|
Eight Supermarket myths
continued..
5 “Supermarket food is better
quality”
Supermarkets bring you only
mass-produced food, much of it
having travelled hundreds of miles
to reach you. It therefore cannot be
as fresh as that supplied locally.
You won’t find any members of staff
in a supermarket who know anything
about the products they sell beyond
what’s on the label. You probably
won’t even know from which country
in the case of meat or poultry.
Don’t be fooled by the red tractor
mark on supermarket meat, that only
denotes that what is in the packet
has been packed in the UK. It may
have been reared in Poland, Ukraine
or Portugal. You’ll never know.
Even where excellent small scale
food producers or farmers have
signed up to supply supermarkets’
premium ranges, they are forced to
scale up production so much they
cannot control the quality. Pipers
Crisps of North Lincolnshire was one
that resisted, and built a thriving
business from selling only to
independent shops, pubs and a
railway franchise.
6 “Supermarket food is fresh”
Myth.
Supermarket food is never local, and
has to go through a giant and
distant warehouse distribution
system before it reaches you, so
they can only claim it’s fresh (or
fresh-looking) by putting the food
through truly extraordinary
processes. Have you ever wondered
why a supermarket bagged salad wilts
within hours of opening it? The
reason is that its been packed in
what they call a modified atmosphere
in which the oxygen content is cut
to 3% from its normal 21% and CO2
levels raised. This inhibits the
leaves natural tendencies to
deteriorate, giving it a shelf-life
of up to 10 days.
However, as soon as you open the bag
it catches up. This is why after
another day all you have are some
slimy leaves. As for nutrition,
there wasn’t any to start with
because the leaves were washed in a
solution of chlorine 20 times
stronger than you would find in a
swimming pool. No bugs, for sure,
but no vitamins either, no
antioxidants, and no useful
minerals.
7 “Supermarkets play fair with
planners”
We don’t think anyone outside East
Lindsey believes this, and that is
only because they have never tangled
with Tesco. John Sweeney of North
Norfolk District Council has: “They
are too big and powerful for us. If
we try and deny them, they will
appeal, and we cannot afford to
fight a planning appeal and lose. If
they got costs it could bankrupt
us.” Sweeney’s council, despite
expectations to the contrary,
actually did win at a planning
appeal against Tesco in Sheringham.
Supermarkets
exploit planning loopholes and their
sheer financial power to get exactly
what they want.
Many stores are built with space for
a mezzanine shopping floor, which
may vastly increase the square
footage, even though this wasn’t
mentioned in the planning
application. They often fail to
deliver the ‘planning gain’ that
councils extract from them.
8 “Supermarkets believe in fair
competition”
Not a bit of it. Supermarkets
squeeze their suppliers, over which
they maintain almost complete
control. They stipulate what should
be grown or produced, how much, and
at what price. They can also reject
entire shipments of produce when
even a few items have a minor flaw
in appearance, all at the suppliers’
cost.
They have also
sometimes adopted predatory pricing
to punish rivals. The Proudfoot
chain in Withernsea, North Yorkshire
was a long-established local
business in 2004, but Tesco
approached owner Ian Proudfoot and
made him an offer to buy his store.
He wasn’t supposed to refuse. A
senior Tesco executive said “take it
or leave it. If you leave it, we’ll
knock you out of business,”
Proudfoot said. When he refused,
they opened a store nearby and sent
money-off vouchers to local
households giving them 40% savings
at Tesco. Mr Proudfoot got nowhere
complaining to the Office of Fair
Trading (OFT), and his store is now
closed.
|
