Dying
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@MajorRage said in Aging:
Supermarket pain seems to be amplified when in the UK. At least in NZ the staff usually at least try to be helpful.
I very quickly learned that most of the pain could be removed using an online supermarket. Lucky for us the distribution centre was not far so if you booked an early morning delivery slot 99% of the time you were first delivery and didn't have to wonder when they were turning up.
Found I spent less as well as you don't trawl the aisles or make impulse purchases as easy. Just check and adjust your usual items and hit go.I couldn't believe the cost in London last year for a cart full of groceries and booze. When the price came up I exclaimed "Really?!?" and the checkout operator thought I was saying it was expensive.
It's sooooo much cheaper than a cart full in NZ.
really depends on what you buy and/or the quality level you are happy with. Some items I used to do a double take on how expensive they were. Some were same price in £s as $s.
Of course there is also no such thing as seasonal pricing on fruit and veg. You pay the same all year and the supermarkets source it from cheap suppliers around the world. I tend to buy seasonally in NZ and don't waste money on buying stuff in scarce supply.
The other thing is the availability of what would be an imported or boutique product in NZ at a high price whereby in the UK you can get it cheap e.g. fish mozzarella or real Parmesan. Then again something like a tasty cheddar is equiv of $16 for a kg block.
Food prices in general are kept down a lot by being part of a massive EU market. One of the reasons I couldn't understand why anyone would vote Brexit. The local products are higher priced than the EU imported for sure.As I said, a cart of groceries, generally speaking, not specifically.
Heaps cheaper in London than NZ.... generally
What is a 'general' cart of groceries though?
Buying the cheapest in the UK is cheaper than NZ, I agree. I could go to Lidl and fill a trolley full of shite for under a £100. Even buying the cheapest shite at Pak'N'Save would be well over that.
Heaps cheaper though? Nah, not for me and I am the shopper in our house and currently working out prices etc and adjusting back to things here.Two Saturdays ago, a Vicks inhaler, sixpack of small Coke Zero cans and packet of Ibuprofen in New World Warkworth was $23! Was shocked!
Hungover much?
On ocado.com this comes in 2.12 + 2.99 + 2.92 for Nurofen. So 8.04. Exchange rate of 2, it's around 16 or roughly 33% cheaper.
The real cheapness of the UK comes in when you move away from branded things. Could probably get the Nurofen for 50p if go on a different brand, and similar for the inhaler.
Dreadful cold. Can't remember last time I bought inhalers. Worked though!
Try mentholated crystals dissolved in hot water. Mrs Cato swears by them, although she calls it crystal meth and no she is not being "ironic" or "funny".
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One thing I am noticing as I near 50 is the increasing nunber of females under 35 who are using the tactic of ignoring me to get me to sleep with them. Well, ladies, the joke's on you. Treating me as though I am invisible ain't working.
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@mariner4life said in Aging:
this thread is going to get delicious
Looks like my choice of Fern name was way before it's time.
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Food prices in general are kept down a lot by being part of a massive EU market. One of the reasons I couldn't understand why anyone would vote Brexit. The local products are higher priced than the EU imported for sure.
It's heavily subsidised from taxation. Farmer up our road has 400 acres and gets $NZ60,000 for, well, just having cows. There's also the 45%-ish tariff the EU puts on imported food.
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Jeez, great thread for an old bugger like me.
My favourite hate are the retired couples who enjoy driving at 40mph so they can have an animated conversation while the traffic builds up behind them.
What the fuck is so important that it can only be discussed in a bloody Nissan Micra?
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I'm just going to step away from the Grumpy Old Man thing for a second:
@MajorRage said in Aging:
My only gripe is the ridiculous use of plastic to wrap things which don't need to be wrapped
It is an interesting move by supermarkets, particularly when it comes to fresh produce.
I work for Woolworths here in Australia, and one of the teams in our area handles waste and recycling - everything from cardboard and plastic to food waste and chicken fat from the ovens etc.
The question about e.g. wrapping a cucumber in plastic while taking away plastic shopping bags comes up regularly. The answer is fairly simple: if you wrap that cucumber in plastic, the shelf life is increased by 2 weeks, and therefore more chance of selling it in the intended condition.
