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

[Was not Was]

Buying from locally owned & run places is much better for your local economy than buying from chains - whether it's food or anything else. If the stuff is locally sourced, all the better. It's because the cash you spend stays mostly in the local economy; but if you spend it at Tesco, a very small proportion stays local (in wages).

 

[brakespear]

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.

Worthing. There is a fishmonger in town, although I don't eat fish. There may be a farmer's market somewhere in the surrounding area but unless they deliver they're no good to us Ocado would be nice but right out of our budget - I'm hoping Morrison's will start delivering soon as they seem to have the best quality food of the 4 'main' supermarkets.

 

[The Birdman]

Quality Fruits in Haywards Heath is not to expensive gives personal service which is a dying experience oftern has a better selection than the supermarkets. Also will carry your shopping to your car. What a shame we are losing these type of local shops.

 

[life on mars 73]

I live in West Worthing, and there's a lovely greengrocers not far from me in Goring, called Pixies. I get all my fruit and veg in there, real good stuff.

 

[EDS]

The fruit in supermarkets is not even ripened, far better to buy from a grocers and you can certainly taste the difference. Same goes for vegetables and meat.
Supermarkets do not care about quality at all really as they know people will still buy as its convenient to get it all under one roof.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

As a sheep/pig farmer (small local producer) can I please ask you all to buy local. I can not begin to compete on the price of the crap you get from the supermarket but I promise my produce is of a far greater quality. If you come direct and buy bulk I'll beat most butchers etc but its hard to convince the normal housewife that good locally produced meat is so much better. I now am about to supply three local butchers but have had to drop my price to £130 per pig after feed, bedding, slaughter costs, inoculations and travel expenses I net £40. If I sell direct I can make £140. To only make £40 per head barely keeps the farm going and works out that I work for about 1.80p an hour. Nevertheless I love my work and take pride in what I do.

The best about buying local is that like many others I'm happy for people to visit my farm, see the conditions the animals are kept in and I'm happy to show the full process.

 

[Paris]

As a sheep/pig farmer (small local producer) can I please ask you all to buy local. I can not begin to compete on the price of the crap you get from the supermarket but I promise my produce is of a far greater quality. If you come direct and buy bulk I'll beat most butchers etc but its hard to convince the normal housewife that good locally produced meat is so much better. I now am about to supply three local butchers but have had to drop my price to £130 per pig after feed, bedding, slaughter costs, inoculations and travel expenses I net £40. If I sell direct I can make £140. To only make £40 per head barely keeps the farm going and works out that I work for about 1.80p an hour. Nevertheless I love my work and take pride in what I do.

The best about buying local is that like many others I'm happy for people to visit my farm, see the conditions the animals are kept in and I'm happy to show the full process.

Sounds good

 

[Foolg]

I buy most of my fruit and veg from the local greengrocers, cheaper and better quality than the Tesco where the rest of my food comes from. As for meat, for me, the local butchers seemed a lot more expensive last year, and therefore I've not really ventured back as I try to keep my budget for food as low as I can.

However, In full time work I'll definitely use the butchers/greengrocers and so on more than supermarkets. Quality is top notch.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Worthing. There is a fishmonger in town, although I don't eat fish. There may be a farmer's market somewhere in the surrounding area but unless they deliver they're no good to us Ocado would be nice but right out of our budget - I'm hoping Morrison's will start delivering soon as they seem to have the best quality food of the 4 'main' supermarkets.

No car sounds pretty green to me. So you would probably need to shop every other day, to do the shop local thing. I can see that would be a challenge. West Worthing seems to have more going on than the East. The obvious thing with Worthing is the fish sold straight off the beach, but as you say you don't eat fish.

 

[CheeseRolls]

I buy most of my fruit and veg from the local greengrocers, cheaper and better quality than the Tesco where the rest of my food comes from. As for meat, for me, the local butchers seemed a lot more expensive last year, and therefore I've not really ventured back as I try to keep my budget for food as low as I can.

However, In full time work I'll definitely use the butchers/greengrocers and so on more than supermarkets. Quality is top notch.

I ducked the recent thread on how much does your weekly food shop cost, as I started to notice our weekly bill approaching what some people claim to spend in a month. With the butchers I try and balance the cost, by including a few cheap cuts like Offal, Chicken Wings, Belly pork, bacon off cuts.

 

[Titus]

I bought my meat from Middle Farm on the A27 last week instead of from my usual supermarket. It was about 10% more expensive but tasted 100% better. I shall shop there more often in future.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

My local butcher is a bit more expensive than any supermarket, but the product quality is much higher.

My local baker, on the other hand, is cheaper than any supermarket, and the product quality is much higher.

I'm guessing Ravens ? Great memories of that as a kid and their warm doughnuts were fantastic.

