Priory Meadow - Hastings Shopping Centre
When we first returned to the UK, six months ago, I found the supermarket experience radically different from what I had known in France. This was mainly due to the packaging - scandalous in its profusion of plastic, particularly for fruit and vegetables - and the vast range of processed food. As I looked at what people unloaded from their trolleys at the checkout, I concluded that many people cooked little from scratch. "Convenience" foods have taken over. I have the impression that half the population is watching television programmes devoted to haute cuisine with a tray of microwaved food on their lap.
When we lived in France there were many expats who complained about the cost of French supermarkets and had their groceries delivered from the UK. It is almost impossible to do an item by item check on prices (such as I once did as between Lidl and Intermarché, which showed a quite startling divergence in favour of Lidl) so I landed up with a rough approximation, based on total costs each week. And - surprise surprise - it is actually much the same. There may be some things that are cheaper, while others are more expensive (razor-blades, for example, seem to cost an extortionate amount in both countries). This is taking an exchange rate of 1.25 euros to the pound.
Alcohol is still a bruising experience. There is an astonishing range of wine on offer, from virtually every wine-producing country in the globe, but it seems difficult to get much under £5 per bottle. Our "house red" used to be €4, about two-thirds the price - and there was quite a lot available for less. I have worked out that a day trip to Calais with Eurotunnel pays for itself if you buy five dozen bottles to bring back - more than that and you're in profit. An even better deal was obtained by someone I recently met, who got an early ferry to Calais for £22 which included car, two passengers, breakfast for two and two bottles of wine! so, since we're just along the coast from the Channel ports, a booze cruise is inevitable sooner or later. There are better reasons for going to France than cheap wine, but that'll do for the moment!
Antony Mair
Convenience foods are definitely the norm over here in the states. I didn't know that it was that common in the UK as well. Interesting post sir!
ReplyDeleteI always rather looked down on ex pats who insist on doing their everyday shopping from Tesco - one misses half the fun if one doesn't buy locally, surely? But a few weeks ago I asked my local chemist (in Tocane St Apre - SW France) for Magnesium Sulphate (aka Epsom Salts - aka in Italy Sale Inglesi).Having turned down Milk of Magnesia (do I LOOK like I've got kiddies!)I finally bullied him into selling me 6 gm of the precious (!) crystals. They arrived in 6 little plastic cups, each with its own little cap and he charged 3 euros for 6 gm. Now I'm not good with figures but even I can work out this is ahelluva lot per kilo! My mate has just brought me back from England 2 x 200 gm tubs of Boots Epsom Salts - £2.50 for them both. Can anyone beat that for a price differential?
ReplyDeleteWhat's so bizarre about these price differentials is their apparent arbitrariness - or perhaps the French don't need Epsom Salts, so there is a scarcity rating? when we were in France the only thing I shipped in was loose tea, from the Sussex Tea and Coffee Company: even with the shipping cost it worked out at considerably less than I paid at the Brulerie Ribéracoise. Curiously, it's not only wine that we would now nip over the Channel for. English toilet paper seems to have plummeted in quality, and we miss our "Juste une feuille" (described coyly by one of our female guests as "particularly nice for ladies", whatever that means). And my much-loved Sel de Guérandes is totally unavailable outside smart London delis.
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