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Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets
 
 
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Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets [Paperback]

Joanna Blythman
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial; (Reissue) edition (21 Jan 2010)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007158041
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007158041
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 50,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Joanna Blythman
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Review

She probably knows more than anyone else about where our food comes from.' Nigel Slater

'Joanna Blythman has bravely and compellingly exposed the corrosive effect of supermarkets on our farming and our food culture. And she has rightly identified you, the consumer, as the only person who can do anything about it. Don't read it and weep. Read it and change the way you shop.'
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

'Shocking and powerful' The Guardian

'She'll fire you up with a righteous fervour that may last beyond your return to the mainland.' The Times

'Blythman has provided a compelling wake-up call' Financial Times

The Times

'She'll fire you up with a righteous fervour that may last beyond your return to the mainland.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like I've done, if you ever wondered who paid for those 'buy one, get one free' offers in your local supermarket, this book is ideal. I'm not going to spoil it, it's worth buying the book, but here's a taster:

It explodes the myth that supermarkets offer the customer real 'choice' in the products they offer and that they are being more environmentally friendly, as they waste vasts amounts of fuel with their transportation policies, both at home and abroad. They also throw away perfectly edible fruit and vegetables because they don't meet 'their' standards and 'fine' suppliers £25 for each product returned to them by customers, even if the bag (such as on potatoes) splits by accident.

Stories of apples that are stored for up to a year in special bunkers, which diminish their nutritional value. Fruit and veg farmers paid virtually nothing for their labours and having the prices agreed for their produce cut by the supermarkets even after a price is agreed and they've gone ahead and planted them. Appears to be for no reason at all other than the bottom line....profit and sheer naked greed, although the supermarkets claim this is 'necessary' because of 'competitiors' forcing them to lower their prices, which (of course) they must pass on.

Ever thought about the effect of those tiny trays of mangetout imported from Kenya and other distant places have on the enviromnent? The packaging is transported by air from the UK. Packing sheds of poorly paid local labour tie beans into neat little bundles, seal them in trays and which are then flown back to the UK. That's 2,000 miles for the vegetables and 4,000 miles for the packaging! All that travel can be claimed as a 'business expense'.

After reading this, I stopped buying fruit and veg from suprmarkets and use my local high street grocers more. Better quality, lower prices and they haven't travelled so far. I'm sure you'll think about doing the same.
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91 of 93 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Everyone who shops in supermarkets should read this book. You will end up wondering how we sleepwalked into a situation where the control of 80% of the food retail market is in the hands of a tiny group of greedy retailers who now want to move in on the non-food retail market and have total domination of all retail everywhere.

Joanna Blythman carefully dissects the entrails of the world of supermarkets with the sang-froid of a pathologist in a mortuary, from the way staff are induced into the mindless mantras of Asda Wal-Mart to the way suppliers are mercilessly screwed to the wall and dropped from favour on a whim as in some royal court of the past.

The picture portrayed of the abuse of power employed by the supermarkets conjures up a feeling of complete horror, yet it is done in a completely non-hysterical way, allowing the facts speak for themselves. For example, far from creating jobs, every time a large superstore opens, there is a net loss of 276 jobs; two thirds of butchers have gone out of business in the last twenty-five years; during 2001 one small newsagent closed very day and researchers predict that by 2050 there will be no independent food stores left in the UK - what's that supermarkets are always saying about "choice"?

Whilst researching her book, the author toured around the UK looking at what she calls "the neutron-bomb effect" superstores have on small businesses and how they have contributed to the decline of communities, where all you see are boarded up shops, charity shops, video rental shops and fast food outlets. This all conjures up a depressing vision of the UK where there seems to be very little political will to try and stop the supermarket juggernaut. However, there are some useful tips at the end of the book on how we as individuals can take action against this unhealthy state of affairs, for example, by using your local shops; by questioning the whole supermarket paradigm; by cutting up your loyalty card; by writing to your MP, to name but a few.