As others have said most high street butchers are cheaper than the supermarkets and the meat is far better quality. I use the one in Hangleton and go in once every three weeks and ask what I can have for £20. That wouldn't buy you a weeks meat in most supermarkets !

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Worthing. There is a fishmonger in town, although I don't eat fish. There may be a farmer's market somewhere in the surrounding area but unless they deliver they're no good to us Ocado would be nice but right out of our budget - I'm hoping Morrison's will start delivering soon as they seem to have the best quality food of the 4 'main' supermarkets.

There's a market every Wednesday in the centre of Worthing with a fruit and veg stall. Dirt cheap but good quality.

 

[Dave the OAP]

We tend to buy all of our food in supermarkets, our weekly fresh salads, fruit , fish, ready meals that sort of thing in M&S and weekly stuff like large veg, loo roll etc in sainsburys.

For all the snobbish stuff thrown at wait rose and m&s, when you take a lot of their offers in to account, especially eat in for a tenner, they are not that much more than bigger supermarkets. Last night on a deal we had a decent bottle of wine, steak, veg, jacket potato, crab starter and champagne strawberry desert for a tenner. It was a superb dinner and cracking value for money.

The only local stores around us are a forfars type shop which is expensive and we have two takeaways. The butcher closed a few years ago which was a shame as he sold decent cuts of meat but couldn't match supermarkets proces

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

As a sheep/pig farmer (small local producer) can I please ask you all to buy local. I can not begin to compete on the price of the crap you get from the supermarket but I promise my produce is of a far greater quality. If you come direct and buy bulk I'll beat most butchers etc but its hard to convince the normal housewife that good locally produced meat is so much better. I now am about to supply three local butchers but have had to drop my price to £130 per pig after feed, bedding, slaughter costs, inoculations and travel expenses I net £40. If I sell direct I can make £140. To only make £40 per head barely keeps the farm going and works out that I work for about 1.80p an hour. Nevertheless I love my work and take pride in what I do.

The best about buying local is that like many others I'm happy for people to visit my farm, see the conditions the animals are kept in and I'm happy to show the full process.

As I moved I never did get to buy a pig from you but I wish you all the best and if/when I move back to Sussex I will be knocking on your door for sure.

 

[Uwinsc]

It is much easier to buy everything in one place (supermarket). I'm not too fussed about the price of things, supermarkets are just easier.

Although the price does matter to me, time is much more of an issue: I work shifts so am often having to do my shopping late in the evening and am rarely around at the weekend hen our local market is on.

 

[Dave the OAP]

As a sheep/pig farmer (small local producer) can I please ask you all to buy local. I can not begin to compete on the price of the crap you get from the supermarket but I promise my produce is of a far greater quality. If you come direct and buy bulk I'll beat most butchers etc but its hard to convince the normal housewife that good locally produced meat is so much better. I now am about to supply three local butchers but have had to drop my price to £130 per pig after feed, bedding, slaughter costs, inoculations and travel expenses I net £40. If I sell direct I can make £140. To only make £40 per head barely keeps the farm going and works out that I work for about 1.80p an hour. Nevertheless I love my work and take pride in what I do.

The best about buying local is that like many others I'm happy for people to visit my farm, see the conditions the animals are kept in and I'm happy to show the full process.

You missed a trick there. I am sure if people would have known this at Christmas, we could have put our orders in.

It would be great if yo could mention this again near Christmas time and certainly we would be interested.

 

[The Large One]

I'm guessing Ravens ? Great memories of that as a kid and their warm doughnuts were fantastic.

The decor hasn't been updated in there since.

 

[Uwinsc]

Although the price does matter to me, time is much more of an issue: I work shifts so am often having to do my shopping late in the evening and am rarely around at the weekend hen our local market is on.

I'm guessing Ravens ? Great memories of that as a kid and their warm doughnuts were fantastic.

As others have said most high street butchers are cheaper than the supermarkets and the meat is far better quality. I use the one in Hangleton and go in once every three weeks and ask what I can have for £20. That wouldn't buy you a weeks meat in most supermarkets !

I do all my shopping is tesco and it would be a very rare week that I spent £20 on meat for the 2 of us, often less than £10. I know the fruit and veg stall at our market is cheaper than the supermarket but as I said I'm rarely around when its open. The local butchers I have tried were a lot more expensive for what I buy. I do cook most of my food from scratch but I'm not very adventurous so tend to be buying chicken, mince, bacon etc.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Is there much done in schools to encourage and show pupils the benefit of supporting the local economy? Could there be anything done? Would it be worthwhile?


Thinking back to my experience at school I can't really remember anything like it being done. Brand recognition has a big impact on youngsters, IMO. Using Fiveways as an example, you see a lot more kids going to the Forfars than Ravens on their lunch breaks, and the same can be said of the co-op over the local cornershop.