Which supermarket?

[FeelingEvil]

Have been a Waitrose loyalist for many years. But now food prices seem to be inching upwards and Waitrose have discontinued some of our favourite products (like shallots, their own brand dried pasta and own brand tinned tuna), I'm reconsidering my options.

Want somewhere which has quality food at decent prices.
Is Sainsbury's as good as their adverts look? Is Morrison's as rough as I perceive? And is Tesco really an ethically incorrect option?

Mmmm, lots of food for thought here, if you'll pardon the pun.
Ethical is important in our house, but we're not loaded.
I know about all the issues around Tesco, but why does ASDA meet with ethical disapproval?
We don't have an ASDA near here, but having read RaingCatsandDogs' post, I'm tempted to give their online service ago (if they deliver in our area).

Whooosh - shocked to hear about Waitrose changes. Will you be able to keep us updated?

I will indeed if people are interested.
I deal with all of them on a weekly basis and know some very interesting characters.

If being ethical is important, why not mix shopping at M&S/ Waitrose with shopping at Lidl. Happy to be corrected on this one, but it's my understanding that Lidl pay their staff far better, and generally stock some ethical products (e.g. non-bleached loo paper), without costing the earth.

I loathe Tescos (for all the reasons cited on the TEscopoly site).

FeelingEvil, I don't know much about Asda and the ethical issues. However, I have heard friends claim that they are not always very fair in their dealings with their employees in the US. (they are owned by Walmart of course).

Having said that, I have never seen anything written to back this up, it is/was to do with Walmart's disapproval of employees joining unions iirc.

I do shop in Asda myself, as well as in other stores, as I find the quality and customer service generally quite reasonable.

Co-op imo is best for a massive range of fairtrade stuff.

If only I lived close to a Lidl ... would do what you suggest chonky.

Aldi is SO CHEAP for snacks - their bags of cashews are enormous, tissues, loo roll, crisps, Jive are Twix and each week six of fruit and veg are just 59p! Am topping up more and more there to keep bills down - also have signed up to newsletter at www.aldi.co.uk to get weekly email for real bargains.

I was always a Tesco girl, but over the last couple of years have really gone off them, for all the reasons listed.

Now I am shopping more at waitrose, abel & cole (on-line only) and locally. Buying ethical is more important to me than price. I would much rather pay more for better quality food.

I am not loaded at all, but am making cut-backs in other areas.

Sansburys or Asda have got my vote recently as DH has banned me from Waitrose

They both have a good range of organic produce and sainsburys are good for local produce too.

Why are you banned from Waitrose???

I have been a die-hard Waitrose fan for the past 10 or so years, but have decided to change my habits (slightly) in resposne to the rapid rise in food prices.

I now go to Asda once a month and buy non-food items for the month, as almost all of them are much, much cheaper there. Cleaning stuff, nappies, lightbulbs, shampoo and the like. I also buy branded foodstuffs such as noodles, Indian and Thai cooking ingredients, cereal, OJ.

Then go to Waitrose twice a week to buy fresh food, wine, and the little luxuries of life.

www.now.org/issues/wfw/wal-mart.html

Not keen on Asda and the way they treat their staff all around the world.

I am in a position to be able to shop at tesco 3 mins drive, Sainsbury 8 mins drive, Asda 10 min drive and soon Waitrose will open 15 mins away.

I mainly go to Sainsbury and I live in an area where the fruit and veg in all three supermarkets is good - as the market is there to sell a lot.

I do though use asda for some staples that I know are cheaper and bulk buy. The asda in the nearest city is cheaper than the asda in a large town

love2bake, banned because I always spend double the weekly shopping budget if I physcially go into the shop ! I just lurve waitrose.

I compromise by doing an occasional ocado shop where I can just about keep control of my urges. It does help that you can't buy the lemon and sultana danishes on ocado !!!

Morrions is about a mile away from me so I shop there. It has a fresh fish counter, butcher counter, fresh bread, fresh salad/pasta bar, hot chicken, pasties etc and the usual meat/cheese one.

I quite like their food. I've shopped in m&s, waitrose, sainsbury's, Tesco's, Asda etc before and if you cook from scratch (as I do) there's no difference really (other than price).

After reading all your thoughts on this thread, I had been planning to do an ASDA online shop, with a monthly Waitrose shop, only to find out that ASDA don't deliver to us!

Got back from another frustratingly expensive Waitrose shop today and remembered the Farmers Market, which was actually cheaper than Waitrose when I last visited. Haven't been to Farmers Market for ages, but will be paying them a visit tomorrow - could be the solution to my ethical but cheap shopping problem.