Wherever I can, I shop elsewhere. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful local butcher and two farm shops in my area; I refuse to get meat from Tesco at all, I'm trying to grow my own veg (as you know) and I ought to use my equally fab local greengrocer more too, though he isn't much for getting local produce in. My former housemate crazyscot's dad used to work in the dairy industry and had firsthand experience of the big supermarkets' aggressive tactics; they really do treat producers as badly as people say. Plus they're a big business; how much do you think they're going to give a crap about anything other than profit? All the nonsense about creating jobs for the community is exactly that: they're driven by profit and shareholders.
We have a fruit and veg market twice a week and an occasional local farmers' market, but to my knowledge, there hasn't been a greengrocers' shop in Salisbury for about ten years - supermarkets put them out of business (and Crouch's Greengrocers had been in Salisbury for at least 100 years). My friend Sue's husband was a dairy farmer and he was made redundant when the price that dairys could get for milk from superarkets fell.
Tesco say they create jobs for the community, but how many people have lost their jobs because of Tesco?
Tesco's sounds like they're taking pages from WalMart's book. All that crushing local businesses and exploiting overseas workers.
I try hard not to feed the Corporate Greed Machine that is WalMart but sometimes I have no choice (I work second shift and it's the only place that's open:/)
Tescos also ensure that the very poorest in British society are drawn to shop there because they're the cheapest supermarket (I'm currently doing a price comparison chart to see which is the next cheapest). Therefore a lot of the mass loyalty to Tesco is not because people think they're an ethical company that protects the enviroment and local communities, but because people can't afford to do the weekly food shop at Waitrose or Sainsbury's (the other two supermarkets in Salisbury). I don't drive (and neither do many of the UK's poorest people), so we don't have a lot of choice. If I have a really lean week with lots of bills, I can't afford a conscience. But I don't feel good about it.
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Tesco say they create jobs for the community, but how many people have lost their jobs because of Tesco?
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Glad you are feeling better!
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I try hard not to feed the Corporate Greed Machine that is WalMart but sometimes I have no choice (I work second shift and it's the only place that's open:/)
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