Radical supermarkets?
Well, that’s probably going a tad too far, but check this out from UK supermarket chain Waitrose - a chain of 184 stores around Britain owned by its employees.
Waitrose has an “Organic Commitment” which says:
“At Waitrose our commitment goes much further than simply buying from producers and selling on to our customers. It is a whole philosophy and we have established several unique initiatives to reflect this. We support organic research and development and sponsor organic excellence awards. This shows true commitment, which we hope will encourage more and more farmers and customers to understand that, at Waitrose, organic food is much more than just a passing trend.”
Waitrose introduced organic food in 1983 (early for a supermarket), and twenty years later it still has highest proportion of organics of any British supermarket, refuses eggs from caged hens, and produces much of its own produce on a 1600-hectare farm, according to an article in the Australian Financial Review.
The AFR goes on to say, “So popular is the notion of buying ethically and well at Waitrose that the ‘Waitrose voter’ has even been identified as an electoral force by the British Conservative Party” (see Cameron’s appeal to ‘Waitrose voter’)
Combined with the fact that they give 2% of pre-tax profit to charities, source ethically, give staff time off for volunteer work, provide grants for farmers converting to organic farming, and have ‘buy local’ policies in place at all stores it would seem that corporate social responsibility runs far deeper than greenwash. So, Progressive, Foodstuffs, who’s going to be first to follow?
August 30th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Waitrose is also rather expensive and limited in range.
That’s how they position themselves in the UK - posh nosh for the better class of shopper.
We don’t have the numbers, or the class system.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Luckily Waitrose is my local and I love it! It is more expensive but the food is better quality and I don’t think it is limited in range - for central London I’m just lucky to have anything bigger than a TescoMetro nearby. They have ten different types of mushroom - how is that limited?
However it is funny that you mention eggs as yes, my Waitrose carries a lot of free range eggs, and you can even choose between different breeds of hen, or even get quails eggs etc. But they don’t ever seem to have organic eggs! I have to go to the dairy across the road for that.
Environmental friendliness - they seem pretty good. They offer a large range of environmentally friendly cleaning products which is good, including the water-only cleaning cloths. The staff there always seem happy and friendly. However they never ask me if I need a bag! (check out Envirosax by the way - sexy reusable shopping bags made in Oz)
August 31st, 2007 at 7:45 am
I liked the Wandsworth Waitrose - good quality, but Tescos was a lot bigger.
Organic seems to be a mainstream thing in the UK, which I put down to the BBC.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Everything Waitrose says and sells is nothing but a shrewd exercise in price discrimination - the practise of selling the same product at different prices to different market segments.
Organic food (like “fair trade” coffee) is notorious in this regard - sold at vastly inflated prices to yuppies, with the farmers seeing just a tiny fraction of the extra. Waitrose’s profit-per-employee is vastly in excess of what wicked Tesco - the market-share leader - returns. Yet here’s the Green party lionising the cynical profit-generating machine that is Waitrose.
But perhaps that’s not so surprising: An expensive shop selling over-priced, luxury wholefoods is precisely where you’d expect to find the oh so middle class greens. Their only problem is they can’t understand what we can’t all afford to shop there.
I hear the quails eggs are very good.
August 31st, 2007 at 10:52 pm
so have you got some refs to back up your opinions mouldy?
according to this website, if a coffee is is certified fair trade it will pay:
Currently, the floor price for conventionally grown Arabica beans is $1.26/pound and $1.41/pound if the coffee is certified organic. The Fair Trade floor price is most relevant in times like the present, when the world market price hovers around $0.85/pound (meaning that most small farmers are only getting $0.20-0.40/pound).
In addition Fair trade certification says that:
* The roaster/buyer is obliged to facilitate the coffee producers access to credit-facilities (this is important because otherwise the producer may get ripped off by the middleman).
* Producers and roasters/buyers depend on reliability and continuity. For that reason, relations between both should be based on long term contracts (1 to 10 years).
August 31st, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Maybe I’m a bit cynical, but I think Mouldwarp makes some very good points. A lot of the “green marketing” also strikes me as being aimed at a yuppy market who want to feel good, even if they are not really making a real difference to the environment (and the rest of us who can’t afford these “green” products are labeled as evil, planet wreckers).
It strikes me that the most effective things that people can do to reduce their environmental impact are unsexy and not very marketable, such as walking, cycling, public transport, switching off appliances etc. Anyone can partake in these actions, so they immediately lose their appeal to the elitist, yuppy greens who Mouldwarp is referring to.
Having said that, I think it is unfair to label all greens (or even the majority) as being of the “yuppy” variety. In fact, I think the most environmentally conscious people would often not even label themselves as green. If you remember back a few years to when there were low lake levels (and electricity shortages), I remember seeing news items about old people in the South Island wrapped up in blankets, with hot water bottles etc to save power, while Auckland continued to waste electricity without concern for the rest of the country. I think the same thing is happening now with the problem of climate change. I know quite a few older people, who would not label themselves as green, but who are making far more effort to reduce their environmental impact than other people I know who would call themselves green.
September 2nd, 2007 at 11:18 am
Radical supermarkets — no, it’s not going too far. Some of the food cooperatives in the USA are as big as a supermarket here, and they’re owned and run by the people who shop there. Take a look at Olympia Food co-op for instance — http://www.olympiafood.coop.
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:35 pm
The reason why some items in Waitrose are more expensive than the ‘market leader’ Tesco (and other UK supermarkets such as Asda) is because Tesco take advantage of cheap labour, have no interest in selling healthier organics and fair trade products, and monopolise the UK grocery market. They are only interested in making money and keeping smaller shops out of the market rather than providing customers with nutrition or ensuring their suppliers are paid fairly and operate under ethical conditions.
I’m not saying that Waitrose doesn’t care about increasing it’s finances but evidence such as this shows that they also care about their customers and suppliers. Frankly, I’d rather pay a little more for my food (as I do) than know that it comes at a detrimental cost to both people and planet!
The idea of Waitrose as an upmarket supermarket is an outdated view that does not take into account the fact that an increasing number of UK customers regardless of their so called ‘class’ (another outdated mode) are demanding food that it organic and ethical. NZ will catch on eventually, it just takes time, information and pressure from consumers.