That means you're less likely to dump it as food waste - which can be diverted to food programs or farmers, but still requires transport and other "wasted" energy to get there.
All of our supermarkets now have a Soft Plastics recycling bin at the front of the store, so you can take your plastic bread bags, chip packets, cucumber wrapping etc. and put it there for free to reduce landfill.
It also makes it easier to label produce and therefore scan it at the register and therefore get the customer out the door quicker.
Even if they are a grumpy old bastard who wants to waste time in line complaining about plastic wrap
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I'm just going to step away from the Grumpy Old Man thing for a second:
@MajorRage said in Aging:
My only gripe is the ridiculous use of plastic to wrap things which don't need to be wrapped
It is an interesting move by supermarkets, particularly when it comes to fresh produce.
I work for Woolworths here in Australia, and one of the teams in our area handles waste and recycling - everything from cardboard and plastic to food waste and chicken fat from the ovens etc.
The question about e.g. wrapping a cucumber in plastic while taking away plastic shopping bags comes up regularly. The answer is fairly simple: if you wrap that cucumber in plastic, the shelf life is increased by 2 weeks, and therefore more chance of selling it in the intended condition.
That means you're less likely to dump it as food waste - which can be diverted to food programs or farmers, but still requires transport and other "wasted" energy to get there.
All of our supermarkets now have a Soft Plastics recycling bin at the front of the store, so you can take your plastic bread bags, chip packets, cucumber wrapping etc. and put it there for free to reduce landfill.
It also makes it easier to label produce and therefore scan it at the register and therefore get the customer out the door quicker.
Even if they are a grumpy old bastard who wants to waste time in line complaining about plastic wrap
Pretty one-dimensional argument you have there Nick. A shrink wrapped cucumber is one vegetable. What about all the other non-shrink wrapped?
Why is it cheaper to buy 3 peppers in a breathable cellophane plastic bag than 3 seperate ones?
Why are so many vegetables wrapped in plastic which is non-recyclable (this maybe not be an Oz issue)?
Why when I buy two avocado's do they need to sit in a plastic tray & then be wrapped?
Why are 4 tins of beans cheaper when wrapped in plastic, than buying 4 tins of beans?When I look at my rubbish / recycling each week, 95% of the plastic contents are food wrappings from supermarkets, of which I would estimate 90% are superfluous. I should be able to walk into a supermarket with a reusable bag / cardboard box, buy all my produce unwrapped and walk out with them all in the one bag. Why is it I can do that any farmers market, local farm shop, produce retailer, but not at the supermarket?
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@MajorRage said in Aging:
I'm just going to step away from the Grumpy Old Man thing for a second:
@MajorRage said in Aging:
My only gripe is the ridiculous use of plastic to wrap things which don't need to be wrapped
It is an interesting move by supermarkets, particularly when it comes to fresh produce.
I work for Woolworths here in Australia, and one of the teams in our area handles waste and recycling - everything from cardboard and plastic to food waste and chicken fat from the ovens etc.
The question about e.g. wrapping a cucumber in plastic while taking away plastic shopping bags comes up regularly. The answer is fairly simple: if you wrap that cucumber in plastic, the shelf life is increased by 2 weeks, and therefore more chance of selling it in the intended condition.
That means you're less likely to dump it as food waste - which can be diverted to food programs or farmers, but still requires transport and other "wasted" energy to get there.
All of our supermarkets now have a Soft Plastics recycling bin at the front of the store, so you can take your plastic bread bags, chip packets, cucumber wrapping etc. and put it there for free to reduce landfill.
It also makes it easier to label produce and therefore scan it at the register and therefore get the customer out the door quicker.
Even if they are a grumpy old bastard who wants to waste time in line complaining about plastic wrap
Pretty one-dimensional argument you have there Nick. A shrink wrapped cucumber is one vegetable. What about all the other non-shrink wrapped?
Why is it cheaper to buy 3 peppers in a breathable cellophane plastic bag than 3 seperate ones?
Why are so many vegetables wrapped in plastic which is non-recyclable (this maybe not be an Oz issue)?
Why when I buy two avocado's do they need to sit in a plastic tray & then be wrapped?
