Supermarkets

[TofuFooYung]

Just a quick rant about supermarkets.

Because I have to travel several miles to reach a health food store to pick up things like Redwoods vegan foods and other bits, my two local supermarkets are the closest places to buy what I need from during the week.

The local Tesco used to sell vegan foods like Plamil chocolate and Cheezly cheese and Alpro vegan yogurt. They've now stopped!

This means that whenever I go shopping out of town, I have to buy all the special vegan items (which costs a fortune) in one go. I may just be being a glutton here, but you know what it's like when you have a bag full of vegan food right there in front of you... snack attack! I usually eat everything within the first few days of buying it as its a big treat to be able to have something different :-(

Supermarkets are definitely getting better for stocking vegan stuff (and labelling it), but they make living easy hard by not having the basics!

I really don't like big supermarkets anyway since they destroy local businesses, but when they're the only place to buy stuff from, you'd think they'd make more of an effort!

Rant over.... unless anyone else wants to join in!

[Mr Flibble]

It's all about convenience really. No vegan in the UK has it harder than meat eaters had it in the time between the dawn of and 50 years ago. Our generation has just been bought up with convenience foods and we expect them to be available. Certainly have the option to buy vegan convenience food is nice and very useful in some situations, but if you cook from scratch(ish) then supermarkets have thousands of products available to vegans for an interesting and balanced diet.

[VeganJohn]

Where I live, aside from a fairly badly run Holland and Barrett (stock is always out, fridges often broken etc) I have no other choice than to shop at supermarkets. I live near a small Co-op that is quite good, but there is no other option than to shop at the big supermarkets. I sometimes pop into a health food shop when I am in the closest city, but not very often. The shop also doesn't sell nutritional yeast flakes or egg replacer.

I miss living in Leeds, as I lived right next to an excellent health food store.

[abrennan]

There is something to what Flibble says

I always think of supermarkets as food graveyards. There is very little real food in there, just the corpses of what was food.

i am afraid that most of the Vegan food available in supermarkets is not really for human consumption.

It's much better for you to make your own, just more difficult if you're already used to things that come out of packets.

Supermarkets certainly are convenient. There are a few things that I buy in there, I spend more money at the fruit and vege market and at a big health food place nearby the supermarket.

Antony shopping

[seviya]

I totally agree with Mr. Flibble and abrennan.

Where I live in the US, the grocery stores don't carry much vegan stuff - it's the "organic" label that's proving more proftable for them. So you can get yerself some good ol' grass-fed milk, but that's the extent of their supply. While one grocery store does carry specialty vegan products, it's 30 miles away. So I feel your pain!

However, I resolved this issue very quickly by deciding to just not buy those specialty products anymore. They're too expensive, and it's too much of a drive/bus-journey. So instead I just live with it and eat what the grocery stores have - beans, veggies, etc, all good wholesome stuff. No vegan cheese, no tofurky, no vegan chocolate (though if I was honest with myself I don't miss them at all - they're a bit too much like the "real" thing to me, make me feel like I'm still hankering after the "real" thing, so I'm uncomfortable having them around. The big tub of Veganaise in the back is the only item to survive this culling. :( But that is totally just me and I respect everyone else's right to feel differently!)

Luckily the grocery stores sell some whole-wheat bread with no milk, high fructose corn syrup, or eggs. "Whole grain goodness" is the new marketing slogan of the big co.'s, and is proving very profitable as well. *sigh*

[abrennan]

I don't know what it's like in non-australia but here at the s-market when they have organic veggies they wrap up up in platic with plastic trays under em, kind of defeats part of the purpose for me. I think they do it so people can't take the organic sticker off and buy it for regular prices.

Antony shopper

[cedarblue]

i've noticed that my local asda have stopped selling the cauldron marinated tofu peices and the veggie 'worcestershire' sauce :(

[vegan1969]

Shopping is a hassle for us. We usually go to about 3 stores and order offline to get what we want. Vegan cheese slices are totally unavailable unless we want to drive about 60 miles, so we do without. One more rant, we can only get soybeans from the health store and they are out over half the time so I'm going to order a huge 20lb bag online to solve that problem. If you store them like onions, in a dry, cool place they will keep for up to a year so I've heard. Rant over.....

[treehugga]

I mainly shop at healthfood shops and cook from scratch. I don't find cooking all that time consuming really. I often make up double and freeze some for those convienient meals. You can always manage to buy fruit and veg, legumes and nuts and seeds and create interesting meals in a flash. :)

[Smoothie]

i usuallt try to do without all of the fancy vegan-specialities. i mean, too much soy is not very healthy (just like too little..)
i usually just buy bunches of fresh organic veggies, fruits, pasta, juices, potatoes, oils and legumes, and then try to be creative. i mean, you might as well see it as a treat to eat something like vegan cheese, tofu, soy ice cream and stuff like that, and then just eat "regular supermarket foods" most of the time.. it's more economical, which means that you can buy your everyday foods organic:D

[twinkle]

I like the fancy food, and it always pisses me off when supermarkets stop stocking something vegan (Swedish Soft cheese being one of the ones I miss the most).

Another solution apart from cooking everything from scratch (what *is* scratch, how does it make its way into so many of our foodstuffs? howcome it doesn't seem to be government regulated??) :rolleyes: might be to lobby the supermarkets to get products in for you. If you tell customer services that you guarentee to buy say, half a case of the pruduct, they may be more willing to give it another shot on their shelves?

