Or is this just bad luck?

[restingintheshade]

Not the end of the word by any means, but irritating nonetheless.

Slowly but surely, a lot of the foods I like keep disappearing from stores. I live in a large town (pop.4K or thereabouts) with around 5 large superstores but very few traditional businesses left. We are pretty stuck with that for now, along with online shopping.

Just for the sake of example, our massive Tesco is now phasing out both Hellmann's organic and vegan mayo, outdoor bred and nitrate free bacon, most organic meat, fresh tuna and sea bass, free range chicken and fresh soup. They have also recently not bothered to re stock their own brand organic eggs, apples, pears and blueberries for the past few yrs, so I'm wondering if it's a demand issue. But this is a large town and most of those products are pretty common in other places, if we travel to another locality.
I can find the eggs if I travel further to badly stocked M&S and Sainsbury's on the edge of town, but for the past few weeks even those have dropped the ball.
Since late last year I've lost my favourite bread (in both Tesco and M&S), and now have to order lactose free milk online or travel a good way. I can't even find my old staple sushi rice. I have noticed that many of these items are still available at 'other' Tesco's when I've had a look around.

It is becoming more and more difficult to source organic or non typical goods locally, whilst this never used to be the case, so it's not as if our town was never stocked with them previously - on the contrary they seemed to sell well.

Recently been away to much smaller places and this stuff seems to be selling just fine. Is it happening to anyone else, or could it be this location? I honestly doubt it's all a supply issue if it can be found 5 miles down the road. Just seems like a slow and steady eradication of choice, even the Polish/Japanese/Indian shelves are shrinking. The fresh fish counters are all but gone now, although they hung on for dear life at Sainsbury's for a while.

I get it, some of these things might be considered less in demand than others, but it's like most of our local businesses are choosing a more dumbed down product line - non free range eggs make up the majority of shelf space at Lidl and Asda. There seems to be a huge range of choice, but only at the cheaper end of the scale, with processed shit in the absolute majority.
Even accounting for cost of living issues, this does seem fairly isolated at present, so this is why I am wondering if anyone else has noticed it.

Why is non organic or non free range ‘dumbed down’?
I’m guessing people choose what they want and the shelves are stacked accordingly?

Lots of people can’t afford organic food anymore so there isn’t the demand unless you live in a really upmarket area. I have really downgraded my food shop. Also lots of people get produce from farmers markets too which impacts supermarket demand.

Well the eggs were only 20p up from the free range, so I doubt it here. A few things have vanished that weren't actually more expensive, too. Organic meat has recently gone off the charts though, I can agree there. I have had to scale back quite a bit.
I mean, gnocchi vanished, twinnings tea, even fucking cod fish fingers. It's weird.

@restingintheshade
You haven’t explained what you meant by ‘dumbed down’?
Have you emailed Tesco to ask why they are not stocking these items?

Tesco seem to be struggling with stock levels at the moment.
A couple of things we buy semi- regularly have dissapeared for a few weeks (not gaps, but all labels removed) and then suddenly come back after a month or 2.

Is fresh soup a seasonal thing? Removed for the summer to stock BBQ stuff?

That said, I'm not sure we've ever had much of what you are looking for. Our fish counter went about a decade ago. Very little organic fruit and veg. Gnocci I can usually get tho.

Maybe not relevant to the thread but how has a large town got a population of 4k?! Maybe that's why they aren't stocking as much stuff...

You live in a large village, not a large town , unless you missed a zero off the population.

So demand is going to be less for all sorts of products.

4K is not a large town.

The issues you describe are probably a combination of post Brexit supply issues; terrible weather this year supply issues; removing lines that aren't popular enough to justify keeping - these may be becoming less popular due to CoL. there'll also be an element of demographic stocking, which can change with economic pressures. My local Tesco (town of around 22k) has never stocked sushi rice for example!

20p on eggs is significant, if that's 20p x 100 items for a big family shop, that's £20.

