Thursday 18 September 2008

Where I buy my food...



I usually like to buy fresh ingredients but at the end of the day I think it comes down to time an convenience when you are holding down a busy lifestyle.

So that unfortunately means that sometimes we have to make do with the supermarkets, this is also the more cost effective option (or can be!)

So I thought it would be interesting to rate my local supermarkets and let you know some of the place I like to shop for food.

I think it also depends on the occasion - if you have guests coming round you may like to go a bit upmarket.

Supermarkets
Waitrose

Fresh healthy produce usually lasts well. They have a range of specialist and unique items and their own branded items taste great, downside is you pay more for the quality.

Duckeys Rating 9/10

Sainsbury’s

Quite a broad range and moderately priced. Fresh produce doesn’t last too long and sometimes they don’t have want you want in stock.

Duckeys Rating 7/10

Tesco

Cheap and wide range of products again like Sainsbury’s fresh produce is sometimes lacking in appearance and quality, but not bad.

Duckeys Rating 6/10

M & S

Very pricy but extremely good quality with great offers every now and then. Good branded items but they don’t sell anything except M & S brand. You would definately do you "occasion" shopping here.

Duckeys Rating 8/10

ASDA

I tend not to shop at ASDA as there is not one local to me.

Duckeys Rating 4/10

Iceland

Would be scared to walk in here with all the frozen ready meals they sell!

Duckeys Rating 1/10

Morrisions

Again, not one local to me, but well priced I used to shop in one when I lived in Suffolk. I would say generally on par with Tesco.

Duckeys Rating 6/10

Budgens

Again I cant say I have ever shopped here

Duckeys Rating 3/10

Londis

Great if you need to pop in and get a few odds and ends like milk!

Duckeys Rating 4/10

Somerfield

Great for a quick shop but very basic and rubbish fresh food!

Duckeys Rating 5/10

Well that covers the supermarket and Waitrose wins on the shopping front.

Now specialist places to shop would include:

• Tulleys Farm

A great little organic farm near us they sell anything from organic breads to olives and cakes!

• Taj

A shop opposite me at work, they specialise in selling different foods from other nationalities perfect if I feel a bit of oriental cooking coming on!

• Infinity Foods

In the lanes of Brighton great organic food but sooo over priced!

Anyway this is where I shop right now! What are your favourite places to shop?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post Duckey and I agree with your scores (even the places you haven't shopped at are accurate!)

We tend to do our main groceries at Tesco, and like you say about the fresh stuff we order our fresh organic veg from Rivernene, who are brilliant and deliver fruit,veg,dairy wine etc to your door. Everything is grown locally and is a little pricey but not as pricey as waitrose or m&s.

www.rivernene.co.uk

Rachel Ducker said...

I have thought about getting organic food delivered?

How does it work?

Would you like to guest blog on it? And let my readers know about such services?

Duckey x

Anonymous said...

I've done a post about rivernene before on my blog. I dont know about guest blogging and what that means sorry. Here is the link:

http://babypowderboy.blogspot.com/2007/10/rivernene-organic-way.html

If you go to the website it is all self explanitory. I thoroughly recommend it. Mummy Duckey was interested last time I spoke about it too. Its brilliant! We've just had a delivery and this time the value for money was MUCH BETTER!

We are going on the next Farm Tour where you go to the farm and look around, see where stuff is grown and how etc! Their motto is that the food travels less than 60 miles in 24 hours from plot to your door! Its brilliant.

Our local farm is Wymondham near norwich, but they have farms all over the UK. There are links from www.rivernene.co.uk to RiverFord and other places close to you.

Basically - you place your order online (or over the phone) details of what you can have are on the site, and they do "veg boxes" of differing sizes and contents depending on your needs. These vary week to week to give you greater variety. You can order each week and vary your order, or set up "repeat orders" for ease.

Dont worry if when you put your postcode into the website they say they can't deliver in your area - we had the same problem to start with. We phoned the number on the website and they were able to accommodate us!! Goes to show you can't always rely on the technology.

Once you go veg boxes you'll never go back to supermarket mass produced muck.

Enjoy. Jon