Inflation. or treating shoppers as gullible?

[jeral Profile]

Being always on the lookout for inspiration for "star" vegetarian dishes, I see that a popular supermarket is offering half (yes half) a butternut squash filled with what is basically onion, apple and lentils, plus flavourings and floury gloop, which claims to serve 2-4 <-- optimism surely? This stuffed half squash costs a mere £9. Yup, £9.

Is there any wonder most on here home cook?

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Either it serves 2.
Or it serves 4. Grrrrr.

Where's this Jeral?

If I go to Marks, their ickle packets of vegetables drive me nuts.
Even 2 isn't enough for we in this house who love our veggies.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I don´t think it´s gullible customers, and it´s definitely not inflation. It smacks of leering, avaricious marketeers to me, offering something that looks "gourmet" at ridiculous prices, simply because it´s vegetarian /vegan, healthy and trendy.
The problem is, many people probably wouldn´t have a clue how to cook this - so they buy it instead.

[Suffs Profile]

It's called 'adding value' ............... i.e. making something cheap look more expensive

Sounds revolting too

[jeral Profile]

I hesitated to say whose, as all supermarkets are at it. It's Tesco, although it's saying it is unavailable today. They sell squash at £1 or £1.50 mall/large, so maybe the stuffed one will come back at a realistic price:
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... /302063457

Suffs, it doesn't look that bad to me, though you can never tell until eating. Some veggie/vegan items aren't nice at al to mel, despite, as karadekoolaid says, the often premium price for such.

Maybe everyone should name and shame the worst rip-off examples they see...

[Suffs Profile]

It may have tasted better than it sounded ... although we're omnivores we eat and enjoy quite a lot of vegetarian meals but that didn't sound appetising and I would far rather prepare a meal myself so I know what's going in it, the balance of flavours and seasonings etc. It's not as if something like that would take very long to prepare ...

[Pampy Profile]

The website describes it as "festive food to order" which makes me think it will only be available nearer to Christmas. Also, it says that orders can only be amended up to the 14th December, which reinforces this.

[Binky Profile]

I think we here are mostly confident cooks, but it's surprising how often folk are wary of certain foods. Maybe a butternut squash is something 'a bit weird' to some people?

I used to steer clear of squashes and sweet potatoes because I didn't like the look of them and the preparation seemed a faff. Now, they are staples of my kitchen but it wasn't always like that.

My Uncle Malcolm never ate mushrooms because he said they were a fungus and smelled funny.

[Alexandria Profile]

We rarely shop at supermarkets, as we have our main Central Market, Le Mercat de La Boqueria for the majority of our local cheeses veggies, fruits, beans, meats if when and some of our fish or shellfish, though most of the catches are from my father and grand fathers from our family boat .. Our Italian distributor and dear friends supply us with bio pasta & Carnaroli Risotto rice.

I buy relatively very few ítems in plastic except toilet paper and kleenex ( tissues ) ..


We do buy some ecological bio health food items from what we call Herbalarios and they are in glass or paper / box packaging ( a cross between an apothecary and a health food shop ).

Our preferred snack is cheese and seasonal fruit ..


I think it is a rip off to buy a 1 / 2 piece of melon wrapped in plastic which costs almost the same amount as a whole melon not in plastic ..

[karadekoolaid Profile]

La Boquería, Borough Market in London, Chacao Market in Caracas, Findlay Market in Cincinnati - I´ve shopped at them all in the past couple of years. The produce is excellent, beautifully presented, ultra-fresh. However, it is also ultra - expensive compared with other sources, including supermarkets.The one place I did find the same quality, at very cheap prices, was the Mercado San Miguel in Mexico City.
There´s a huge difference, I feel, in how people shop in the UK, USA - and how they shop in Spain and Latin America. I may be wrong -correct me if this is so.
I spent 3 hours in La Boquería one day. Wandered around, looked at the produce on sale, picked up the fruit and veg, looked for quality/defects/freshness, chatted to the stallholders about where the produce came from. Almost everyone was shopping in the same vein, except for the dozens of tourists. I´ve just spent 4 hours in Caracas at the Saturday markets ( I went to 6 different places) and it was the same. A Fishmonger in Mexico gave me an expert dissertation on how to select the prawns and what was good about them, etc. - same with a chile seller ( well I didn´t need much encouragement there!).
In the USA and UK, people seemed happy to ask for a kilo of this or a kilo of that without too much fuss. Indeed, if the fruit/veg was already packaged in plastic wrap, Zap! Into the cart. In the supermarkets, the proliferation of ready meals and DIY dinners was amazing; so is it a question of convenience, of being in a hurry, or of simply not caring because it´s easier to pop something in the microwave than actually preparing food from scratch?
No criticism here; I never got to see " Foodies" shopping! I just wonder whether it´s a cultural thing.