Why are 4 tins of beans cheaper when wrapped in plastic, than buying 4 tins of beans?When I look at my rubbish / recycling each week, 95% of the plastic contents are food wrappings from supermarkets, of which I would estimate 90% are superfluous. I should be able to walk into a supermarket with a reusable bag / cardboard box, buy all my produce unwrapped and walk out with them all in the one bag. Why is it I can do that any farmers market, local farm shop, produce retailer, but not at the supermarket?
Our weekly rubbish/recycling (lots of it rubbish) in the UK would easily be twice what it is in NZ. And yes, the biggest culprit by far is packaging.
The amount of beer/wine bottles doesn't change much though -
Our weekly rubbish/recycling (lots of it rubbish) in the UK would easily be twice what it is in NZ.
Same here. What gets me in the UK is supermarkets never using/offering paper bags and using hard-to-recycle plastic instead - even for loose things like vegetables. Does NZ still use paper bags for groceries?
The Amazon stuff we get is almost 100% recyclable so kudos to them
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Aging:
Our weekly rubbish/recycling (lots of it rubbish) in the UK would easily be twice what it is in NZ.
Same here. What gets me in the UK is supermarkets never using/offering paper bags and using hard-to-recycle plastic instead - even for loose things like vegetables. Does NZ still use paper bags for groceries?
The Amazon stuff we get is almost 100% recyclable so kudos to them
The bags supermarkets have replaced plastic bags with will take many, many times longer to decompose. But apparently they're "reusable" so all good, as if nobody anywhere was reusing the previous plastic bags for anything...
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According to some experts, the move to "reusable" plastic bags has caused even more plastic pollution. One billion heavy-duty "bags for life", which contain more plastic, are produced/sold in the UK every year.
And yet our local supermarket is selling "reusable up to 5 times" paper bags for 50p a bag, Bonkers,
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Getting back to aging.... It's weird how some things get worse others get better.
My knees have been pretty much knackered since my mid-40's but have actually got better in my 60's. Strength and suppleness has atrophied but my endurance has got better - I can do a couple of hours clearing scrub/bracken/brambles non-stop which is way better than 10 years ago.
And is can still stand on the footpegs on the Honda despite the arthritic ankle.....
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Aging:
According to some experts, the move to "reusable" plastic bags has caused even more plastic pollution. One billion heavy-duty "bags for life", which contain more plastic, are produced/sold in the UK every year.
And yet our local supermarket is selling "reusable up to 5 times" paper bags for 50p a bag, Bonkers,
I’d believe it. That’s why I find the whole plastic bag drop at supermarkets bullshit. Not using them in the first place is the better idea.
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I'm just going to step away from the Grumpy Old Man thing for a second:
@MajorRage said in Aging:
My only gripe is the ridiculous use of plastic to wrap things which don't need to be wrapped
It is an interesting move by supermarkets, particularly when it comes to fresh produce.
I work for Woolworths here in Australia, and one of the teams in our area handles waste and recycling - everything from cardboard and plastic to food waste and chicken fat from the ovens etc.
The question about e.g. wrapping a cucumber in plastic while taking away plastic shopping bags comes up regularly. The answer is fairly simple: if you wrap that cucumber in plastic, the shelf life is increased by 2 weeks, and therefore more chance of selling it in the intended condition.
That means you're less likely to dump it as food waste - which can be diverted to food programs or farmers, but still requires transport and other "wasted" energy to get there.
All of our supermarkets now have a Soft Plastics recycling bin at the front of the store, so you can take your plastic bread bags, chip packets, cucumber wrapping etc. and put it there for free to reduce landfill.
It also makes it easier to label produce and therefore scan it at the register and therefore get the customer out the door quicker.
Even if they are a grumpy old bastard who wants to waste time in line complaining about plastic wrap
Who the fuck carts their rubbish back to the supermarket? It is hard enough to remember to take your bags.
To borrow a term from the politics thread, this is virtue signalling from the supermarket. We all know that the reason we can't put those soft plastics out in the recycle collection is that no one wants them and they cost too much to dispose of.
The answer is not to capture a tiny % back through a bin at the supermarket (god knows what happens to it after that) but to stop using it in the first place.
Even taking away the 'green' aspect (in reality we don't have a landfill issue in most of NZ) the annoying thing about this packaging for us grumpy old men is that we have to deal with the shit in the first place (and pay for it).
