A piece by well-known British food critic Jay Rayner caught my eye in the Observer newspaper yesterday. There’s been a raging debate about supermarkets in the UK for the last few years, with many people accusing them of ripping off food-producers, wiping out independent shops and selling too much junk food. But Jay says they are ‘bloody convenient’ and that working families like his can’t do without them. Have supermarkets improved your life?
18 Responses to “Do supermarkets make our lives better?”
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I love supermarkets. I love going to them in different countries to see the different foods different people eat. I really liked the ones in the UK, like Tesco and Safeway, and all the curry related food products they would have, which is still semi rare in the US. It’s funny how small supermarkets tend to be in Germany, at least in the major cities, such as Plus, Aldi, Kaisers, Rewe. I finally went to my first one in France last week, and thought it was really cool. And since I live in the US, I think the food selections in the US are rather bland. I have a Senseo coffee maker, and your typical grocery store here carries maybe 2-3 kinds of pods for it, whereas in France and Germany, even the smallest store had at least 10 varieties. So in short, I came back with a suitcase full of groceries this weekend. I don’t eat out much, so I go to grocery stores very often and find them very important and they’ve changed my life a lot, though I’m not too aware of the issues discussed in this HYS here, though there really are no smaller markets here. They’ve probably been gone for so long that only the large chains are left. With Globalization, one of the larger supermarkets where I live in DC, Giant Food, was purchased several years ago about a Netherlands company and they started introducing some european and canadian foods.
Supermarkets are viewed to be for richer here in Africa because the goods there are of the quality and very expensive in addition to that Africans do like bargain prizes while in supermarkets prizes are just written
If supermarkets are recommended here in Africa I strongly believe Africa will be cleaner like Europe. I love supermarkets!
Hello All,
It comes to this: Someone must prepare lunch. Before this, someone had to purchase appropriate luncheon items. Your neighborhood supermarket displays these and other food, and nonfood, items for sale. This is a remakably convenient arrangement. Would you wish to deal with each food producer independently? I think not. The transactions follow normal business order. If who wish the market to not stock junk foods, don’t purchase them.
later,
g
“selling too much junk food”
- Its supply and demand. While corporations should exercise social responsibility in what it sells to the public, the fact is, if the public is willing to buy it, it only makes economic sense to sell it. It is the publics fault for eating junk food. We are all humans, we have self control and self restraint. If someone cannot replace that huge two litre bottle of soda and bag of chips for some water and fresh fruit, then it is no ones fault but their own. Its the same situation of the fat people suiing McDonalds because ‘it made them fat’. WHOA! STOP THE PRESSES!!!
We do have to take into account the strain on the healthcare system that obesity has, but again, this strain is the fault of the people with poor diets. The supermarkets are not shoving bad food down the throats of their consumers, the consumers are willingly stuffing it down.
The myth that junk food is cheaper than fresh healthy food (at least in the US) has been disproved again and again.
I love shopping at both grocery stores and local shops. A fine balance of them is nice. The point that ingredients in many recipies would be otherwise unattainable if it were not for supermarkets due to the economies of scale they produce was a very interesting and valid argument.
Brett ~ Richmond, Va.
I love supermarkets too- but you know what? personal service for a touch more money- someone who goes the extra mile- or even someone who delivers becuase you are are a good customer is the best service from the village shop. I miss that- and where I live I choose to go to the Arab stores instead of the supermarkets. It is more real.
In the San Francisco area, we may often have a choice between supermarkets and small greengrocers, and even many farmers markets.
Supermarkets are very attractive by comparison with a poorly run, poorly lit, or dirty and unsanitary souk of small markets. I have seen dirty and ill-maintained supermarkets in the U.S.A., and clean, bright souks in the developing world; both are possible. A well run, well lit, clean and sanitary souk would be orders of magnitude more attractive to me.
I avoid supermarkets whenever I can; I always find them somewhat depressing.
Just having the knowledge that supermarkets are always designed to have the most-often-bought items located in the far back corners – to force you to go past the maximum number of advertisements and temptations – is off-putting.
