Do you expect fruit and veg off a stall to be cheaper than the supermarket?

[subversplat]

I wish I had a market stall or greengrocers to compare with - there's not in this town except supermarkets.

Went into a greengrocers in Dorset last weekend - it was an absolute delight - loads of fresh produce from the local area and Jersey, and extremely cheap. Everything was at room temperature, so it didn't start going off on the way home either. I'd forgotten how great shops like that are

Get a box o' veg delivered

 

[Roadkill]

The markets round here are always cheaper than the supermarkets, and my old local greengrocer in Hull was usually about the same price as tesco and invariably better quality.

 

[Ms T]

There's a greengrocer in Herne Hill that is well pricey though. I went in there the other day to buy a small bunch of parsley and they tried to charge me £1.40. That's twice the price of all the shops/stalls in Brixton, and even at the corner shop near my house it's less than a pound.

 

[xenon]

Woops. not quite that good. Doh.

 

[ethel]

lewisham market is stupidly cheap. i've seen boxes of mangoes for £2.50!

 

[co-op]

I usually find supermarkets easier and can't be arsed trekking down to Shepherds Bush market for a few veggies when I can buy everything in one place. I've always thought supermarkets were cheaper too.

Probably the greatest marketing skill supermarkets deploy is to maintain this illusion - hence their obsession with KVIs ("known value items" - ie foods that most people know the price of). If these are marked down savagely you will believe you are saving tons - and they can make it all back off you on all the other produce that you buy while you're there.

The do regular intensive focus group stuff to find out what consumers know and what they suspect and what they are blissfully ignorant about. And then they exploit that knowledge brilliantly. Generally speaking - on price - you are being mugged in a supermarket.

 

[Roadkill]

Probably the greatest marketing skill supermarkets deploy is to maintain this illusion - hence their obsession with KVIs ("known value items" - ie foods that most people know the price of). If these are marked down savagely you will believe you are saving tons - and they can make it all back off you on all the other produce that you buy while you're there.

The do regular intensive focus group stuff to find out what consumers know and what they suspect and what they are blissfully ignorant about. And then they exploit that knowledge brilliantly. Generally speaking - on price - you are being mugged in a supermarket.

Exactly. Well put.

 

[nino_savatte]

The only problem that I have with buying produce from the market is that I don't get to choose what I want. More often than not, stall holders will slip rotting produce into the bag along with rest. The result: you end up chucking a third of the bag away because it's inedible.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I wish I had a market stall or greengrocers to compare with - there's not in this town except supermarkets.

Went into a greengrocers in Dorset last weekend - it was an absolute delight - loads of fresh produce from the local area and Jersey, and extremely cheap. Everything was at room temperature, so it didn't start going off on the way home either. I'd forgotten how great shops like that are

Hey Moose!

I just did a Google for Limited Resources because I thought they were based Stockport or somewhere like that:

Came up with this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/nov/03/fooddirectory1

There's a few in there. Some of those might be possibles for you, might they? Or is my geography totally crap? Very possibly...

 

[moose]

Thanks, Ann - we occasionally get deliveries from one of those, but they won't deliver to my office, so I can only get deliveries when off work Another of those has recently been done for false claims about the organic nature of their goods

 

[RubyToogood]

The only problem that I have with buying produce from the market is that I don't get to choose what I want. More often than not, stall holders will slip rotting produce into the bag along with rest. The result: you end up chucking a third of the bag away because it's inedible.

I caught them doing that in Croydon market once, never shopped there again. The Brixton market speciality is to wrap things in clingfilm so you can't tell how shit they are, I don't buy fruit and veg there now either.

There used to be a great market nearish me, which is now reduced to about half a stall once a week . It's become harder and harder to buy fruit and veg from anywhere other than a supermarket (or the sad few items in corner shops). All my local greengrocers have gone.