[Alexandria Profile]

Karakoolaide,

I am veered toward agreeing with you on the "cultural" points of how people shop.

In Spain, Italy, Portugal, Marseille, France, Greece and Zürich, Switzerland off the top of "think cap", and the governments permit farmers markets in the city centre, where they put up stalls and sell their produce, food and wares.

We grow up buying from the vendors & farmers and only limiting the supermarket purchases to urgencies or paper goodes and bottled goods or a quick this or that ..

The Central Markets such as Le Mercat de La Boqueria and uncountable others in Spain ( La Paz, San Miguel, Plaza Mostenses, La Latina, Chamberi amongst others, all in The Madrid Capital) are predominately butchers, fish mongers, poultry and egg mongers, cheese and charcuterie vendors and fruit and vegetable kiosks ..


They offer the best and are competitive in price ( perhaps 1 or 2 Euros more per kilo ) however, the quality, is tops, and there is no comparion to a supermarket ..


It is like discussing a Chinese 1 Euro Shop and Cartier´s in quality ..


The best supermarket in Spain is El Corte Inglés ( 1936) which is a department store with a hyper cor ( the biggest ) market one flight down from the ground floor in almost every city ..


To regress back to the cultural question, yes, it is surely cultural as Mediterraneans are Mediterraneans ..


Our bakeries are our bakeries. There is a bakery on every corner and a bar on every corner ..


We do not buy bread at a supermarket ..

Interesting enough is that small supermarkets here, are empty except for urgencies for very young children (milk and disposal diapers) ..


Have a lovely day ..

[Binky Profile]

How different to our local street market. There is a fruit and veg stall, where the owner/seller is a Cockney 'geezer' who shouts out about his wares e.g. "Get yer banana here. £1 a scoop" whilst serving customers. The prices go down as closing time approaches "2 caulis for a paaahnd" which is £1 for non-Cockney speakers.

The problem is that his wares are not, shall we say, great quality. He slips in the odd soft onion, or bad apple, or squishy orange into your bag. Because I find him unreliable, I limit my purchases to what I can handle myself (bunches of fresh coriander, avocadoes) or things with thick skins like limes.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Our local veggie stall is outside my studio, Binky.
So I can get punnets of fruit for great reductions. There is a limit to how much I can put on my back on my bike But there's never dodgy stuff in there luckily.

I quite like bespoke markets and glamorous fairs.

But am a supermarket shopper.
Although I live 2 streets away from the Bath Road here, which has 2 butchers which I use, a Natural Grocery Store = organic and vegetarian foods, coffee n cake shops, etc. etc.
An old fashioned shop lined street with everything you could need. It's called the Notting Hill of the Cotswolds.

I take my rolser there sometimes.

[Binky Profile]

The Cotswolds is rather special; I can well imagine a Notting Hill atmosphere in some places.

They are somewhat starved of decent 'everyday' shops otherwise. We stayed in Northleach a few weeks ago and had to go into Stow-on-the-Wold for our major purchases.

(what is a rolser please?)

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

A rolser is a shopping trolley on wheels, Binky.
I've had mine for 25years.

Some villages round here don't even have a pub

[Binky Profile]

aah, that's what we call a sholley (shopping trolley -- and also a brand name I believe).

[Uschi Profile]

We call those trolleys "heel Porsche" or "onion Porsche".

[Rainbow Profile]

We call those trolleys "heel Porsche" or "onion Porsche".

I can understand the first one, Uschi, but "onion"??

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Rainbow,
it's because sholleys full of onions ram into the back of your heels, innit?

[dennispc Profile]

Sometime last year Waitrose were offering Jacket potatoes with grated cheese in a metal tray etc. Just pop in the microwave. Can't remember price but thought it ridiculous, apart from the fact that jacket potatoes must have crispy skin - it's the law!

But for some couples, popping that in a microwave before going out, gym, friends etc must seem like a good idea.

I like beetroot in my salad, OH doesn't. A few years ago I wouldn't have dreamt of buying a small portion in a plastic container, but now it enables me to have something I like without waste.

For some folk supermarkets are the only shops where they can buy food. We are fortunate in having small shops for a lot of what we need, but they don't have parking right outside so I'm forced to buy potatoes, for example, from a supermarket because of weight.

Our Farmers' Market is now down to a half a dozen stalls, not surprising really considering most of their produce is available a few yards away in a shop. Our nearest, once a week, market still involves either a bus or car parking fees.

We've seen some wonderful markets abroad. Split's ahs so much on offer, from large stalls full of dried fruit and nuts to ones where the stallholder, usually older, has pulled a few carrots from their garden that morning.

The Sunday one in Lille, fish stall to die for, attracts huge crowds. Much envy on my part. Budapest the same.

I'm led to believe that markets in UK are coming back, particularly covered ones, helped no doubt by including cafés, always a winner.