Tim Almond

India Knight

We are not as naive as we used to be and we notice things. The bacon leaks the water it has been artificially pumped up with, the vegetables are perfect only because they have been sprayed with chemicals, nobody much wants to feed their children jars of nondescript mush, the clothes’ cheapness raises uncomfortable questions about their manufacture and most wine-lovers would rather buy their supplies from knowledgeable small shops that care about their stock.

I don’t know where India Knight was raised, but if you lived in a provincial town like Northampton, you didn’t have a “knowledgeable small shop that cared about their stock” when it came to wine. They had Victoria Wine, or whatever their local shop sold, normally the choice of Black Tower, Blue Nun and Mateus Rose.

The wine revolution was started by the supermarkets, with most of the credit going to Sainsburys.

The supermarkets themselves may speak proudly of job creation and of helping the local economy, but what about people’s quality of life?

Quality of life… Let’s see. I can go shopping 24 hours a day. That means I can go to work, go to the cinema and get my shopping in 1 day if I want. I can sit at my PC and order my shopping - great if I’m not feeling too well, or would rather do something more interesting. I can get my photos developed or collect a prescription while I’m there, saving me time. My food is cheaper than it would be at a small shop, meaning that I’ve got more money to spend on other things, or alternatively, can choose to work less and enjoy myself more. I have a far wider variety of food and wine, improving my quality of life. The food is fresher, and stock control is better than in most small grocers that I remember.

And, most of all, how are small local businesses supposed to deal with what is effectively a death warrant?

Find something else to do.

We treat supermarket shopping as though it were a nonchoice, but it is as acute an ethical decision as anything else. This is illustrated in microcosm by the big four supermarkets’ sale of books. They choose only a handful of titles a year and sell them at such a vast discount that they have effectively closed down scores of independent booksellers – lovely shops run by people who care about books – because booksellers simply can’t compete on price.

Utter crap. If it were half a dozen titles per year, they simply can’t cover the breadth of reading going on. Amazon have tens of thousands of titles. What’s done for independents is the internet. Before the internet, I would order books in, and then go to collect them when I got a call. With the net, it comes straight to my house, often at a cheaper price - a bookshop can’t compete with that.

“Cheapest option” means no bookshops, no butchers, no fishmongers, no bakers. It means no fruit and veg shop, no cafe, no chemist and Starbucks in their place. It’s not much of an option at all.

Many of which offered an inferior service and their customers chose the supermarket. I never shopped at my local baker because the bread at Tesco wasn’t just cheaper, but better. But my butcher does a good trade because he does excellent meat, an interesting range of prepared meals and has excellent staff.

Tags: Politics, Foodie //