It is with a certain degree of guilt that I set off on supermarket shopping trips these days. I believe that locally sourced food is better for the environment and the local economy, and so I prefer to shop at a local farm shop when possible. But, and it’s a big but, I still need things that aren’t available at the farm shop or in a local shop, our village has become one of take-aways, estate agents and very few proper local shops since Sainsburys arrived on the scene a few years ago.
We have a Co-op in the village that is good for picking up organic milk and the odd Ecover product, but I can’t get Ecover dishwasher tablets, rinse-aid or washing powder there. They don’t stock much organic produce, and what they do is imported.
The nearest alternative to Sainsburys is Waitrose. It is situated in a shopping centre in the centre of a housing estate near our village, is closer for me to get to than Sainsbury’s, and although it is smaller, it is often less crowded. The store recently re-opened with a bigger store and a better selection of organic products, I was delighted to see that I’ll now easily be able to get hold of natural shampoos, conditioners, hand soap, cleaning products as well as ethically fished seafood, local(ish) meat and organic British veggies (not that we need many of these with the allotment). I was quite excited to see that they had introduced a new "quick scan" service to speed up the queueing process at the end (people with small children appreciate this sort of technology), however, you have to sign up for a credit card in order to use this service. Ethical alarm-bells starting going off! How ethical is it to force customers to apply for credit in order to use store-services? I’ve writted to Waitrose to enquire about the ethics of this and wait to hear from them.
In the meantime, I still hestitate over my shopping choices.
