Supermarket selection in decline :-(

[SparklyMistleToes]

Just a little whinge about what I assume is due to a combination of Brexit and the cost of living crisis.

I've never liked Tesco, but husband pays for the groceries and he prefers Tesco because of the club card points so that's why we shop there.

But recently their selection has become more crap than it used to be. They've stopped stocking Kerry Gold butter, Gourmet Burger Kitchen Burgers, mozzarella for pizzas (the kind you grate yourself), German salami (they've now changed it to German 'style' salami and it doesn't taste the same). There are lots more things that I can't remember at the moment.

Waitrose has stopped stocking Barts dried spices and other bits. The things I can find there that Tesco used to carry are so much more expensive.

The general quality of food is in decline. Cheese has gone to shit and doesn't even melt properly anymore.

My apologies. This post has derailed a bit. I'm sat here with raging PMS listening to jolly Christmas music on the radio and I want to actually smash it. The decline in quality of food and clothing, combined with the shitty weather and amount it takes to heat the house and cook using our oven and air fryer is really pissing me off. Will we (aka the U.K.) ever go back to normal? Or are we stuck like this now? It's miserable already and we've not even hit Jan/Feb. I was in Waitrose today and I swear they've turned the heating off in the store! We could actually see our breathe in the chilled fruit section!

OK - possibly going against the grain here - but I quite like the reduction in choices available. I've never been a big fan of the Consumerism (with a big C) that has been influencing the global economy and society for near 30 years now with all it's negative effects, including very relevantly, upon the global environment.

It's all coming home to roost now and quite honestly, if your local supermarket doesn't stock Bart's anymore, then that's hardly much of an impact is it really.

So what if all 'expectations' of what you want aren't available at the time and place that you want it - just adapt a little to what you can get when you want it and then you won't be disappointed.

The thought of only Aldi and Lidl-style shops is very depressing indeed.

I’m not sure I think this is about condensing the number of lines carried, though, as the big Tesco we shop at has recently introduced various new things (a Mexican brand of sauces and spice packets complete with loads of promotional bumpf springs to mind) and have seen similar in Waitrose. So new things are coming out, but there are shortages on staples and removal of old favourites at the same time.

I notice that none of the supermarkets seem to have their own-brand Christmas tub of wrapped sweets this year. Have smugly bought these from Sainsbury’s and Waitrose in past years as far superior to Quality Street et al. Nada this year - just towers of sickly Heroes, Roses...

Dolleey, MnS have got these pseudo/lookylikey Quality Street. Saw them on Friday, but never had them so can't say if better quality than QS......

Def happening, normally use Aldi and Lidl, I find their quality better than Tesco, esp on cheap brands, and generally better in general.
what I need extra / can’t get, I go sainsburys near me, an unpleasant experience .
Normally enough choice for most things , sign of the times things may pick up after recession whenever that is.
waitrose have some posh stuff not what it was tho

Does this mean we change our diets accordingly then or stop having certain food?

I get a mixture of Cathedral City light cheese and a special Waitrose cheddar (currently Cornish quartz) but the other week I saw some Arla cheese reduced si bought one for me and one for my mum. Both of us ate it but hated it!

Agreed with Waitrose discontinuing the Bart’s spices and their own brand isn’t the same.

I’ve cut down or back on meat so being veggie saves money.

Noticed an increase in peaches and nectarines in Sainsburys and in two supermarkets all the ones on special offer had sold out.

@SparklyMistleToes
doux de montagne is a lovely cheese that thankfully melts really well, it’s nice on pizza etc, not too strong flavoured or oily/greasy just silky when melted, I know what you mean everything seems to have really gone downhill lately and even if you want go get better products they are not around.
(sainsburys Asda and m & s sell the cheese probably Waitrose as well )

Thanks for the tip, Village. I’ll check them out. A tub of cheap sweets is a Christmas tradition, but the branded ones are just horrible now.

Tesco started reducing their range about five or six years ago and it got to the point where nothing was interesting or new any more. They took off some things we loved and their delivery service got much worse (being told at 11pm that our order would not in fact be arriving when I was 7 months pregnant a particular low) so we switched to Ocado. Huge range and constantly surprising us with interesting things.

In the last month I have noticed that you can only get branded shreddies. The own brand Wheaties they usually sell everywhere have completely disappeared. What's that all about!

