Wandering round the Supermarket at the weekend it was striking how empty some of the shelves were, a noticeable absence of fruit, chicken and lactose free milk, for example.
In some ways it was redolent of some of Eastern European Supermarkets in the late 1980’s as solitary products sat forlornly on the shelves.
I am attending a lunch on Friday in London and we have just been informed that the published menu is having to be changed because they cannot source the produce they had planned to use.
This results in beef being replaced by lamb and a completely new wine offering being made.
Those two little insights tell us that something is not quite right in terms of our supply chains and the consequent availability of various types of food.
However, a sense of proportion is required. These minor inconveniences do feel like just that – minor inconveniences, and are almost the perfect definition of ‘first world problems’.
If we cannot find something we usually have we can try something else.
It is not that long ago that supermarkets used to sell different products by the season, so for example, strawberries and raspberries would be available only in the summer, and we would happily have other food at other times of the year. Strawberries and raspberries would be a special summertime treats, something to look forward to. Now that they can be shipped in all year round from all over the world, they are no longer seen as a treat, just yet another option in an ocean of choice.
Which brings us to another question, Do we almost have too much choice?
Standing in front of a shelf of, for example, jam, in one of the big four supermarket chains can be a baffling experience.
Will the product taste nicer if it is referred to as ‘conserve’? Or if it comes with an elaborate lid and a label written in French? Maybe if the writing is on the jar, rather than on a paper label, it will add some sophistication to the breakfast table?
Maybe we could go for the supermarket’s own brand, or for its ‘premium’ brand if we are feeling extravagant.
There is a label with an old-fashioned, austere sounding Scottish brand, whose graphics seem unchanged since the 1970s as well as one with an old-school traditional English brand which appears to be straight from a gentleman’s club.
Glancing at a popular supermarket website, I note that there is a choice of 58 different items and am delighted to learn that one of the options is actually a substance known as ‘fruit spread’.
Maybe the best option for the efficient shopper is to just go for the simplest sounding item. I quite like the idea of ‘strawberry fruit spread’ on my morning toast.
In an ideal world that would be spread on toast from a loaf described as ‘ordinary sliced bread’, but I suspect nothing quite as straightforward exists in the bakery department.
Choice is generally seen as a good thing.
I do sometimes wonder though whether the success of the German supermarkets is partly down to the relative lack of choice.
The shelves are not creaking under the strain of fundamentally similar items packaged slightly differently.
This enables the customers to select their products quickly and easily.
There is no doubt that people are originally drawn to these supermarkets for their low prices, but I suspect that people return as they are able to quickly find what they need and leave, and every purchasing decision is not a daunting and unnecessarily involved and confusing process.
