Local doesn’t mean dearer
Jan 23 2009 By Jane Hall, The Journal
Contrary to popular belief, local food is often cheaper than produce sold in supermarkets. Jane Hall looks at how buying, using and eating local can be a cheaper option in the credit crunch.
SUZI Howey has a confession to make. She hates shopping. Even for food. Which is ironic as she is one of the team behind a North East-based home-delivery grocery service. Working for Food Local Food has its advantages, however. She doesn’t have far to go to replenish her larder.
It’s only a short distance from office to warehouse at Food Local Food’s headquarters in the aptly-named Old Kitchen at Bothal Castle near Morpeth.
And what choice she has. The Northumber- land business supplies a growing number of customers with everything from premium bread and cakes to vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, game and dairy produce. In fact, everything edible a food lover could wish for.
What’s more, it’s fresh, seasonal and local.
Until recently, Suzi couldn’t remember the last time she had stepped over the threshold of one of the nation’s major supermarkets. She had no need to.
Then at a business event she was asked if Food Local Food would be reviewing its prices as the supermarket credit crunch price war hots up.
She asked why and was told, ‘Well, everyone knows buying local costs more than at a supermarket. If people are watching their pennies they won’t use you.’
Suzi admits she had naively never imagined Food Local Food could find itself a casualty of the worsening economic climate. She had assumed the quality of the produce offered would speak for itself.
Jolted into action, she decided to turn mystery shopper to see if the opposition posed a threat. The results of her investigation shocked her – but not as you may imagine. Food Local Food, she discovered, was as competitive – in many cases more so – than its high street rivals.
Not, she says, that she should have been surprised by the outcome. “I know when we attend food events and we sell free-range eggs that people can’t believe how little we charge. A dozen eggs from us is nearly as cheap as buying half a dozen from the supermarkets.
“Customer feedback had always suggested that our fruit and vegetables were cheaper too.”
Cut-price eggs and carrots are all very well. But on their own they wouldn’t be enough to encourage most people to abandon the supermarkets in favour of a farm shop. Especially if you had to travel miles to buy them.
No one would disagree that buying locally produced, reared or grown food is not as easy as it might be, with goods often scattered across a wide area or only available through selected retailers or farmers’ markets.
Which is why Food Local Food was launched 10 months ago by Northumberland mother of two Alison Taylor. Bringing together more than 100 food and drink producers and suppliers from across the region, it offers consumers unprecedented choice – 2,500 lines all in one location.
But Food Local Food is not a stand-alone shop. To make it easier for consumers to buy into what Suzi and Alison hope will become a regional food revolution, you can only order online or over the phone. Then for a flat rate of £3.50, your goods are delivered to your door.
Only two of the suppliers are from outside the North East.
Suzi says the grocery service has blown away the myth that buying into the local food revolution is only for the rich. And she maintains that farm shops and farmers’ markets can be equally competitive. But with outlets like Blagdon, Moorhouse and Brocksbushes farm shops all selling through Food Local Food, it’s a win-win situation for both consumers and suppliers.
The reason local food can be cheaper is simple. Overheads are lower, especially for those who sell exclusively through farmers’ markets, and because goods only travel a short distance, transport costs are slashed.
“Some food travels thousands of miles. Our food travels tens of miles,” Suzi explains. “We pull everything together and people don’t have to drive miles, for example, to Moorhouse at Stannington or Ridleys Fish and Game at Acomb, to buy. But the really good part is that the supplier is still making a sale, just not directly over the counter.
“I believe we are doing a very good job servicing both suppliers and customers at very competitive prices. But if we have failed – and by we I mean the local food industry – then it is in not jumping up and down and shouting about the fact we are often cheaper.
“I find all the time when speaking to people about Food Local Food that the assumption is we are going to be very expensive, and I am forever saying, ‘No, we aren’t.’
“We are cheaper than many of the supermarkets on everything from milk to free-range eggs, premium ready meals, locally-grown vegetables, bacon and lots of our meat.
“It’s all down to persuading the public they are getting a better deal and a better product. Unfortunately, we have got so used to the supermarkets saying they are cheaper that we believe them.
“The big guys with their enormous budgets can afford to go on TV and go up against each other with their ‘our shopping basket is cheaper than yours’ tactics. Local food producers don’t have that sort of cash and have to rely on word of mouth.
“But the evidence speaks for itself as far as we are concerned. Once people have used us, most stick with us. We have a 93% retention rate for customers. That is because we supply premium, quality food at good prices. And if you aren’t happy, then we offer a no-quibble, money-back guarantee.
“Half the battle is making it easier for people to buy.”
Even where prices are more expensive – premium bread and alcohol are two commodities where Food Local Food doesn’t fare well against the big names – normally the difference is not so enormous as to put the consumer off, especially if you were to take into account the petrol used to drive to a supermarket.
Suzi recognises that with the major food retailers now immersed in an aggressive price war that has seen the launching of new and ever-cheaper basics ranges – Asda, for example, is currently selling an 800g loaf of white or wholemeal bread for 47p, yoghurts at three for £1 and salmon steaks at £2 – that food shoppers can, if they so wish, save money on a scale not seen for 25 years.
Discounters like Aldi and Lidl have come of age as the economy suffers, with both reporting strong growth as squeezed shoppers, especially those with families, seek out bargains.
But Suzi believes Food Local Food can hold its own. “What we supply is absolutely unique and premium.
“No one would deny you can buy very cheap if you want, but people still have a taste for premium products, and in the long run they can work out better value as you get more for your money.
“A chicken at £3.99 sounds great, but it’s not if it’s pumped up with water, the meat is tasteless and you only get one meal off it.
“A free-range bird costs more but it isn’t full of proteins and water to make it look bigger, it tastes better, you eat less because it is meatier and it will easily stretch. You can roast it, curry it, turn it into a pie and then boil the carcass for stock if you wish.
“There is a train of thought that local should command top prices, and while that can apply to some hard to grow or make products, Food Local Food is as competitive as the big stores. And that is because everything is, as the name suggests, local.”
Food Local Food doesn’t aspire to compete with the supermarkets, however. “We can’t as we don’t have the buying power,” Suzi admits. “The supermarkets, for obvious reasons, do everything from a financial point of view. Their need to make money is very great. Our suppliers also need to make a living, but for them there is more to it; passion and pride in what they do also play a big part, and that come across in the end product.”
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