Supermarket vs Greengrocer

See if anyone can explain the logic in this one then.

Having now pretty much well and truly settled back into our home town after being away for more than 10 years, we're now getting to grips with which shops are best.

We have at our disposal, all within very easy reach, all the major supermarkets, plus a range of small independents.

We get most of our fruit and veg from the greengrocer's shop that has been in the same spot for as long as I can remember, certainly since I was tiny. We used to get it all from the supermarket.

Now this is the bit I don't get. The supermarket stuff is usually a bit horrible, and goes off within seconds of getting it home. The stuff the independent sells is generally nice, keeps quite well, and is usually cheaper. The independent is still profiting well I assume, seeing as its been there way more than 30 years that I know of, under the same ownership and employing staff. I also know that they simply buy their stuff in from a wholesaler, just like the supers do.

So how come the supermarket stuff is so inferior? They've got far more buying power, they can afford all the latest refrigerated lorries to carry the stuff etc etc. The indy is just a little shop, thriving, selling cheap by comparison, yet better quality.

 

I cant think of any greengrocers left around here, but I do occasionally drive to a farm shop.
I've not noticed their produce lasting longer, in fact things like apples go soft very fast, local grown and from storage at this time of the year.

Supermarket apples are imported from all around the globe, so are actually,"in season", so are more inclined to keep for a few days.
So I cant really agree with you on this clueless, although I must admit anything "in season", ie greens and root crops are a good bargain at the farm shop.

 

The grocers have probably paid for the shop by now. There is a local hardware shop here that own the shop with no mortgage, they've seen off several competetors that have to meet the rent before they make a profit.

 

I must say my local supermarket, lots of reasons to shop there, has very good fruit and vedge also good offers. Another supermarket, german origins, although cheaper is poorer value as their fruit goes off quickly especially bananas. And that is unforgivable.

 

Could it have anything to do with time from harvest to point of sale.
Farmers harvest - wholesale-grocers.
Compared to Farmers harvest-storage - warehouse - supermarket

 

I'm for the Farm Shop over Supermarket every time.

Another product ours has is Free Range Eggs - Extra Large £3.75 for a tray (2.5doz.) Big orange yolks - often double yolks.
Local Supermarket £1.25 for 0.5 Doz medium Free range. Orangy yellow yolks that often split.

Why buy these eggs in the Supermarket?

 

I can help a little on this one

Hi,
I now live in france having moved from north-wales and before we lived in the old house we bought here that was'nt lived for 25 years, I'd get over here as much as i could to do work on the house and so i used the ferry service's approx 3 times a year from Dover to france,

Now i'd get to see some of the same drivers (HGV) many times and we'd chat about where they'd been and who they we're pulling for (collecting or delivering)

Two drivers i became friends of pulled for a company who only collected fruit & tom's/ salads for tesco, these drivers drove large chilled trailers and they told me the growers could only sell to tesco and they we're paid a lower rate than some of the growers but because the tesco group we're so large the growers had little wasted or non sold produce and food that rots cant be hanging around so if its sold it's better for the grower "even at a lower rate,
But the thing they told me ref when these fruits /Toms/ Salad's we're collected from spain they we're not mature and kept in chilled conditions as long as possible and then forced into becoming a coloured ripe but the taste didnt have the natural sugar for the food to have the taste it should have,
also the lettuce was in the cooling units in the stores and these are fitted with a chemicle that keeps the lettuce looking fresh and crisp but once out of these units and in the normal fridge they wilt a lot quicker than if grown in your own garden,

The apples are sprayed to stop them decaying at their normal speed of decay,
and one driver told me to check on the Banannahs, how quickly they rot once they're in the fruit bowl and ive found this tobe true.

The large supermarkets have for years not used the smaller grower or indeed dairy farmers because they wont pay the prices, it was proved a few years ago when the farmers decided it was cheaper to tip the fresh milk down the grid and they did do this and a lot packed up the dairy side of farming.
But if you want food thats out of season to eat but unfrozen? then what can you expect!


