Food
Posted by Martin Orr on Wednesday, 08 November 2006 at 16:11
I resolved to try not to buy anything in a supermarket this term (mainly Sainsbury's, which is next door to Trinity). This is because I am concerned by the monopolistic impact of supermarkets - reducing the number of customers of smaller independent shops, and damaging producers by using their buying power to push prices down. So I decided to see how easy it was to do without. For the first week or two this was hard as I didn't know where any alternatives were. I can buy bread and fruit in the market, and I am sure I have seen a cheese stall there, but never when I have wanted to buy cheese. Eventually I found two shops where I can buy things like milk - one Spar and one independent grocery shop.
I have been entirely successful in not going to a supermarket, except when buying drinks for TCMS. Will I continue with this next term? To a large extent, having developed the habit, it is quite easy to continue although it does mean walking a bit further. But I'm not really sure how much benefit there is - for example, in Sainsbury's I could buy organic milk which I am now not able to do.
-- Martin