A farewell to supermarkets...

My name is Steph, and it’s been 5 days since I last set foot in a Supermarket. And hopefully it’ll be many more days until I set foot in one again. Giving up Supermarkets was high on my agenda, right from the start of this project, but the actual giving up was a bit unplanned. To the point that I haven’t had a chance to do any planning, get down to the local shops and buy a weeks worth of food. So this week has seen me eating a rather bizarre selection of food, but I’m managing without too many issues so far, and hopefully with a bit more planning this will get easier.

When I was growing up, pretty much all the food we ate came from supermarkets. For a long time, our local supermarket (and I say “local” with a pinch of salt, as it was a 20 minute drive), was Sainsburys, and my Mum would do a weekly shop there. Then a Tesco opened closer (a mere 15 minute drive away) and in a more convenient location, and so the weekly shop shifted.

To set the scene, my parents live in a small village. There is a village shop, but it can provide little more than a pint of milk and some stamps. The nearest town is a 10 minute drive away (with the Tesco being situated on the far side of this town). I don’t remember there being much of a local food shop network before Tesco moved in, but there definitely isn’t one now. I believe the last remaining fruit and vegetable shop has closed, and I’m not sure if there’s a surviving butcher. So where my parents live, there isn’t much option beyond a Supermarket (although I should point out my parents do grow some of their own vegetables).

And I’d class myself as one of the Supermarket generation. That’s the way I was brought up to shop – all my food and other household (and beyond) needs, conveniently located under one large flat metal roof. Why waste time visiting so many small independent shops when you can make one stop and get everything at once.

I have a confession – at times I have quite enjoyed the “Supermarket experience”. I love to cook, and being bombarded with options and colours and flavours makes that side of me tick. Not sure what to have for dinner? A quick browse round the supermarket throws up options of thai curries, roast chickens, stir frys, fajitas and lasagne. The choice is overwhelming.

And overwhelming is the word. We’ve got so used to having what we want, when we want it. How often have you left the Supermarket, feeling dismayed that they had run out of a particular item, like it was a fundamental human right that you should be able to buy ripe bananas whenever you wish.

Over the last year or so, my supermarket shopping self has become a lot more cynical. The way it is laid out to make you part with as much money as possible, with the milk and bread (the most common items you might just “pop in” for) located at the back of the store. The way the aisles are moved around to make it harder to find what you’re looking for. The big signs promoting bargains on items you didn’t know you wanted. Almost every time I go into a supermarket, I leave with at least one item I didn’t mean to buy, and frequently I pop in for a few things and come out with several bags of things, many of which I didn’t really need.

To me, the Supermarket appeals to our time saving convenience loving nature, but also feeds our consumerism focused lifestyle. Its aim is not to provide us with the best possible produce available, it’s to make us buy more stuff and turn a profit for the shareholders.

For months, I’ve been resenting my trips to supermarkets, but lacking the kick I needed to actually say “no more!”. Well, I’ve done it now, and (hopefully) there’s no going back.

So why have I given up supermarkets? Here are some of my thoughts at the moment...

1. The Monopoly. 1 in every 7 pounds spent in the UK is spent in Tesco. When you add to this that three quarters of food bought is from one of the major 4 supermarkets (from The Rough Guide to Ethical Living), you get an idea of what a monopoly they have. 
2. The Local Damage. I think we’ve all seen local business after local business go out of business over the past decade, to the point that many people have no option other than shopping at the supermarkets. The convenience and potential cost savings are sufficient to sway a lot of people to move their shopping under one single brightly lit roof, rather than buying items from more specialised shops. This means that a lot of businesses such as butchers, bakers and greengrocers are being forced to close their business as they cannot compete with the supermarkets. I appreciate that I’m very lucky to live somewhere that still retains a good selection of local shops, and therefore I feel it’s even more important that I support them and buy from them, in an attempt to help them continue. 
3. The Farmers. The purchasing power that the supermarkets yield allow them to dictate the price and terms of produce, sometimes to the point of making it no longer economically viable for farmers to continue. A lot of the risk is placed in the lap of the grower and supermarkets may change their mind at the last minute leaving farmers with a surplus that they are forced to sell for low prices in dump markets. Added to this, the supermarkets strict aesthetic standards leads to a massive amount of food waste, with farmers unable to sell misshapen or imperfect produce. 
4. The Experience. When I go into my cornershop, I get a smile and an enquiry as to my wellbeing. A trip to the Italian shop down the road involves being served by a series of slightly grumpy but familiar old Italian men. I always get served by the same man in the butchers. In Tesco, I could get served by any of several hundred employees, who are serving people at the fastest rate possible, in order to maintain the lowest number of employees and therefore make the greatest profit. In short, the experience of shopping at shops other than supermarkets is so much nicer. I love the slower pace of the shopping experience, and I like knowing the people I buy food from, which is something I’m hoping will continue over the coming year. 
5. The Quality. I remember the first time I ate carrots grown in my Mum’s garden. They tasted unlike any carrots I’d ever tasted from the supermarket. And this goes for so many things – meat, fruit, bread. And yes, there can be some sacrifices – bread goes staler quicker for example, but there’s something slightly terrifying about being able to buy a loaf of bread that’s still soft and fresh 10 days after you open it. And I’m not saying that all food bought outside of a supermarket is of better quality – this is far from true. But it can certainly be better, and full of less preservatives and chemicals. 

So no more popping into Tesco or browsing in Sainsburys, but I have a feeling that the reality of this is going to be a lot harder than it sounds...