Jul 01 2009
How is the recession biting you?
On a special edition of BBC TV’s Money programme, TV food guru Greg Wallace took a close look at how the recession is affecting the nation’s food shopping.
The topics he introduced included what the supermarkets are doing to keep us shopping with them, the struggle for independent shops to continue trading, and the trend towards value ranges and away from higher priced branded foods and organics.
To help illustrate the trends, he introduced Nina, a mother of two young children with their own decided preferences for certain foods.
Nina normally shops online with Tesco for convenience. She was asked to do a week’s shopping still online with Tesco, but shopping entirely from their value ranges, another week shopping in independent outlets in her local town centre and yet another buying as much frozen food.
There were comments from managers of Sainsburys, Iceland and the Co-op, plus some independent food suppliers including an organic farmer who is also a spokesman for the Soil Association.
Greg Wallace asked him about the possibility of changing the message about organic food to concentrate on just one aspect rather than a range of benefits but the Soil Association’s representative was very clear that they would not be doing that. He said that organic food directly benefited the environment in which it was produced, indirectly through lower energy usage which had less impact on climate change, it led to better animal welfare standards and the food was healthier for the consumer because there were no pesticides or artificial fertilisers used in vegetable and fruit production and no potentially harmful residues in animal products of medications used on livestock.
Nina’s family were happy with some cheaper items and hardly noticed the difference with certain things like a value-range tomato ketchup, but she said that some value items - were such poor quality she could not give them to her children and had had to throw them out uneaten, so that was not a saving.
She said that she had enjoyed the shopping experience in the independent local shops but it hadn’t been convenient or very quick and she had to do her weekly shop in two parts to be able to carry home heavy bags. She did say that the fruit and veg particularly were excellent quality that week.
The Co-op manager highlighted that in spite of the recession, the sales of fairly traded food had actually increased and that it need not be more expensive. Top UK chocolate brand Cadbury’s Dairy Milk will be made from fair-trade cocoa from this summer at no extra cost.
The programme also looked at the value supermarket chains Aldi and Lidl, but found that many people who gave them a try when they first opened, have reverted to their normal supermarket because they can’t get the branded foods their family likes, particularly things like breakfast cereals and biscuits.
I’ve tried my local Aldi and found some good bargains, particularly for ‘deli’ items like cold meats, bacon, ready-made salads and also for household goods.
One thing that did not come out very clearly, except that people are eating out less, is whether the British public are actually watching all the celebrity chef shows that we have on TV and making more of an effort to cook meals from scratch. You don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen and you can save time and money by cooking several things together to re-heat or eat cold later in the week. Read some of my other blog posts for suggestions.
In the supermarkets, the shelves are as full as ever of every kind of fresh chilled complete meals and short cuts like cook-in sauces. What has been a shock for some people, and perhaps is having an effect is that people are trying not to waste so much food and only buy what they know they will eat.
For myself, I still really look forward to my fortnightly organic veg box, although I might be a bit more careful to choose things that I know I will eat before they go off, or find ways to cook and save them.
The taste is just so much better and it is probably fresher than supermarket produce too, as some of it comes from a farm only a few miles away near Winchester.
I almost stopped eating out when I split with my husband in 2006, although occasionally I get a mystery shop assignment which gives me a free meal, albeit not always in the sort of places I would have chosen before. I would rather save money by cutting down on evenings out and drinking and not buying treats like clothes, magazines, books and CD’s than reduce the quality of what I eat.
I’m quite proud of the fact that I’ve bought 3 pairs of jeans recently on ebay for less than the price of one pair in my favourite chain store and that included the postage costs. And I’m not too snotty to wear charity shop clothes either.
I’m going to cheaper shops like Wilkinsons and Aldi for household items like laundry detergent, toilet rolls and personal toiletries even though it is less convenient. The fact that I walked across town to Superdrug rather than paid Waitrose prices for shower gel, shampoo and toothpaste is good for my health as well as my pocket and they still stock my favourite brands.
By virtue of the fact that one of my local post offices is now located there (in Emsworth, Hampshire), I’ve been doing rather more shopping in the Co-op in the last year and I do appreciate their dedication to fair trade and the quality of fresh food is excellent.
In a later BBC radio bulletin this evening, I heard that a local health authority in the North of England was ‘bribing’ smokers to give up by offering them vouchers for free food. Well done them - teach them how to cook it properly too and it will be an even better and more successful idea.
If you are in the UK., you can catch this program on Iplayer for the next couple of weeks
