For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1662600
Bill McCarthy wrote:Johns - you’ll be telling us next that you haven’t been in a supermarket either.



I have been in Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Lidl's, Aldi's and Tesco's, I have never bought any processed food (other than cans of soup or beans or breakfast cereal) or ready meals though.....
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1662605
stevelup wrote:You have -never- bought any processed food other than cans of soup or beans or breakfast cereal?

:lol:

Nope, unless you count salt, sugar, flour, dried fruit and stuff like that :-)

We grow most of our veg and fruit , buy the rest at a greengrocer or the farmer's market and we get fish from the fishmonger and meat from the farmer's market unless we shot it :-)
#1662608
I bought an Aldi veggie chilli ready meal the other day and it keeps winking at me from the freezer. :pale:

Trouble is, it's difficult even when you try to buy decent food, especially at the supermarket - sulphites in bacon being the latest thing doing the rounds, which is a particular issue for pilots and airfield canteens. Our local butcher and greengrocer is well used but even they mainly buy from wholesalers, and presumably they in turn buy from the same importers and distributors as the supermarkets.

These large chains put a lot of effort into their food science and share more of the information than my butcher. Very very occasionally the butcher's bacon will have the white sludge but the dry cured Aldi bacon never seems to. McDonalds tell us about their supply chain, the nutritional content, how they are trying to improve it, etc. Even putting the corporate marketing spin to one side the only way I can improve on that is to buy direct from the farm down the valley.

It seems that the only way to improve the health of the nation is by legislating he producers since decades of post rationing education doesn't appear to be working.

Oh, Burger King - business rates is killing them. Same old story of modern High St retail, too many square feet and not enough customers feet, so chains are often pulling back when leases end / break and focusing on retail parks and roadside where the footfall is more scientific and less reliant on the local council.
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By stevelup
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1662616
johnm wrote:
stevelup wrote:You have -never- bought any processed food other than cans of soup or beans or breakfast cereal?

:lol:

Nope, unless you count salt, sugar, flour, dried fruit and stuff like that :-)


I'm just suggesting that never is quite a definitive statement...
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By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1662627
stevelup wrote:
johnm wrote:
stevelup wrote:You have -never- bought any processed food other than cans of soup or beans or breakfast cereal?

:lol:

Nope, unless you count salt, sugar, flour, dried fruit and stuff like that :-)


I'm just suggesting that never is quite a definitive statement...


OK, consider it changed to "very rarely" though I do actively avoid it in a similar way to actively avoiding BK, McD and KFC :-)
#1662636
Since there are no fast food outlets up here (apart from fish and chip shops), whenever I go down to Inverness I make a beeline to BK for the biggest burger I can get - just for a change you see. When doing so I know that the meat (mostly from Ireland) is from cheap dairy cattle off cuts, probably with growth hormones in it too. I never buy meat from a supermarket as my butcher displays the source of his products, and they are all locally sourced, is traceable to our farms.
I recall looking over a “farmers market” down in Melton Mowbray - strange that from the usual spuds, carrots etc, the climate in England seems to support growth of bananas, mangoes and other exotic veggies.
We only have Tesco and Lidl up here, Tesco having broken the cartel run my local petrol stations. If Tesco wasn’t here we would be paying £1. 40 per litre for fuel.
#1662649
Miscellaneous wrote:
Bill McCarthy wrote:It didn’t cost them almost 20p per litre to transport the stuff here.

No, but joking aside they couldn't make it pay on 1 or 2p per litre margin. :D


and the independent doesn't buy at the same price as Tesco's, they were probably paying more for it that Tesco's sell it at!
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#1662652
But they knew they had us by the gonads, because the nearest filling station was about 50miles away. They ignored all appeals to keep the price reasonable.
By PaulB
#1662677
McD's have been far more aggressive in their advertising and made much of how their meals are sustainable, ethically sourced, free from additives etc.

There's usually a queue of cars at their drive throughs and long queues (enough to make other food outlets weep) at motorway service stations.