Supermarkets

[notb665]

With supermarkets ready to announce record profits, there is a running item on (West) Midlands Today where they have challenged a family to live without supermarkets.

Could you live without a supermarket? Do you have the facilities and do you like the better quality, better tasting food? Do you like the community enhancing effect of supporting local businesses? They might be more expensive per se but you would impulse buy less (and in fact save money, as did the family on the TV).

Or do you think small, inconvenient, time-consuming, over-priced, under-stocked shops should be closed down for good? Supermarkets aren't called super for nothing.

 

[nstreet]

No chance here in a part of norfolk. Local bakers closed about 18mths ago, local butcher has just closed, the Londis shop is rumoured to be closing, that leaves the hairdressers. No petrol stations either other than the supermarkets. Been got by the short and curlies

 

[nstreet]

No chance here in a part of norfolk. Local bakers closed about 18mths ago, local butcher has just closed, the Londis shop is rumoured to be closing, that leaves the hairdressers. No petrol stations either other than the supermarkets. Been got by the short and curlies

Forgot to mention, the green grocers went at about the same time as the bakers.

 

[i-fit]

Pretty easy down here in Kent. Plenty of local butchers. Greengrocer down the road. Not forgetting the numerous farm shops. Bakers 3 miles away. Those £1 shops are scattered about so theres your tissues etc..
All we seem to be lacking is a fishmongers.

 

[Steve]

removd

 

[Richardp]

We never had a shop apart from the Co-op on a island two miles away which would take telephone orders every thursday and deliver on Saturdays, we can get fresh veg from the local farm stall and fish from the local fisherman but now we have internet shopping from Tescos, pesto and olives and other stuff that a few months ago we never heard of,fan bloody tastic getting hellish fat tho

 

[hermes]

If I lived alone I would buy all my stuff locally - I don't like supermarkets and the way they force out local shops and put the stranglehold on suppliers. I can't get my wife to forgo Tescos though. There was an article in the paper about it today, telling how Tesco opposed an application to build an Asda on the grounds that it would be a threat to local businesses, aqnd shortly afterwards built their own supermarket! I think that supermarkets badly need regulating as they are almost out of control.

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article338905.ece

 

[WoodYouLike]

We try to shop local as much as possible, not only for groceries. One and a half year ago I met a local solicitor during a business Exhibition (we didn't know each other before) and we started wondering how many business there actual were in our little village. With the first count we came to over 120, including shops, business service and several home-offices (the so-called soho's) in every trade imaginable.
That was the start of a local/community network, including website, themed exhibitions once every two months and local promotions.

 

[DDoyle]

It's horses for course really, I prefer the smaller, more friendly personal service you get in the local shops, but it is not as simple as blaming the Supermarkets for the demise of local shops.

Quite often it is the local councils and their insane business rates that start the process, then locals feel they save money in the Supermarkets so do their biggest shop their and just get their odds and sods in the local shops, and quite often this is insufficient to support the business.

The picture of the local shop closures is far from black and white, but I do think we all have a role to play in maintaining the local shops, as this also helps to promote and maintain a sense of community too, which is something cold and sterile supermarkets simply cannot and are unwilling to do.

 

[masona]

However, I really do hope someone p***es on Tesco's bonfire soon before they end up running the country. I mean, how the hell can anyone compete with a company that size???? They are using sneaky tricks to expand and it just isn't fair, especially on independants.

That's business for you! Eventfully I can see a price war competition against others retailers will be unheard of. They're now even controlling the petrol market from the oil refinery, the only way round it was to have their shops on the petrol forecourts.

 

[i-fit]

We get seasonal veg from the farm shops for HALF the price of Asda. And we have to drive past 2 of them to get there!!

I refuse point blank to go there. Thats why mrs i fit does the shopping

 

[Moz]

TESCOs SPAWN OF SATAN's ***K...

I can find my local patels round my dads area now they have been brought up by the DEVIL tesco express .. btw the prices in expresse are far more expensive ,sometimes 10an 20 p than stuff in the tesco big stores

this old girl who lives over the road from my old fella ,
myrtle , had a go at me the other friday because tescos are so dear ..lol
as if I was stealing the 50p change , lol God Bless em ..
but sometimes as I stand there handing the change over in the porch after taking her shopping in ,
I blush an have a hot sweat as they moan an groan at me,smiling sweetly .. ..lol
I can understand how she feels as they (an doreen my dads next door neighbour,also another one who gets the friday shop service ) give me a £20 for her stuff an every week she gets less an less bags of shopping now...
I wanted to pay for a few of the dear stuff one week
but by sat morning she was on my phone wailing I had given her the wrong change ,
I went down an got a lecture on handing back the correct change ...lol

I did say one week I would go to aldi , but you would thought I had just said
"come on its down the cementary for you lot .."

they were horrified I mentioned a cheap shop ...lol...lol..lol

 

[markie]

Is there any fishy people on line, went to the local shop 5 mins ago needed a tin of tuna, had a choice of 3-4 different kinds, thought to my get the cheapest (not 4 me ) so why is there a vast amount of difference in price between top brands and others. is it the things they add to it or because of the name. if not there 's something fishy going on

 

[mandiehun]

the tuna was for me,thanks mark

 

[Richardp]

Is there any fishy people on line, went to the local shop 5 mins ago needed a tin of tuna, had a choice of 3-4 different kinds, thought to my get the cheapest (not 4 me ) so why is there a vast amount of difference in price between top brands and others. is it the things they add to it or because of the name. if not there 's something fishy going on

http://www.seafooddirect.co.uk/
Fish is so good for you, specially oily fish like mackerel, keeps your limbs loose, Brain food, I've got a mullet net which I shoot just outside my garden and keeps the freezer full even get the occasional salmon which I'm not allowed to land so we call it pink pollock.