to think the big supermarkets in the uk are a bit sad?

[MousyMouse]

freezing my arse off camping in france. a different variety of grapes, peaches, wine even though one turned out to be chateau migraine , tomatoes.
did a shop today at a big supermarket and I'm depressed...

I know, but it's difficult to remember with your head spinning and hurting

There are some fantastic supermarkets, this year we went into one that had a huge cheese counter, huge deli meats, lots of local produce. Over the years I've been to some that are fine, and some that are very limited. We went to one that we gave up buying fresh produce from, nearly everything was brown inside.

They are poor. I've certainly noticed they have a much poorer selection of chocolate!

They seem to mainly compete on cheapness, not quality or range, in the UK.

Things other than food, eg hardware type items, are quite good value in UK supermarkets though.

The thing is, in France (in general), if the supermarkets don't sell good produce then people won't buy there. Supermarkets vary depending on the region, for example in parts that are full of farmers, they have to have very high standards for meat because the locals know their stuff. The reason they have all of the counters and it's like a market within the shop is that is how French people like to shop so it's a successful model. Apparently it wasn't always that way but the supermarkets adapted to take business from the small shops as people were still frequenting butcher, baker etc after doing their supermarket shop.

Also DFil who is french explained to me why it is so much more expensive (yet so much more lustworthy) to do a weekly shop there - French customers expect lots of choice e.g. sixteen types of chocolate biscuit, but then they don't get the economies of scale that we get in UK supermarkets.

I just love shopping in the French supermarkets when we holiday there each year and make a point of going to as many different ones as I can so I can get different reusuable bags to bring back home. I do find them more expensive than my average shop in Asda, apart from wine of course! But it doesnt matter as you know you will be eating what you cook outside in the sun, unlike back home. Plus we buy cakes, yogurts and icecream by the trolley a few treats that we wouldnt be buying at home.

But generally I love being back in the familiar UK supermarkets on return home. Its a bit of an overgeneralisation to say all the fruit etc in the UK supermarkets is hard and lettuce dried up, never found that really.

French supermarkets are great if you stick to French food and French tastes, but useless for anything else. The one I was in recently had 100 varieties of creme fraiche and no cream. And loads of UHT milk and hardly any fresh. And 12 different kinds of black pepper but very few other spices. Bizarre.

UK supermarkets are fab if you only shop at Waitrose