere in winter unless its come halfway across the world.

if we're talking local shops, well they stock mostly the same items with the same factories/warehouses either way. and my local shop doesnt stock anything local, while Tesco's stocks Arundal Gold and Langham Ale, Hoads Farm eggs and some local meat. not much but its a start. the cost depend on what you buy somes cheaper in supermarket, some cheaper at the small shop, butchers, green grocers etc. often the deals at the supermarkets are from the manufacturers and the wholesalers/retailers are pocketing the discount.

 

[CheeseRolls]

really? so the trip for a box of Birds Eye Fish Fingers is more for the supermarket than the cornershop?

or is everyone talking at cross purposes here? for me buying local is Sussex reared meat, Sussex grown veg and Sussex brewed beer.

problem is even where one can do so, its probably gone off to central distribution depot, wether its for the supermarkets or the wholesalers. Tesco's and Sainsbury's are probably best here as they are just north of London. the other problem is there isnt a Birds Eye Fish Fingers factory in sussex, nor Cadbury's, Heinz or Andrex. theres not alot of joy buying fresh fruit anywhere in winter unless its come halfway across the world.

if we're talking local shops, well they stock mostly the same items with the same factories/warehouses either way. and my local shop doesnt stock anything local, while Tesco's stocks Arundal Gold and Langham Ale, Hoads Farm eggs and some local meat. not much but its a start. the cost depend on what you buy somes cheaper in supermarket, some cheaper at the small shop, butchers, green grocers etc. often the deals at the supermarkets are from the manufacturers and the wholesalers/retailers are pocketing the discount.

Cross purposes I think. Fish fingers kind of alludes to the point I was making earlier about cooking and loving food. If you focus on processed food, then the buy local message is mostly lost. My local fishmonger has excellent fish fingers, which are an occasional guilty pleasure, but this is something of an exception