[Sheila]

I feel so fortunate that my supermarket Lowes Foods is only 1/2 mile from my house and they have so many vegan and organic products it really amazes me. I can get just about any kind of food I want. They also have a whole section of natural care items: Alba, Toms, Kiss My Face, etc...

The only things I can't buy there are available at another store which is only 1 mile away at Earth Fare. They carry the fakin' bacon, vegenaise, chreese, and vegan cheese, braggs, tvp, and all organic produce. This store saves me because I love a good BLT.

I am blessed by the grocery gods.

Sheila

[Roxy]

I go to 2 separate grocery stores. One to buy my organic fruit and veg and the other to buy my organic/vegan/environmentally conscious groceries.

It's a pain, and I wish that one grocery store near me would stock the lot.

[Jane M]

I'm pretty lucky that the grocery store near me carries quite a few vegan and organic foods but then the location I live in demands it. They would lose a lot of customers if they didn't. They are convenient in a way because of the parking and all, but the food co-op here is much cheaper if I buy my staples in bulk. Now that summer is coming I will have the farmers market to get a lot of fresh organic fruits and veggies also. That is when I stop going to the grocery store...during the summer and fall.

[Tigerlily]

The store near me sells pretty much everything I need except for Earth Balance margarine. I really should tell them about it...

[Mystic]

I am a supermarket girl. I can't afford organic or fancy things - but supermarket generally stocks vegan cheese, flavoured (and plain) soy milk, burgers, hot dogs, mayo, chocolate bars, ice cream, margarine, yoghurt etc... I tend to only buy ice cream & chocolate once in a while, and margarine. At my supermarket, I buy canned beans, dried red lentils, rice, pasta, tomato paste, oatmeal, ketchup, herbs/spices, bread, pita, peanut butter, hummus and fruits & vegetables. I have a very simple diet - but I hate fancy food - so it works well :D

[treehugga]

I don't like most supermarkets. They have become mega multi greeds, cutting out local farmers and paying growers a pittance and selling products full of crap and packaging.

I get a large box of organic veg delivered from a local ethical company.

Then I buy all I can at local health food shops, deli's etc.

I buy the small amount I can't get anywhere else from the supermarket but try and target my purchases to small aussie owned companies.

I've never found this expensive. I even bought this way a few years back when I was a single parent student living on Austudy payments.

[cedarblue]

sainsbury's have stopped selling bacos in my local store - apparently there was no demand for them :mad:

hopefully waitrose still sell them :(

[IlFromaggio]

http://www.tescopoly.org/

http://archive.corporatewatch.org/pages/check_out.htm

http://www.asdawatch.org/index.asp

[Christie]

How come sainsburys has stopped giving out vegan lists of food because of "low demand" however have a whole section to veganism and vegan recipes on their website. They suggest veganism but then offer no help? I think its weird. Or have they decided to create one again lately? It was about a month ago when I asked last.

[xwitchymagicx]

It is quite easy for me to get food here, I don't like supermarkets but as I'm not paying for the food well...I can't complain.

I get things like vegetables and stuff from ASDA, and the "fancy" things, like cream cheese or anything from the health food stores, we have 3 in town that sell quite a lot, and we also have a sainsburies in town so it isn't hard for me, usually, to find what I want. :)

[IlFromaggio]

As far as i am concerened suermarkets promote the mass murder of animals, experimentation on animals and the exploitation of animals and people.

There is always an alternative ,the problem is most people cannot be asked to do something about it. As vegans we should be united in not supporting these slaughter houses and come up with ways to help one another. Find other vegans and veggies in your area and start a co-operative to get food cheap, use local shops more, order online from places like Infinity and Suma (Cheap if there are a few of you).

When you buy something from the supermarkets your money promotes death for animals, hardship for people and devestation of the planet. Only by helping one another and trying to find alternatives can we achieve a better world for the animals. Forums are here to do just that and maybe trying to sort out how to get cruelty free food would be a good start to getting out of the Supermarkets.

You woud not go int a butchers shop if they sold a good selection of Vegan food and supermarkets sell a lot more death than a butcher does. The only way to get a better life is to do what is right and find an alternative.

[Mr Flibble]

As far as i am concerened suermarkets promote the mass murder of animals, experimentation on animals and the exploitation of animals and people.

Without meaning to sound dense, can you explain more?

[xwitchymagicx]

No point trying to make me feel guilty for using supermarkets really, everywhere these days, pretty much promotes the death of some sort of animal or cruelty to animals anyway. :(

Also my mum buys my food so I can't tell her to buy ALL vegan, ALL organic, and ALL from local stores or whatever.

[sandra]

Unfortunately, just by living, we too, as vegans are causing the death of other beings. Food bought in 'vegan stores' has in the process hurt animals. The harvesting of crops etc for us to eat has killed many life forms. I'm not saying this is the same as killing animals deliberately of course.
Instead of alienating supermarkets we as vegans should be encouraging them to better ways. Show them there is a demand for vegan products. We cannot escape life as it is, we have to try bit by bit to change things.
I often wonder why those vegans in the world that have wealth don't start up vegan concerns, large supermarket type shops selling vegan products. Sadly, either very wealthy vegans don't exist [although I can think of one at least] or they have no desire to change things.