firstly there is the traditional, specialist way - butchers for the meat, greengrocer for the veg, baker for bread etc. Personally I love this approach, especially going down to the bullring market in birmingham and being able to speak to the people, talk about what is good and where it has come from, and also get a bargain too.
The same is partly true when I'm at home in shropshire, as I am now, and there is a great farm shop, several infact, in my local area where I can get great produce from. (plug for the farm shop: http://www.citadelfarms.co.uk)
However, for decades now, the supermarkets have been the behemoths of food in the UK as well as in most developed nations. Despite the seemingly relentless march of the supermarkets into every retail area, much of the fresh food is kept along this specialist principle. The 'big boxes' still have fishmongers, bakeries, butchers and greengrocers in store, particularly morrisons with their 'market street' concept.
This idea intregues me, as although the smaller 'metro' and 'central' branches deal in only pre-packed produce, the bigger stores still have deli counters, butcheries and the rest.
Surely it would be cheaper to take the same produce, prepare it at a warehouse/RDC, vacuum pack it and THEN ship it to store? The space in store could be better used, less employees would be needed, and shipping costs would reduce, and shelf life would increase.
So why haven't they done this? This is somewhat of an unanswerable, as it is difficult to ever know the motivation for the supermarkets, but I can think of two reasons.
1) They can charge more for products, and are more likely to sell them if people can choose the quantity.
There is certainly an aspect of this, though I don't feel that the increased price does anything much more than cover the extra costs.
2) People want it.
This is the point that brings me great joy to think of. People actively want this service available. rather than having everything from a packet at the lowest edible quality.
And while the supermarkets have taken the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' philosophy onto new levels with much of what they sell, it is nice to see that the core business, fresh food, is still produced with quality in mind, as well as convenience.
My second thought is that in this recession, the takeaway is increasingly an expensive luxury, but something that many find difficult or costly to replicate.
The key to it, in my mind, is to shop smart. Supermarkets are, by and large, very pricey, and have a poor selection of 'ethnic' or 'world' foods. By going to a chinese or indian supermarket, you can get two very important things - good, authentic ingredients, and good prices. Look up your recipes (bbc's indian and chinese food made easy series are great for ideas) and what sort of things you will need, then go have a look. you can pick stuff up for far less than you can in tesco and the like, and often in larger quantities. My picks of the bunch from ethnic supermarkets:
- Big bags of spices. Particularly Turmeric, Garam Masala, tandoori masala, and chinese 5 spice.
- Rice or noodles. If you eat alot of these, though I do mean ALOT, you can buy these in serious bulk, and save a small fortune in the long run
- OK sauce. a delicious fruity sauce made by colemans' that only seems to be available in chinese supermarkets these days. Makes a great stir-fry sauce let down with a bit of soy and rice wine.
- kitchenware. You can pick up woks, steamers, ladles, and much more in these places for great prices, and it is well worth a look.
I may update this when I get the chance, but i'm not sure I will tbh!
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