Ocado always have lots out of stock.

M&S never have any eggs.

M&S never have any eggs.

Guaranteed that as soon as I discover a product and become hooked, they’ll discontinue it 🙄

I’m also cross that Asda has stopped selling its large packs of cheese, which were more economical. You can now only buy a smaller pack for almost the same price.

I use Waitrose and Lidl and have noticed missing stock in both, Lidl used to do a really cheap instant hot choc- my teens guzzle it so I bought loads. But they haven't had it (in either of my two local Lidls) for at least two months.

Waitrose used to have Rocks organic squash but have only had the blackcurrant version for weeks.

Couple of egs but these are things we bought regularly and so every week it's annoying afresh when they are still not there!

@ILoveAllRainbowsx try melting it on something next time. It doesn't melt into a nice smooth gooey bubbly mess anymore. It just kind of goes soft and melted but still holds it's shape.

Absolutely disagree! I used to spend £250/week at Waitrose or Ocado. Then Lidl opened near me and now I've more than halved my weekly Waitrose/Ocado shop and buy loads of things at Lidl as either they're so much cheaper or even (eg in the case of tomatoes and chocolate) better.

Lidl is fabulous and honestly once you realise how cheap they are compared to the others, it's very hard to go back. (I still buy some stuff eg meat at Ocado but things like children's cereal, bin liners and paracetamol are literally half the price.)

If you ask a colleague in store they can look on their app to see if they still stock it. They can also look in your local area and tell you if there's any locally or if all stores are out of stock potentially shows a supply issue 😊

Yes, I agree with this. It’s the same feeling I get in the cost of living/food price increase threads where half the posters complain about the price of novelty-flavour crisps, squash, branded beans and sausages in a tin, all kinds of random nonsense.

Food security is going to become the defining climate crisis issue of the next few years and there are already so many problems baked in to our food systems – overproduction, overpackaging, industrialised land, etc etc.

Like the example upthread of frozen breaded garlic mushrooms being unavailable – but I bet bread, garlic and mushrooms are all there for the buying. Get them instead, sans the packaging and processing.

Thanks for this explanation. It’s not surprising. If everyone starts buying at the cheapest shops, at the expense of shopping at the big four supermarkets, there’s only going to be one outcome, isn’t there? Less choice all round.

Try being Coeliac OP. It’s much worse. Be very grateful you have as much choice as you do.

Try being a vegetarian, lactose intolerant coeliac. Not even joking!

The small size cans of peas have completely disappeared off the face of the earth since covid. I check out different supermarkets but can't find them, I am the only one in our house that eats them, and it seems wasteful having to buy a full tin.
Also Pledge wood floor wipes, why are these shortages so random?

Things like kidney beans are so cheap for a whole tin, probably not much dearer than a small tin.Freeze the other portion maybe? Imagine own brand floor wipes are available too

The supplies are sometimes short. No point getting upset about it. It's just shopping and of course, I would really kick myself if I forgot the shopping, Bags. Ha ha, probably all Stocked up in my neighbour's house, I thought it would be impossible to get that many toilet rolls into one house but no, it wasn't. It was like a Mini where more and more people kept getting out, but this was more and more loo rolls going in. I suppose it could be that the news doesn't report this because they don't want to to worry people, but I think mainly that we are all used to it and everyone would turn the news over if that's all they had to report, more of the same. There are definitely some areas of super short supply, it's getting quite patchy, today it just seemed back to business as usual for me, absolutely nothing different, I didn't even find it annoying. Quite relaxing, in fact. The elephant in the room was that Waitrose free coffee was back, but everyone had either forgotten their card, their cup, or that normality ever existed, in the shape of a free capu, and by ignoring the elephant in the room, everyone else's potential free cap is off home to my house in my cup. Or drunk in Waitrose window, as the seating area looked nice...mm..I wonder if they do wine...I suppose they do those little cans that are very posh and totally not a good idea if you are cooking from scratch or munching on healthy seeds with sweet chilli dipping sauce right now.....Wait...I forgot the Bags again... Waitrose had actually run out of them, but me and my cuppa were just fine.... unfortunately I am fibbing, I never went to Waitrose today, but when I go I will go with positive expectations, and if I get there before the horrible "coffee machine cleaning, sorry no coffee for at least half an hour" I will know I have not one to blame but myself.