Go to waitrose. They have loads of fancy nancy stuff there. Fill yer boots.

5 supermarkets with only 4 k folks, that’s a lot.

op, shelf space has to pay for itself. If they are taking these things off the shelf it’s as demand isn’t high enough, they aren’t idiots, they don’t take high selling stuff off the shelves.

Are you sure of the 4k population? I live in a small town of 16k and we have 2 medium supermarkets, to have 5 would be ridiculous.

There's more than that In my village, maybe they meant 40k

Apologies! It has 350K, I got that quite wrong!
A few towns along there's a Booths, which is a much smaller town, yet it even kept it's M&S home and clothing, unlike ours. It's just a crappy place to both live and shop these days, definitely considering a move when possible.

We lost most of the high street here since covid. Only clothes shops left are Primark and Pep. Great if you're on a budget but not a lot of choice.

To the pp who asked about 'bland', I mean very mainstream basics, from sliced warburtons to birdseye fish fingers. If you like that stuff then you would find it in abundance.

350k is a small city, not a large town!

You didn’t say bland you said dumbed down - suggesting that people who don’t choose the organic and vegan things you are looking for are somehow inferior.

Our Sainsburys has a lot of organic produce still and Morrisons has both meat and fish counters (with 2 actual butchers staffing the meat counter). Can't say about Tesco as its a 15 minute drive to the nearest one so I don't bother! I shop in several places as can only get some things in one supermarket and not the other. I also shop in a local greengrocers when I'm passing.

Nothing wrong with Warburtons bread OP - you come across as condescending.

well i am far from vegan and i used dumbed down to describe my version of bland. It isnt a crime

It's a very large borough with adjoining towns stitched on, not remotely like a city as a failing infrastructure all round, but pretty large as boroughs go.

Here we are in a graphic

I'm vegan.

I have found that a lot of the stuff I buy is very erratic as to whether it is in stock.
So for example there is a co-op in my village which sometimes has quorn and sometimes doesn't. Sometimes it has the quorn mince and sometimes the meatballs.

The Tesco and Sainsbury's near me are similar. Aldi tend to have a restricted set of lines but nearly always have it.

I now stock up on things when I see them and keep a fairly full freezer because I can't be sure when I'll see them again.

Not vegan or veggie myself but i did buy organic and notice the vegan range shrinking in most supermarkets here, too. Sainsbury's isn't bad but it is in a fairly obscure location that isn't easily accessible on public transport, depending on which part of the borough you live. We have no small outlets either, apart from a little Tesco close to the Sainsbury's.

There's 3 co-op's very many miles apart so only provide locally.

Well it's Wigan. It's not really known for organic loving yoga practising health nuts
It's known for pies

I am joking, not stereotyping, but only slightly. Wider wigan has a diverse demographic but but at its core is working class ordinary people.

All stores are cutting back on higher end products but tesco is definitely pitching toward the lower end of that budget

I can’t say I’ve noticed but I’m not interested particularly in organic foods. Free range yes, but I’ve not struggled to buy that.

Lots of supermarkets are dialling back on the vegan Frankenfoods, because people aren't buying them. Turns out most people aren't enthusiastic about tasteless rubbery fake meat made out of by-products of the frozen pea industry 🤷🏻‍♀️

As for the rest of it - consumption of organic and high welfare foods has declined, along with other premium products. People can't afford to buy enough of it to feed their families, so supermarkets have responded by adjusting their stock. Not sure there's much you can do about it. Maybe go to farm shops and Waitrose.

I think you're right, I grew up in Lancaster so can't lay claim to the pies but they're good. There is a very amusing video somewhere on youtube of a Wiganer sending a real pie into space

I kind of love the people, we have the MC on the outskirts and the impoverished in the centre. The council are a mess. My DH was born here.

Saying that for the past 15 yrs that I have visited and lived here, there was a very decent supply of choice in the stores. It has gone to hell since covid though, sadly.