Supermarket snobbery

‘Supermarkets are crucibles of snobbery’ wrote Harry Wallop, author of a book on ‘how we buy class in modern Britain’. I came across two examples of supermarket snobbery recently – the first of which still has me chuckling.

Apparently there is a pseudo-posh neighbourhood in the west midlands where residents are ‘up in arms’ (i.e. community action has been mobilised) because their Tesco is threatened with closure, to be replaced by an Aldi.

I’m quite a promiscuous and experienced food shopper meself and I suppose favoured in having branches of most chains within easy reach. Tesco is the nearest but always the very last resort in desperation, largely because I find their implied assumptions about food quality insulting. Call it reverse snobbery if you like. Aldi and Lidl always impress me. I know that for certain things (but not everything I need) I can get unfussy good quality – and without all the extra layers of packaging that certain outlets like to use (naming no names, the phrase ‘Marks and Spencer’ would never come to mind in this context).

According to Wallop, drinking coffee is an indicator of social class, and ‘even within coffee there are gradations of snobbery.’ It's probably worth noting though that interest in - even proccupation with - the relative quality of something is not the same as being snobbish about it.

My second anecdote came a while ago when I was staying in a guest house and complemented the hostess on the coffee she served at breakfast. She told me I was the third guest recently to have made that observation - since she had switched from buying Waitrose coffee to Aldi’s Italian.

Image from Lucas Varela.

 

Comments

[Lorna Prescott]

I am frequently surprised that people who work and/or volunteer around social justice perhaps haven’t considered the impact which supermarkets have on some of the things they care about. While all supermarkets look pretty dismal on the Ethical Consumer’s score table http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/food/supermarkets.aspx, it makes me so sad that I know so many people who shop at Asda and Lidl. I wonder what it would take to increase boycotting among people like us?

[Kevin Harris]

Hi Lorna, thanks for your comment. As I understand it the whole supermarket model is in decline and some of the opportunity is being taken by small entrepreneurs, eg farmers' market movement. To me supermarkets illustrate how formidably interlocked so many aspects of capitalism are. Supermarkets thrive on the car culture. But a culture that de-emphasises cars and convenience in favour of local access and quality is a realistic possibility in my view (we have come an enormous distance in that respect in my lifetime I think).