Eschew supermarkets and be healthier, happier
Supermarkets don’t make sense to me.
Firstly the fruit and meat they sell us is not first-grade quality. It’s more like third grade if you are lucky, being sold at first grade prices. This is how they beat the system.
Another cunning trick they use in the vegetable aisle is cutting up or carving the vegetables like pumpkin into six to eight pieces — and hey presto your cheap pumpkin is now worth 20 to 30 bucks.
Halve a cauliflower or cabbage; prices double magically. Pre-packaged 1kg becomes 700g but prices don’t change.
Imported inferior butter from the US sneaks in among the Kiwi stuff .
The supermarket shelving is a psychological nightmare for the elderly and infirm. Bargains always on the bottom shelf at floor level which are impossible to reach. More expensive products which are easy to reach are at eye level.
And the government knows this. They make noises but do nothing because the duopoly employs thousands and keeps them off the dole, saving government handouts.
Things are changing — they are slowly reducing staff dramatically, with fewer checkouts open and using self-service checkouts and online shopping and are now deleting the butchers. The meat arrives prepacked from their suppliers.
It saves them millions of dollars nationwide, but we still pay premium for third-rate products while the world gorges themselves on first-grade export quality food most Kiwis have never tasted.
In return our children’s health suffers with more trips to the doctor or the hospital due to bad nutrition.
It’s time to fight back — purchase where you can from local suppliers, farmers’ markets. You will be surprised how much you can save.
Better quality and longer shelf life.
Bad cheese
Regarding Ian James’ letter, is this product really cheese? It is virtually tasteless.
Although it is not labelled as such, hurried shoppers assume by the blue wrapping that it is Edam.
Definitely not. A bad buy.
When ideology and facts collide, what is needed?
Judy Layland (Letters (11.6.26) obviously feels that ideology is more important than historical fact.
To find out what the greatest Māori of modern times thought she should read the Treaty of Waitangi: An Explanation, published in 1922 by Sir Āpirana Ngata.
The principles that she lists, i.e. protection, participation and partnership are not part of the original Treaty of 1840 but were added by the Waitangi Tribunal in the 1970s in a unilateral process. This new Treaty was never tested democratically and is not universally accepted.
What is needed for the future of this country is an acceptance that all are equal and a willingness to deal fairly with the aspirations of different groups.
Lee backed
Andrew Glennie (9.6.26), you are entitled to your views. May I say that Cr Lee Vandervis is very eloquent, learned and caring. I appreciate Cr Vandervis standing up for the views he holds, although I do not always agree.
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