[quote Popoloco]@MatildaIThink Well they have big supermarket chains in Europe, so that doesn’t explain it. Off the top of my head, Carrefour in France, Aldi and Lidl in most European countries now (German origins).
Everyone knows the supermarkets set the price of farmed basics low to get consumers through the door (milk, eggs). Perhaps in Europe farms are better unionised / organised to demand higher prices so the supermarkets don’t have as much power? I don’t know what the reasons are - I haven’t looked into it.
BUT economists will tell you that consumer willingness to pay has an impact on quality/ utility/ prices set. I think UK consumers culturally have a higher tolerance for poor quality food, again don’t have evidence except we’ve always been known for our poor cuisine compared to mainland Europe. If you want quality, you have to pay more for it in the U.K.
Europeans that I know (french Spanish Italian German) have all pointed out (and find it weird) how our supermarkets aligns to our class system and the quality/ price varies accordingly. Apparently that’s not the case in their home countries (don’t know how true this is- just what they’ve said to me).[/quote]
In terms of supermarket power it depends on the country. In France, Germany, Italy, Spain for example the market is dominated by supermarkets. In the UK a far higher percentage of food sales goes through large supermarket chains, where as in other European countries there are still smaller regional and local operators. In France the farmers are very powerful, although less so in other European countries.
The food in the UK is not inherently a lower standard to continental Europe, chickens are raised and produced to the same standards and you would be unlikely to be able to tell the difference, beef is the same standard and indeed British beef and especially Scottish beef is regarded as some of the best in Europe. Where food in the UK has a bad reputation is not the food itself, but the cuisine. Up until the last 15-20 years nearly all vegetables in the UK were overcooked and many people still do this. Much of the food served in the UK was overcooked meat, served with overcooked vegetables and some form of potato product and that was dinner many nights a week. Also the amount of processed food we eat is only beaten by the USA, the amount of ready meals, processed sauces etc. that we buy and consume compared to the continent is huge, there are over 40 different ingredients in many different pasta sauces which are sold in the UK, made from fresh you might have ten at most.
The reason our supermarkets align to class is largely because of buying habits, you don't sell a huge amount of Waitrose early harvest domat olives in some areas, you don't sell a lot of Turkey Twizzlers in others. In the UK food consumption has always been far more socially stratified than in other countries, with some food seen as lower class (usually ultra processed, ready meals etc. although there are some premium entries in the market) and other foods are seen as "posh". In most European countries the amount of meat consumption varied with class, but other foods were more balanced, every Italian eats pasta and almost all of them will know how to make pasta sauces from scratch etc. where as less than a third of adults in the UK know how to make a basic roux, or know what passata is.