There was a very interesting piece in the Guardian yesterday about the effect of the credit crunch on eating habits in the UK. Some of the main findings:
- Takeaways are doing well – Domino’s pizzas and Greggs bakery chain are showing an increase
- Supermarket food sales are down except for promotional offers like M&S’s Dine In for Two, which are very successful
- Frozen foods are selling well again after years in decline
- Sales of organic food are slowing
- Premium ranges such as Tesco Finest are selling less, and bargain ranges are selling more
- Sainsbury’s boss says customers are “shopping like chefs” and buying far more basic ingredients to cook from scratch
- Restaurants are suffering, even bargain chains are seeing a decline in customers
How are you saving on food?
Friday 9 January, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Well, the fact that I happen to eat a veggie diet helps cost-wise for sure…
I’m also a regular visitor to the Asia Market on Drury St. in Dublin – so much cheaper for a lot of things that you might otherwise pay a premium for in the ethnic food aisle in the supermarket or in a health food shop (coconut milk, dried mushrooms, …) plus it’s great for rice and other grains, nuts, dried beans, lentils and the like.
It’s even better value if you want to buy (and have the storage for) bulk quantities of dry goods like rice, which will keep for ages. I usually buy 5kg or 10 kg bags of the stuff.