Supermarkets Bad! Why....
Fat dog has spent a lot of time tied up outside our local supermarket. I have seen many humans leave with so may items I'm sure they require. Please be aware that Lord Sainsbury paid for the last extension to the Tate Gallery; The Clore Gallery to house the Nations collection of Turner painting and drawings and the National Gallery extension in Trafalgar Square. He did this with your money and it cost 100's of millions of pounds.
Be aware that supermarkets are in the business of selling you not what you want, but what they want to sell you. This is the trick. To make you believe you are buying stuff you want (and need) when actually you are buying what they want you to buy and what they make the most profit on. Here are some points to look out for;
1) Portions - We throw away 30% of the food we buy. Supermarkets make portions too big. Buy x2 get one free is not necessary. Do not go for the buy one free offers, much of this is thrown away.
2) Placement - Supermarkets place what they want to sell you at eye level. Premium overpriced items go on the top shelf. Look on the bottom shelf for for the items they know we are going to buy and they make less profit on. In the old days mars bars were such a good seller they could put them anywhere, they sill sold, so why waste the prime space on them. often 'organic' items will be at eye level and within easy reach whilst the normal items are hard to get.
3) Offers - Offers are 'normally' fatty foods and sweets. Supermarkets do not have your health at heart. They want you BIGGER AND FATTER. Fatter people eat a lot more food. You will not see diet food on offer, normally they charge more for this. Do not buy x2 for 1 'offers' unless you were going to buy the product or you are a SUCKER!
4) 'Own Brand'. More and more shelf space is dedicated to 'own brand' products. The supermarkets make a bigger profit on these items. in the future I can see a time when most products are their own and they will start to hide this fact.
5) Packaging - OMG WOOF. 'Premium' range items will have 'premium' packaging to re-in force your pre-conceptions that they are worth the money. How on earth can you make people pay MUCH more for carrots? Well wash them really well and put them in a bag. Then you can charge x2 the price of loose carrots. I can see a time when all fruit and veg are sold 'in the bag'. Loose stuff is seen as 'dirty'. Not so. Don't believe this it's just another trick.
6) Size - 'Standard' vegetables and fruit - x3 big onions cost the same as a whole bag of 'budget' onions of varying size. Sod this. The basic fact is that not all onions grow to the same size. Try it, grow your own! You pay a lot more for regular sized items but please don't think this is normal.
7) Layout - Believe it or not, all supermarkets follow a similar overall layout. Fresh produce; fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy are all stocked around the outer limits of the store whereas pre-packed, processed and frozen foods are placed in the centre of the store.They do this on purpose. It means that to get to the stuff you need for your diet, you have to look at all the stuff you don’t. Then as you work your way through the aisles, you buy stuff you don’t need. You therefore spend more and they make more. Cunning isn’t it? They also keep staples such as bread and milk towards the back of the store in an attempt to get you to walk past almost everything else to find them. Plus, if you’re looking for tea bags, it’s no coincidence that biscuits are just next to them. Supermarkets pair up like for like products knowing that you’re more likely to end up buying both. You can beat them at their own game. Help your health and your wallet – stick to the perimeter. If you have to go into the middle, use the aisle signs to go straight to the product you need. Then you won’t be looking at unnecessary items.
8) Weight comparison - Supermarkets have to give the price per weight or volume of each item. It’s written underneath the price in much smaller writing. This is great for shoppers as it means we can look at how much the item really costs per 100g or kg. This way we can easily see how much we are really paying for an item and it helps us compare. However, to trip you up, supermarkets tend to show the price per unit in different amounts for similar products. For example they might mark own brand orange juice as 52p per litre and then they’ll mark Delmonte orange juice as 8p per 100ml. This is meant to confuse you and stop you being able to compare prices. It’s easy to beat them if you know your metric measurements though. A litre is 1000ml so that means that a litre of Delmonte costs 10 times 8p – 80p. This is actually more than the own brand, but it seems like it’s less when you just look at it because of the smaller unit measurement.Don’t let them fool you. Get measurement savvy and get the most for your money.
9) Local produce - Supermarkets hate local produce. They want national distribution only. Their suppliers have to supply to all the UK. Small local suppliers are useless to them as they want the same 'things' in all their shops, such that when you move about the country you can get the same items you normally buy at home. This is rubbish - CHAMPION LOCAL PRODUCE. Look at where your items come from, many suppliers are foreign in the supermarkets. STOP THIS!
10) Out of season - This is a basic wrong. You can now eat strawberries on Christmas day. Local producers can't do this. Apples are not 'fresh' all year round. This is NOT NORMAL' Most of this comes from abroad and is flown in. This is wrong. Stop buying out of season foods and the supermarkets will stop flying produce round the world. That is why food is so expensive.
How to beat the supermarket;
1) Try eating one or two vegetarian meals a week and you’ll be able to cut back on the meat you buy and save a small fortune.
2) Try not to visit the supermarket when all you need is 2 pints of milk – you’ll just end up buying things you don’t need, as well as wasting time and petrol.
3) Write a list - Go and ONLY get what you want on your pre-written list.
4) Don't shop at supermarkets! - There are plenty of other places to shop. Support your local butcher, baker and grocer. Even the 'corner' shop or 'village' shop is better. if you send the time you will realize that Supermarkets are not always cheaper or always convenient.
5) Grow your own food. It's easy and convenient to grow top quality fresh vegetables and fruit, so easy in fact that people have been doing this strange custom for tens of thousands of years.
6) Fresh squirrels are despite my complaints still not available at my local supermarket. However they roam free in the local woods and parks. [*special Fat Dog tip*]
