Supermarkets

I did a thing on here some time ago about feeding a family for £53 a week when all that stuff was knocking about. The opinion at the time was that £53 a week (to live on) was an insult to people in our modern society. And that was £53 a week for an individual. Here, with recipes and everything!

That was after housing, heating council tax etc. It was £53 a week for food. I can feed three people healthily and well for that. Which means that two of the three have £53 a week to spend on other stuff. That's generous. It is not remotely breadline.

It is not poverty. Get over it.

But here's my question for now: where do you shop, for groceries? Sainsburys? Asda? Tesco? Morrisons? If you do you're mad. And you deserve to struggle.

I shop for groceries at Aldi and Lidl. I actually prefer Lidl as a shop - where I am (Market Harborough) they have better bread, tomatoes, cheese, but it's marginal. Aldi has a better overall offer but again it's marginal. They both have nice staff, they ask how you are meet your eyes and say 'see you soon' when the transaction is complete. And unlike the Macdonalds 'have a nice day' crap they seem to mean it. I know it's training but it feels real. They are never idle. If they're busy they open another till. If not they close a till and the operator begins stacking shelves. Quickly. It's as if it's their money at stake.

It's as if they are there to help you get your shopping done quickly. What a concept! They don't chat to colleagues when they're serving you, they have much longer conveyor belt tills so that more people can get their stuff onto them and they don't suggest you bag everything up at the till, but that you put it all straight - and quickly - into the trolly and then bag it somewhere else so that they can get on with serving the next customer. It's like the machinery in a Mercedes engine. It works.

But that would not be enough if what one was buying (quickly and efficiently) was cheap crap. It's not. The quality of produce - salad stuff, fresh veg, meat etc is at least as good as that sold by Sainsbury's, Tesco, ASDA and Morrisons. I actually and genuinely think it's better. And the key thing is, that it's at least 30% cheaper. The only place you'll get measurably better fresh stuff is Waitrose - and that is 50% more expensive.

So why anyone would shop in Sainsbury's, Tesco, ASDA or Morrisons is beyond me. If I was a millionaire, I'd shop in Lidl and Aldi and I'd maybe buy my meat and stuff they don't stock like fresh ginger and big bags of coriander, in Waitrose. Veggie stuff, some whole-foods, capers butter beans, but not much else. I'd never go near Sainsbury's, and would not buy anything, ever from Tesco where nothing is cheap unless you buy two of them. Tesco is not cheap at all, it is only competitive if you buy two-for-one - an arrangement in which they are essentially deciding what you buy, and having their 'stock' residing at your house rather than theirs. You buy 'two' when you only wanted 'one' because it was on offer. You're mad if you do that.

The Sainsbury's chief exec blamed the weather and the lateness of Easter recently for a fall in profits. That's bullshit, possibly 'essential' bullshit, but bullshit nonetheless. The Morrisons guy said there'll be a new pricing war when his lamentably underperforming outfit made a loss. The fact is that Aldi and Lidl have got it right - good food, motivated well-paid, well trained 'nice' staff and massively cheaper.

I was in ASDA in Kettering today, buying toilet rolls and kitchen rolls and dog food (they're OK for that 'once-a-month' stuff) and found myself saying (aloud) to the lethargic, chatting-to-collegues check out girl:' can we please get on? I'm in a hurry." 'Oh sorry' she said. 'You will be' I thought.

Give them a try, Aldi & Lidl. And tell me they were poorer quality and more expensive than where you currently shop.

I'm confident that you won't. And I have absolutely no financial connection to either company, just if you were wondering. 

Thanks for reading