Fed up of poor quality of supermarket stuff

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Namely Tesco. Only up the road from us so have been using it for past 5 years as so convenient.

BUT, I think there's been a noticeable drop in quality in the past 2 years. Here are the problems I've had:

Nectarines which were rock hard and just never ever ripened. (the packaging meant I couldn't feel them or I probably might not have bought them.)

Floppy, old broccoli. The loose stuff. Have seen this so many times I have resorted to getting the plastic-wrapped stuff as seems fresher.

Oranges - dry, no juice anywhere near, not at all sweet. Most of them inedible. Usually when they've been on a "special offer". Hmmm...yes, flog some crap to gullible customers at a knock-down price, why don't you?

Garlic - musty smell and flavour. Have tried ignoring the mustiness and adding it to the curry or whatever I was cooking and it just tainted the whole thing.

Peppers - 4 for the price of 3 recently. Today I went to use one and found 3 of them virtually unusable and already past it - really squashy and slimy. Only 1 was still crunchy. Had to bin the other 3. Yes, very good value - not.

Various other problems I've had recently have been pots of ready-made fresh pasta sauce with security cap thing missing (my fault in a way - I should have checked it was in place). I had no time to take it back and didn't want to risk it as it was for the kids.

Also they've been sneaky recently in reducing the amounts of things in packets. Eg. cooked ham down from 6 slices to 5. Innocent smoothies now only stocked in packs of 4 kids' cartons instead of 6 - I did the maths and worked out that meant each individual carton had gone up by 10p each!

I sound like a right moaner, but is there anything I could do apart from shop somewhere else? Would they take any notice of me if I emailed them? I really like the convenient location, but the cost of the wasted food is starting to piss me off.

[GeneHunt]

I was delighted in Morrisons this week to overhear two male staff discussing crabs. Apparently, just shaving your pubes off isn't enough to get rid of them.

Which was nice.

[GeneHunt]

Ha! I misread the title as 'poor quality of staff' not stuff.

Still don't fancy crabs from Morrisons.

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Just seen another thread moaning about Asda crap quality of stuff. But there were also people on there moaning about past it veg in their local greengrocer.

Maybe I'll have to get on the list for an allotment at this rate!

[PerArduaAdNauseum]

Sainsbury's seem to be going through a long-lasting phase of really bendy cucumbers atm. It's the summer fgs - you'd think they could get fresh?

[slng]

I am about to go out into the garden to harvest peas for tea. Even 1 meter square raise bed gives you quite a lot (especially if you grow kale and peas)! Not sure I can cope with an allotment though...

[Goober]

I stopped using Morrisons last year for Lidl. Their fruit 'n' veg is verrr guddd.

[PeachyLaPeche]

Oh genehunt you did make me laugh , ta

We stopped buying anything bar dry goods fromsupermarkets, we use a butchers and a greengrovers, cleaning stuff from wilko- its working out cheaper and far, far nicer but over the hols is admittedly a massive PITA with the boys.

Whilst away we had sausages from a major brand we used to like from the site shop- compared to the local sausages they don't even rate a one star. Horrible.

Love the idea of an allotment, though six year wait. however have a glut of courgettes that grew massive over our holsd (about to put pic on profile) sadly can't *actually^ persaude anyone to eat them......

[Habbibu]

Agree - it's worth trying to find and support a good independent greengrocer - ours is fab, quality and price great (cheaper than Tesco!), and local where possible, and staff lovely - I buy something for dd first to keep her busy while I shop, and they always wash it for her and bring her kitchen towel for the mucky face that ensues.

[PeachyLaPeche]

Our butcher gives the boys a sweet if they;re good (awww) and the grovers we discovered does a loyalty scheme that gives us 20% off a week with the amount we buy......

fab

[Notalone]

We only use Tesco now for non perishables, cleaning stuff etc. We get all our fruit and veg from the market and it is so much cheaper and nicer. We usually end up with about 3 carrier bags for approx £8-9. A few months ago we bought a vast amount of the most gorgeous oranges for pennies - turns out they were supposed to be M & S organic oranges but M & S rejected them because they had the tiniest green specks on the skins. Apparently M & S are very stringent on the appearance of their fruit and veg and loads of it gets rejected and sold onto markets instead

[GrimmaTheNome]

We get our meat from a local butchery/farm shop but their veg isn't always that great and often v. overpriced. Dont have a greengrocer nearby (like peachy's 'greengrover'. Sounds like a stall in an idyllic copse).

Most of our fruit & veg comes from supermarket, most often ASDA, and it actually is usually very good. Obviously you have to not be tempted by out of season stuff - nectarines lovely right now, oranges not so. Come the winter, satsumas will be good again.

Maybe we're just lucky - been in crap asda on hols.

[PeachyLaPeche]

Sadly or idyllic copse read Cwmbran shopping centre

but I can wish

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

How do you find out where your nearest market is, notalone? Do you mean farmers' markets?