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Originally Posted by nffc
Basically, their research found that shopping for fruit, veg and meat was cheaper from local markets and butchers etc, than the supermarket.
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I can speak from experience here. I stopped shopping in Tescos and moved to M&S for most groceries, mostly due to stock issues, but also one of quality. Whilst price is important to me, the background of the produce that came from Tesco troubled me and M&S are better, but not perfect.
However one thing that M&S are just as bad as Tescos at is veg. It is bland, uniform and usually dry - but we've all been conditioned to accept it over time...trust me on this, go and buy an organic carrott from a local farmer and you'll find it really does taste of carrott - unlike the supermarket version.
So we started going to out local farm shop...they're actually pretty good as anything they don't grow themselves (they do five types of potatoes, onions, sqashes, cabbage, etc...good british veg!) they get from Covent Garden a the day before.
We buy 10kgs of any of the five types of potatoes for £3. They're fresh out of the ground that week, they're juicy and tasty and each have their own flavours and shapes and sizes.
Compare this to Tesco where (if you're lucky enough to find a bag of potatoes on the shelf) you get this bag filled with modified air (to stop them rotting for the couple of weeks it takes to reach the shelves) everything is the same shape and size, is grey in appearance, dry and utterly tasteless...oh and three times the price!
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Originally Posted by nffc
including cuts on items such as organic watercress and actually putting the price of items such as teabags UP!
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This is poor, as you say totally legal...but morally poor. There are goods, and tea bags is one of them (also included are things like milk, bread, cheese, etc) that are magic goods for retailers. These are goods that we put into the basket without checking the price (speaking generally) or knowing how much they are at the retailers' competitors.
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Originally Posted by nffc
This provokes serious thought about whether the supermarket practice is ethical.
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It's a no-brainer for me. The answer is no...and when you know more of the stuff they get up to, you'll be even more sure that they are immoral to the extreme.
Things like the treatment of farmers, where they order a years' supply of, say, potatoes...so Mr Farmer prepares his land for 'x' million seeds to be planted. Just before the first harvest Mr Tesco Buyer calls up and cancels the order as he's got a better deal from some farm in Spain. This farmer has lost not only his entire crop for a whole year, but also the revenue that goes with it....plus is left with a tens of thousands of tonnes of almost ripe potatoes that he can't sell to anyone else.
There's a couple of books I would strongly recommend you read to get a fuller picture:
Not on the Label and
Shopped - both very enlightening reads. I bought a bread-maker after reading the first one!