Community grocers are the answer to supermarkets, as they are big enough for people to buy all their food in one place, which is what most people do. But these sell local food and employ local signwriters to managers. Money is not sent off to shareholders.
Run an indie shop? Many seeds, flowers, plants (and plantable cards) are toxic to pets, so learn what not to sell to households with pets.
A Co-operative Grocery in Manchester
Unicorn Grocery is a thriving food co-operative that is owned by its staff (who get paid a real living wage) and all produce is vegan, some from its own farm (and England’s first living roof on a commercial building, to support habitat of the endangered black redstart bird).
It offers a range of 2500 foods, organic beers and eco-refillable beauty and household goods, all sold in plastic-free packaging, with its own popular loyalty card. Most salads and olives are sold in reusable tubs, and there’s even soup cup deposit scheme.
It offers regular price comparisons (it has no shareholders and most produce is local, so that’s how moneh is saved) although a few items cost more (like homemade organic flapjacks). The ‘Good Stuff’ apple logo indicates favourite companies. With no plans to expand, you can download their free Grow a Grocery guide to bring the same to your town!
A Vegan Supermarket in Brighton
Kindly (Brighton) is a big busy vegan supermarket, that offers carbon-neutral home delivery. The founder is an Internet techy wizard who wished to use his success to put some good back into the world, and his aim is to ‘flip the supermarket model on its head’ and put planet before profits. It even offers vegan sandwiches in compostable packaging (handmade in Brighton).
A Zero Waste Supermarket in Birmingham
The Clean Kilo (Birmingham) is England’s largest zero-waste supermarket, founded by a couple that use a tare system to weigh food, so you never pay for packaging. Beautifully fitted, the shop includes chilled plant milk dispensers, and machines to make your own orange juice and peanut butter.
Most food is organic and bought in bulk from local suppliers (even the crisps) and they use a reusable Brummie Cup that you can return after use. One local who would have been happy
I’d find out what the cow was eating, and join it (when asked what he would eat if in a desert with no food, apart from a cow). Benjamin Zephaniah (legendary Brummie)
Why Do Supermarkets Differ So Much?
A good example is Budgens. This is a low-cost supermarket that has a brand new store in the affluent Norfolk town of Holt. There are organic and vegan products (often in plastic-free packaging) and apparently there is no tinned music or annoying tannoys.
It even boasts of strawberries grown just 4 miles away, and produce from 50 local suppliers, delivered straight from the field. It also has a local post office, same-day home delivery, electric car charging points and an upcoming solar panel for the roof.
Yet Budgens in Clacton-on-Sea (one of the least affluent towns in England) offers a simple website offering no local food, national lottery tickets, and special offers on toilet roll and giant bottles of Pepsi cola.
The Holt store only has one bad review (for car park light pollution, which would affect birds and wildlife). Yet the Essex store has poor reviews (not for staff, but lack of disabled facilities and customer service not responding to damage caused by deliveries). It seems one law for one..
If big supermarkets really wanted to ‘be part of the community’, it would not put 2-hour parking limits on people who then don’t have time to visit local shops after grocery shopping, and would also give the customer choice (try looking for a natural toothpaste or hair dye in a supermarket, you won’t find one).
What About Bigger ‘Independent’ Supermarkets?
These are better in that they are locally-owned, but the products don’t seem to be much better. Jempson’s (Sussex) does have its own independent bakeries, and at least provides local stores to rival Tesco Express.
Booth’s is often called the ‘Waitrose of the North’ in that it’s quite posh (and expensive). But again aside from having machines to make your own fruit juice, it doesn’t do anything radical. The site boasts that it has ‘removed all plastic cutlery’ to prevent it being used – but that’s because there is now a single-use plastic ban, so giving it out would be illegal anyway.