Swindon designer outlet farmers market

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Swindon designer outlet farmers market

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jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28247
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 05 4:53 pm Post subject: Swindon designer outlet farmers market

I have been remiss in not visiting this one before. It is on every Sunday from 10am - 4pm at not surprisingly the designer outlet village shopping centre.

My reasons for not visting have been 3 fold.

1) It used to be advertsied as a French farmers market. A label that implied to me that it would not be very "real".
2) Anything parking itself at the designer outlet with all the designer clothes shops seems to want to classify itself in that vein.
3) When my expectations are low I hate paying for parking

Anyway today seemed like a good day for a quick walk as it is under 2.5 miles, and we wandered out there.

There were about a ten stalls, 3 selling organic or local veg, 4 or so selling meat, and couple of sundry non food stalls.

We bought assorted sausages, veg, and what might be interesting some braising steak which is being cooked along side some supermarket braising steak today. Will there be a noticable difference I wonder?

Prices were 70% higher for sausages than we pay for outdoor reared pork sausages at the supermarket, and also quite a bit dearer for the local veg.

This is where I wish things could be improved. Buying veg without the supermarket as middleman, without the packaging, and without all the size restrictions the supermarkets place on the farmer, should not IMHO end up being MUCH more expensive.

If you live in Swindon though it is worth a visit. I have few problems paying extra when presumably what is being spent is supporting the small guy directly.

What i'd like to see though is someone writing from the opposite side of the stall. I'd liek to know what the cost of the stall is to the stallholder etc.

alison
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 05 9:18 pm Post subject:
Jema Have you read not on the label. In there it is explained that for bananas Sainsburys lost �22 million in one year when asda reduced their core price. I think this happens with a fair amount of veg. The supermarkets use it as the loss leader, squeezing out other suppliers by distorting the price.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28247
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 05 9:38 pm Post subject:

alison wrote:

Jema

Have you read not on the label.

In there it is explained that for bananas Sainsburys lost �22 million in one year when asda reduced their core price.

I think this happens with a fair amount of veg. The supermarkets use it as the loss leader, squeezing out other suppliers by distorting the price.

Wasn't aware that they used veg in this way. I don't think it can be that across the board though, as normal green grocers are generally in my experience fairly on a par price wise with the supermarkets. Not that I have a lot of experience given the shortage of greengrocers round here.

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 05 10:11 pm Post subject:
I think they do it on fruit more than veg. Bananas seem to be a particularly popular promotional tool for some reason. I find supermarket veg more expensive than the greengrocers but we have three greengrocers (looks for smug icon) so that probably keeps the prices down.

alison
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 05 8:18 am Post subject:
Aparently the price of bananas is one that customers use to guage the prices generally in supermarkets.

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 05 8:24 am Post subject:
How odd.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28247
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 05 8:40 am Post subject:

alison wrote:

Aparently the price of bananas is one that customers use to guage the prices generally in supermarkets.

I guess we all have a few thigns we guage by. I use mushrooms, price , quality , variety.

alison
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 05 10:16 am Post subject:
It is bread, milk, bananas, potatoes, butter, and sugar to name a few.

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 05 10:30 am Post subject:

I've always found supermarket pricing of fruit and veg to be generally very high. I also hate the fact that satsumas are absolutely always on offer, 50% extra or BOGOF. Anyway, we have just one greengrocer in our town (though he may be closing soon) and his British produce is far cheaper than either Tesco or Sainsbury's.

I think you've nailed it, Jema, with 'supporting the small guy directly'. Many supermarket suppliers are large farms which means lower per-acre overheads, so they will be selling it to the supermarkets cheaper than the small farmer who has only a local market.

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