Ethical shopping
- Thread starter Simon Wilson
- Start date
Simon Wilson
New member
mikem said:
I didn?t notice a great change at the Asda store front when Walmart bought it. I have noticed a big change in supermarkets generally since Aldi and Lidl arrived and they are driving down standards.
Supermarkets are making moves to address the problem of waste food but we need to keep telling them to improve.
tony from suffolk said:
Some supermarkets support foodbanks through the Trussell Trust but Aldi and Lidl are not listed. https://www.trusselltrust.org/get-involved/partner-with-us/
paul said:
Supermarkets offer a range of price and quality and by ?quality? I mean all aspects of quality including quality of goods, service and ethics. There is a range of price and quality between and within individual supermarkets. The majority of shoppers make a judgement and weigh up their perceptions of price and quality. Even the poorest and the wealthiest will do this.
Obviously poor people will go for the cheaper end, more wealthy people (and me) will go for the quality end and yoghurt-weaving hippy lefties (and me) will look at the ethics. But all shoppers will make a judgement.
Supermarkets do act ethically but it is down to us to call them to account. A recent example of a change made by supermarkets as a result of public pressure is the ban on selling so-called ?energy drinks? to people under 16. I applaud that not least because it has put the curse of caffeine addiction in the spotlight.
In any large supermarket there will be around half a whole aisle devoted to supplying a huge range of coffee and about half of the will show the fair-trade logo. Some supermarkets are keen to be associated with fair-trade and actively promote it. https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/Buying-Fairtrade/Coffee
But you won?t see Aldi and Lidl on the list of fair-trade suppliers. I checked and found that my local Aldi had no fair-trade coffee whatsoever.
Obviously supermarkets are very sensitive to how we shop. Buy cheap and you push down all aspects of quality so buy on quality not on price - the answer is really so simple.
2xw
Active member
Perhaps blaming supermarkets for food waste lets consumers off the hook too much. Supermarkets have an incentive to reduce wastage as it loses them money. Households do not...
The lions share of food waste occurs in the household (7.3Mt) compared to retail (0.3Mt). Perhaps instead of looking for food waste at ASDA, check your neighbours bins.
http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Estimates_%20in_the_UK_Jan17.pdf
The lions share of food waste occurs in the household (7.3Mt) compared to retail (0.3Mt). Perhaps instead of looking for food waste at ASDA, check your neighbours bins.
http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Estimates_%20in_the_UK_Jan17.pdf
nobrotson
Active member
2xw said:
I fully agree with this. I hate eating in restaurants or cafes because when I see the amount of food people leave on their plate it gets me into a special kind of rage. I was able to eat over 5 almost full meals in the space of 2 hours in the Clachaig Inn once just by eating what other people had left. I think a lot of people are simply too naive to realise that when they throw something away, it doesn't go away at all, they just rid their conscience of it. It's selfishness and greed overall.
The last time I ate out I did not finish my meal for the simple reason that the portion served up was too much for me ? but I did not know when I ordered it that it would be. I think it's very na?ve to blame people for not finishing their meal under such circumstances.
Where does greed enter into not eating a huge portion that someone arbitrarily serves you (without your prior knowledge)?
Where does greed enter into not eating a huge portion that someone arbitrarily serves you (without your prior knowledge)?
nobrotson
Active member
darren said:
that is a valid point, but it is a completely different argument from the 'ethical shopping and eating' argument, because it considers a much broader set of life choices and environmental factors. Does the man who sits on his arse have to waste food? No. Do you have to travel to get to caves? yes.
You should not be asking whether someone should give up the happiness and more that they derive from leisure (caving) just because other people don't do it and therefore do not burn fossil fuels to travel to do it. You should actually be asking 'how can I make what I do to make me happy as sustainable as possible?'
Your way of looking at the problem is also a very individualistic attitude which is completely at odds with how to be sustainable. In our society, it is not individual actions that really create change (unless the individual in question is very rich and powerful). It is mass movement that creates change and shifts public opinion, so we should not be looking to give up caving because some people don't do it, we should be acting together as a caving community to make whatt we do as sustainable as possible.
Madness
New member
Simon,
Aldi certainly have had Fair Trade coffee in the past. I suspect it was dropped from their produduct lines because it just wasn't that good a coffee. I don't buy Fair Trade coffee anymore purely because of all the brands that I've tried, none have been that good. The none Fair Trade is better tasting. I've shopped at a lot of supermarkets in my time and if you take the likes of Waitrose and Booths out of the equation then I'd recommend Aldi everytime. Like Droid I'm not poor, but I like to make my money go as far as I can, plus I find the staff in Aldi are more likely to 'give a sh*t' than my local Tesco.
Anyway, is shopping at any supermarket ethical?
I remember as a little kid that there were 4 corner shops/grocers within a few minutes walk of home. They all knew who I was and where I lived. Most of the customers in these shops knew me and each other. They talked to each other. It was what used to know as 'a community' These local shops also employed local people. Supermarkets have certainly helped in destroying 'community' and localised jobs.
Aldi certainly have had Fair Trade coffee in the past. I suspect it was dropped from their produduct lines because it just wasn't that good a coffee. I don't buy Fair Trade coffee anymore purely because of all the brands that I've tried, none have been that good. The none Fair Trade is better tasting. I've shopped at a lot of supermarkets in my time and if you take the likes of Waitrose and Booths out of the equation then I'd recommend Aldi everytime. Like Droid I'm not poor, but I like to make my money go as far as I can, plus I find the staff in Aldi are more likely to 'give a sh*t' than my local Tesco.
Anyway, is shopping at any supermarket ethical?
I remember as a little kid that there were 4 corner shops/grocers within a few minutes walk of home. They all knew who I was and where I lived. Most of the customers in these shops knew me and each other. They talked to each other. It was what used to know as 'a community' These local shops also employed local people. Supermarkets have certainly helped in destroying 'community' and localised jobs.
Kenilworth
New member
Madness said:
Of course there are no ethical supermarkets, but the problem is not entirely the fault of the retailer/consumers interface. It is complex and involves the soil and individual greed and ignorance and shortsightedness and collective ambition and community and courage and thousands of years of history. So Simon's "simple answer" is probably the most clueless assertion I have seen made on the topic. While cheapness has contributed enormously to to the development of ruinous and immoral products and sales, the problem cannot be corrected by reversing our buying by price. It is not possible, in any real sense, to buy quality at a supermarket. All we're doing by that attempt is flushing extra money down the chute, reinforcing conceit, and maintaining, not changing, the status quo.
ttxela2
Active member
Our village petrol station is quite good, a few years back it was just an ordinary petrol station with a generic sort of petrol station shop selling beer, fags and sweets.
Then they built a new building which houses the petrol station tills, a small Budgens with an independent butchers counter, a small area set aside for the local fruit farm and there is a gym in the roofspace and a hand car wash out the back.
The old shop has been divided up and now has a fish and chip shop, caf?, hairdressers and dance studio.
I rarely buy groceries anywhere else these days
Then they built a new building which houses the petrol station tills, a small Budgens with an independent butchers counter, a small area set aside for the local fruit farm and there is a gym in the roofspace and a hand car wash out the back.
The old shop has been divided up and now has a fish and chip shop, caf?, hairdressers and dance studio.
I rarely buy groceries anywhere else these days
Simon Wilson
New member
That's an example of the 'quality' I'm talking about and which I don't mind paying for.