The underlying problem is that supermarkets, by their nature, are intrinsically part of a centralizing and monopolizing system. Supermarkets are not like simple tools, which can be picked up and used without affecting other parts of life. They affect many social and economic relationships, and the individual’s and the community’s relationship with the natural world.
By their very nature, supermarkets replace traditional networks of small farmers and small local shops and businesses that provide fresher and higher quality foodstuffs in a more varied and sustainable manner. By their nature, supermarkets will always support corporate farms over smallholders, and standardized industrial food production rather than localized “artisanal” food variety. The economics of supermarkets force ever greater use of chemicals and additives to “improve shelf life”; packaging use is maximized; and misleading labeling is endemic, both in the items sold, and in the stores themselves.
Food markets, and shopping for food, are significant parts of any culture. Supermarkets are an expression of a particular and highly de-personalized (and d-personalizing) culture, driven by money transactions, which ignores most other aspects of life.
One of the big negative effects of supermarkets is the promotion of the “illusion of choice”. Having 68 varieties of yoghurt available seems nice, until you read the labels, and discover that every single one of them is thickened with gelatine or starch or agar, and not one is actually natural youghurt. Having 110 varieties of sweetened “juice drinks” available seems like “choice” until you realize that all of them are mostly flavored water with a small percentage of fruit juice added; and when you find out that their regular consumption by children puts them at great risk of obesity, diabetes, asthma, and a host of other disorders. Obesity is caused by individuals eating too much, that is true; but there is also a multi-billion dollar industry promoting eating all that stuff, and promoting it to young children.
Supermarkets have got pluses and minuses. Convenience is good. Cleanliness is good. Standardization is sometimes good; though not always. Destruction of social traditions, human relationships, and the environment – not so good.
Peace,
Rashid Patch
Oakland, California U.S.A.
Convenience doesn’t necessarily make my life better, just easier – at 10pm if I want a snack I can just pop down the road to purchase that chocolate bar or bag of salty snacks at that much reduced price.
Is society to blame for the death of corner stores,butchers,green grocers and bakers? Of course. We all wish to save money by purchasing goods at a much cheaper price than the corner shops, and the convenience of being able to buy bread, meat and vegetables all in the same spot is just too damned good.
Western society also wants the convenience [in some cities] of 24 hour trading. How do the local shopkeeper compete with that?
Perhaps we should also hold the supermarket responsible for the global obesity epidemic and global warming , after all the corner shop is dead and we need to drive our cars to the supermarket instead of walking.
Tom, Sydney Australia
Supermarkets are fragile in crisis.
A local farmer produces vegetables, eggs, milk, meat and sells it locally himself or through one middleman.
A supermarket has thousands of people involved with production, processing, packaging, transport, distribution, and finally sale of one egg or one can of beans.
Any crisis that shuts down this complex system turns it off completely:
pandemic, financial collapse, nuclear war, energy failure, or environmental disaster.
Cut off the system that supplies supermarkets “on demand” supply and transport and you have mass riots and death within days during a major crisis.
Wisdom is preparing for such an event.
The nations that have local production and sale of food survive easily.
The Supermarket nations are far more difficult to survive during a crisis that shuts down the nation.
I think Supermarkets make it a bit easier to shop especially in such crowded cities like Kampala where one is most likely to come across pick- pockets who can frastuate you. Its better to go under one roof and get all that you need. It becomes cheaper because you avoid(reduce) on the risks of theft and then you get well packed goodies. Generally the sho[pping is made easier and also safer.
everything under one roof? super convenient.come to africa and see if u can move from place to place in search of quality and good price comparism and you would not last under the scorching sun.i have been to the u.k and i believe supermarkets are trying to make life more easy. to be honest, you win some you lose some and if you are to weigh the scale and the idea favours the consumer more,why frown at it. u save fuel,time,energy and the idea alone makes men go out with their women shopping.try going shop to shop looking for bits and bops and men would rather be couch potatoes.think about it ladies.
delali.
In Oregon we have a chain of supermarkets called Fred Meyer, and I’m what you would call a “Fred head”. It’s where I buy most of my food and have all my prescriptions filled but they also carry clothing and electronics and garden supplies and on and on. I go there almost every day for something, I know where virtually everything is or where to look for it.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’d be lost without Fred’s.
