Lent Supermarket Dilemma
Chained to Convenience
In an attempt to break free from the shackles of swift and easy shopping, our Editor Hannah Gibbons went cold turkey on buying from the supermarket.
48 days ago, I, Hannah Gibbons, had a moment of what I thought was sheer genius. For lent this year I forbade myself one of life’s most guilty pleasures: the Supermarket. That shining beacon of convenience where you can buy your socks, sweets and sofa all under one roof, is the ultimate in lazy shopping. You can even go through the self-checkout if you’re feeling particularly unsociable. So why give them up? There are many issues surrounding supermarkets pros and cons, but the central issue was that I was throwing all my money into one pot. If I needed meat, wine or flowers then I could get them all at the supermarket. But what about the butcher, the off license and the florist? So, for just 48 days, my purse didn’t set foot inside a supermarket.
Finding Time For me, the supermarket is ideal because it fits perfectly into my schedule. It’s open pretty much whatever time I get home from work, and so requires no element of planning. The butchers, the bakers and the farm shop aren’t open 24 hours a day like Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s. Very few customers have the need for swede at 3am on a Wednesday, and as a result most of the stores I needed to go to weren’t open when I was available. Luckily, I work in a small town where the relevant local shops are on the high street or just a short drive
away, so I was able to do most of my shopping during lunchtimes. Adjusting to suit the opening times of smaller independents was hard, and it wasn’t something that I could fully adjust to. The convenience of shopping at the supermarket is such a benefit, and unfortunately this is something that independents cannot really compete with.
The Spice of Life One thing that the supermarkets have begun to tap into is variety. Regardless of the time of year, you’re almost certain to find most fruit and vegetables on sale, whereas in an independent grocer the produce is much more seasonal. Now, some might see this as a negative aspect, but I think it’s a testament to the freshness of produce bought at your local store. One aspect of supermarket shopping that has been criticised recently is ‘food miles’ of the produce on sale. Food miles refer to the distance that produce travels from its place of production to the customer, and this is something that many people are concerned about from an ecologically friendly perspective. As well as this, it’s also true that the fresher the produce, the better the taste, so this is a real benefit!
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