A regional daily journalist has set herself the challenge of surviving for a year without supermarkets.
Jade Beecroft, pictured below, the deputy news editor at the Derby Telegraph, decided to avoid shopping at any supermarkets for 2013 and is blogging every day about it.
Her blog has become a weekly ‘Food You Can Trust’ column in the Telegraph and a tie-in with the advertising team has seen adverts for smaller producers sold alongside the piece – bringing in around £1,000 a week.
Instead of using supermarkets, Jade has been exploring the independent producers in Derbyshire and buying food from independent producers, farm shops and market stalls.
She said: “I had it in mind for a couple of years and each year there were reasons why I couldn’t do it but there was no reason not to do it this year.
“I wanted to see how reliant we are on them. I was probably going into Tesco and Morrisons five or six times a week.
“It is getting easier. You just don’t have the convenience of the supermarket’s opening hours and having everything under one roof.
“I am definitely enjoying it. It is a nicer way to shop and you meet people and find out where the food comes from. It gives you more respect for your food and we are wasting less because we know who made it and where it comes from.”
For the challenge, Jade will not buy food or petrol at any supermarkets, buy their products online or use their financial services and she may continue doing it into 2014.
Jade’s blog can be viewed here.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
She’ll be able to do that no problem – I hereby invite Jade round to mine for dinner every night for a year. I’ll even provide the washing up liquid for her.
Report this comment
nice one Jade! Supermarkets are very convenient but impersonal and your money’s going to huge companies, apart from the little they pay their staff. They obliterate the retail landscape, closing small shops wherever they open. We try to shop only at the small local shops and keep the money in the same town. Hardly ever use supermarkets.
Report this comment
Unless you live in the barren heart of a big city, food shopping without supermarkets is quite easy. Even washing up liquid etc can be obtained in your local Spar, at a price. But the real problem comes when you can’t get your favourite brand of spray-on floor cleaner, quick sauce thickener, grill-pan pre-soaker etc – even something as once routine as gravy browning can only be found these days on the shelf of a big supermarket. Smaller shops simply don’t stock them (this may be something to do with sell-by dates). Good on yer, though, Jade. BTW, should anyone ever need Reckitt’s Blue, you can usually get it in an Asian grocer!
Report this comment
Shame Jade does not live in Cornwall – we have lots of farm shops/veggie stalls – but also http://www.cornishfoodmarket.co.uk who deliver locally sourced meat,fish,fruit, veg and dairy. Also thecornishfishmonger.co.uk delivers all over the country for fresh sustainable fish and shellfish. Loving it here!
Report this comment