Here in france as ive said once before we have two thoughts on the shopping, the older mothers/wives still use very much the butcher/ bread & the veg shops in the villages and for cakes this is a shop that only makes cakes and pastries, its the norn to see these older folk feeling the fruit and veg before they buy, the butcher as a norm removes the chickens heads and feet and stuffs the birds with herbs of the customers choice while they wait,
They still do cuts that are classed as out of fashion in the supermarket butchers,
You can have 3 bread shops in a village but its possible that one will have a long line of customers outside the doors waiting tobe served, "Why"

because the older generation make their dinner's and they know who are the best for what ever they're going to serv for that dinner, hence the old way of buying their food,

The younger shopers, tend to go to the supermarket and just packet buy
ie if the picture on the box looks good? then its bought "the taste comes last, if they didnt like it they'd not buy it again but to the older ladies this just is'nt excepted,

The home freezer's are used as a stop off point by many of todays house wives ie from the frozen unit in the supermarkets to their home freezers,

If the freezer was used to freeze home made food it would be of value as a freezer, but because of todays life style, cooking & serving the evening meal and time to buy and cook the evening meal seem in a lot of families to clash,

Im not blaming anyone but if you want a fast meal dont expect a prepered meal because the time facter comes into cooking.


It's one of the reason's we have the beastly bodied younger generation walking about, they except junk food and as much as they can eat instead of having a meal thats cooked and served with the correctly grown veg/fruit
that taste like real food should.

So in a nut shell to your question, time, knowing what you want from the greengrocer, and knowing how to cook all comes into the reason a lot of these shops are closing down as quick as the older generation are passing away.

 

moonraker you make a very good point
At the moment we have our granddaughter living with us she is 17 and is a pain with food,she will eat broccoli but only frozen not fresh,only chicken but not proper chicken processed so that it does not look like meat,the list goes on.It is very hard because Mrs LD and me prefer fresh proper food and rarely have take aways so end up cooking 2 different meals to save waste.
To her a nice home cooked meal is pasta with a yucky sauce poured over it,sadly when her mom was alive (our daughter)she could not get her to eat properly either,we believe all this started reading teenage magazines,because until she was 9-10 everything was normal.:(

 

The trouble is shops likes this Local Tastes going out of business. Mrs Scrungee was really impressed with exactly where they told a potential customer they should go when they asked if they had any bananas (can't repeat here).

 

We used to have an excellent OFFAL shop, run by a lady who was now in her 70's, not big business but a living wage
She passed the business on to her Grandson, who sold out after week two bought a new house and fast car and killed himself in it
The shop is now a SUN TAN Yourself place in the high street

We now have no OFFAL shop

Jack McH

 

We have an OFFAL shop Jack.

It actually a Chinese Takeaway around the corner - but I go the extra mile, to one that actually produces edible food.
What gets me is that its been there for years - yet no-one locally will use it!

 

I'm not sure that's it to be honest. I was taught to cook from an early age. Not to master chef levels, but to good quality wholesome family meal standard.

What I've noticed is that since we've been getting our fruit and veg from the independent shop, preparing it in the same way as always, I've been enjoying it much more.

In fact the thing that prompted me to start this thread last night was when I made myself some supper based on something I once had in a restaurant in Spain. Basically you take a pepper (out of season right now, so must be imported or grown under artificial conditions, same as supermarket), and slice it so that you get a thick ring of pepper. Whack it in the frying pan, and break an egg into the middle of it, so that you get a nice fried egg contained within the pepper ring.

I've had this light meal many times over the years, and its always been ok. But the peppers have always been a bit bitter, and never even come close to the lush sweet tangy flavour you get when you eat them in the med (where they are often locally grown). Last night though, although not quite med quality, at least it tasted like a sweet red pepper, and wasn't bitter at all.

What makes our local greengrocer extra brilliant is that they've obviously done some sort of deal with the local fishmonger (also been there as long as I can remember). That means that in one shop, you can nip in and buy some nice fillets, some beans and carrots, and then you have all the main ingredients of a delicious light saturday lunch, all from one shop. Brilliant.

 

I'm always skint, so shop where it's the cheapest ... and shop daily, as we have a fairly large Tesco in our village

and saying that, i always shop 'smart' .... i.e. I first look at the reduced section at Tesco (especially for fruit and veg) .... you can get the tesco finest at 1/3 of the normal price and it is at it's best (ripe and ready to eat, especially things like avos, vine ripened tomatoes, pineapples, mangoes, paw paw etc)

we have a market in our city centre, and prices are high if you compare .... I do shop there, but for speciality items only, such as wild forest mushrooms etc (when they are in season), and cheeses, salami etc

I find the fruit and veg from M&S very good, especially the tomatoes and the prices are reasonable