This is an intelligently written, riveting and very readable book which systematically explodes all the myths we have been fed by the supermarket marketing machine. It is not a ranting, political polemic but a strongly-reasoned argument by someone who knows the world of food inside out and who cares passionately that we have allowed this disaster to happen.

If you ever wondered why all ready meals taste the same, why supermarket fruit and veg looks great and tastes of nothing, if you ever wondered about the real cost of "cheap" food then read this book. Get angry. Then DO something about it.

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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book achieved the feat of motivating me to completely re-evaluate and change my shopping habits before I'd even got half way through reading it. And I don't feel in the slightest like I'm denying myself anything -- quite the opposite in fact. Nor am I spending any more money than I was before.

I was pretty much your average shopper, doing at least 90% of my food shopping at supermarkets, and buying other stuff there too (like clothes, CDs etc). I've never been on a diet, I'm not particuarly health conscious, I eat plenty of meat, I went for the cheap deals, supermarket own-brand products, and 2 for 1 offers thinking I was beating the system. Seems strange now, though it was only a fortnight ago.

The book does not hector or preach or seek to make anyone feel guilty (despite what one review here claims) but gives you a clear picture of how supermarkets function, and how they affect food production, societies and cultures. Now when I see those 2 for 1 offers, or the rows and rows of identical vegetables, I don't just see the produce, but the people and systems that lie behind it. And this makes it easy to leave it where it is and go shop somewhere else.

Apart from those with environmental and social concerns, I'd also recommend this book to people who want something to help motivate them to eat more healthily -- after reading this it becomes difficult to pick up processed food without picturing the whole crappy system that put it on the shelf, and my motivation to spend a little time cooking fresher stuff is much increased.

The book achieves this is short, well-written chapters, full of well-referenced facts and coherent arguments. It even gives the supermarkets pretty much a whole chapter of their own to respond.

Importantly, the book also gives plenty of information about alternatives to supermarket shopping, and action you can take at all levels, from changing individual habits to joining campaigning groups.

I really wasn't expecting that I'd change my shopping habits so suddenly and radically in the course of a few days. Now I can't see myself ever going back, or ever wanting to.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
great read
after reading this very interesting book,you will not look at supermakets the same again.this book challenges you to try greengrocers,fishmongers and butchers (if you can still... Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. abbott
Good facts - but to wordy
I have just finished reading this book. It has some really interesting facts and good points of view. Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. Hurdus
Needs to get basic facts right
I wanted to like this book. I live in a rural town with plenty of alternatives to the "big four" yet I, like others, tend to default to doing my weekly shop at Tesco (although I do... Read more
Published 12 months ago by bruceybonus
Supermarkets are taking over the planet
Supermarkets are taking over the planet, so says Joanna Blythman. After reading this book, I came to realise that supermarkets are the key link in much of what ails society today. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jennie Wilson
Shopped
Great read, however the book that I received was a different front cover, little disapointing
Published 19 months ago by becky
I found it a bit drippy
When you read through it there's talk of how hard it is to work in a supermarket (for example) - in comparison to farmers, miners, etc from years ago its an easy life - the money... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr. P. A. Mitchell
Poorly written, bias and preachey
I decided to read this book after reading the brilliant Wal-Mart Effect which focuses on similar issues but in an american context so I thought this would do much the same however... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Michelle Sung
Frighteningly enlightening about a town near you
I was beginning to question whether the supermarkets were selling me what I wanted OR what they wanted to sell me. Read more
Published on 12 July 2008 by Timbo
More frightening than any Stephen King horror film
This is a superbly well researched and written book which exposes the dirty tricks that UK supermarket bullies employ. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2008 by Linda Kennedy
Lovely idea for the fortunate few.
Indeed it would be lovely to ditch the supermarkets, especially the 'big four'. For most people who work and live outside London the reality is that the lovely independant food... Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2007 by working woman
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