Supermarkets are cavernous places full of everything but what you came for, where gnomes come out every night and rearrange the merchandise; unfriendly necessities for times when farmer’s markets and roadside vegetable stands are out of season (meat is another matter, I don’t eat it).
When I lived in New York, nearly each corner in much of the city, or at least Brooklyn, had little food stores, universally called “bodegas,” often run by immigrants as their first venture into capitalism.
Your neighbourhood bodega usually had fresh, often exotic produce, all of the necessities, and a friendly person behind the counter who knew you. He didn’t care if you were a quarter short, you’d be back and he’d get it then.
Bodega prices were higher than supermarkets, but they were within walking distance (saves petrol and aggravation), and they served as makeshift neighbourhood gathering places, which is priceless.
Supermarkets serve their purpose, but they are yet another depersonalising brick in the wall we too often build between ourselves and others.
supermarkets cater and give satisfaction only for the rich .in our small town in northern part of kerala in the place called kannur there are in a span of 5 years 5 supermarkets in a square kilometer area .
and the ordinary market place in kannur are in the course of time all are shutting up unable to compete with this supergiants as they are selling commodities at a lesser price .
and even in the food selling area they have encroached .here in our district street food sold in handcarts are very famous particularly seafoods .still its a huge rage among all classes of people particularly the poor as they can afford a days meal at affordable cost .mussels and shell fish mixed with ricepowdersteamed cake ,beefcurry mixed with this steam cake,mussels stuffed with coriander and jeera and fried called arikaddukka ,all are lipsmacking stuffs .but with the advent of supermarkets and ready to eat stuffs like shawarma and other burger types the authorities are trying to close this streetvending food stuffs citing cleaniness etc.
not only the local markets and street selling foods give employment to the poor but the women at households have an oppurtunity to make foods from home so that their near ones can sell it in the town area at night .also poor can afford a days dinner at affordable price.all this will be a thing of the past as big super marketeers with the help of authorities by bribing them are hell bend on closing this popular street joints to boost up their sales.
devadas.v
jyothinivas
talap
kannur
india
Hi Arnaud ntirenganya Emmanuel,
You are clean when you have the basic neccesities to keep yourself clean. By the way supermarket cannot be recommended here in Africa because they will all collapse since the purchasing rate will be low.
The difference between Africa and Europe is similar to that between a wealthy and a poor family in Africa. So as Europe is clean because of supermarkets, so are wealthy families in Africa because of their wealth.
The the problem is not between Africa and Europe but between the wealthy and the poorer. The wealthier you are the easier and cheaper it is for you to buy and consume and vice versa. So supermarkets are better for wealthy people only.
Supermarkets doesnt add a lot of values to the live of an average Nigerian, cos the same quality product one can buy fro a local shop sells for about 20% more in the supermarkets and at times substandard products are still found in our supermarkets.
May be it helps in South Africa or elsewhere but I dont see the positive impact of it on the nigerians.
When i first moved to Greece i really missed big supermarkets. The local 24/7 tesco that sold everything i could ever need. Now my local supermarket has 4 crampt isles, very few variaties and short opening hours.
The thing is, i would never want to go back to the huge supermarket. I have grown to love market day, selecting veg still muddy and very fresh from the farmers themselves. Going out each morning for fresh bread, chating with the butcher while he prepares my meat just the way i want. If i want asprin, the pharmasist asks my symptoms. It dose all take longer, but the quality of food and the personal touch make it fun. Of course you dont always have time, which is why niegbours seeing you go out with a shoping trolly might ask you to pick somthing up.
Now it takes me a month to acumilate the sort of packaging rubish that one shoping trip used to cause, and i know exactly what i am puting on the table.
Supermarket or local market,both have thier customers whethier in Europe or Africa.Local markets may still be dominating in Africa,they have thier problems for their customers and for the communities.
However, supermarket are well organised,make buying easy and you are sure of quality products than the local markets.You may therefore not take note of the small difference in price.