Just The 2 Carrots Please Waitrose
Dear Little Waitrose, High Holborn, London.
I would like to make a request and I hope you can oblige because I believe it is in the interest of you, your customers and just about everyone else for that matter.
I visit your store at least 5 or 6 times a week which generally helps me to buy only what I need for that evening meal and supplies for breakfast and lunch the next day. This means I can keep my food waste to a minimum – something I’m sure you’d be keen to encourage among your customers.
The problem with your store, however, is that it is nigh on impossible to buy single/few vegetables because you insist on selling plastic wrapped, bulk packs and I don’t see any reason for this.
When I wanted to buy 2 carrots to grate into a bolognese the other day, your store was found wanting. I was virtually forced into buying a 1.25kg bag of carrots and while I will do my best to eat them all, I doubt I’ll be able to before they take a turn for the worst. After all, carrots don’t really go with every meal.
The same goes for almost all of the veg you have on offer; potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes among others.
What’s more is that while, on your website, basic carrots are priced at 90p per kilo, a 1.25kg bag doesn’t cost £1.13 as you would expect, it has an extra 12p added onto it, presumably for the cost of packaging them up.
Logic Surely Dictates
Maybe it is just me and my whacky ideas but surely it makes more sense to have loose vegetables in a small store like yours? You have limited space to display items and large, bulky bags of produce like those you insist on stocking take up so much space. I think that with the right kind of shelving, you could offer a much greater variety of vegetables (yours is quite poor as it is) and encourage lower food waste in homes.
Put it this way – my bag of carrots would quite easily be enough for sensible portions for 6 or 7 people which means I have to have carrots in 6 or 7 meals to get through them all; this is not going to happen. I guess around a third will go to waste.
Please can you remember where your store is? In central London your customer base probably consists of a great number of workers from the local offices and, if my experience is anything to go by, many will be young professionals who might cater only for themselves or for a partner too. They don’t want giant bags of veg that will only go to waste.
Maybe The Profit Motive Takes Over
While you have a poor selection in your main vegetable display, you do offer a larger range in your pre-prepared, pre-packaged, chilled section but they are more expensive and have more plastic packaging. Sure, I sometimes buy items from it but I always begrudge paying way over the odds for the same basic foodstuff that has been chopped or peeled for me. I’m quite capable of peeling a carrot!
I wonder whether you purposely stock only large bags of the basic vegetables because you make a slightly higher margin on them and chances are people will throw some away and have to come back to you for another great big bag anyway.
I suspect your overall takings are higher if you work this way. I mean I only wanted 2 carrots which would have cost me maybe 20p at most but instead I spent £1.25 which is an extra 525% revenue for you.
Ironically though, I’d probably buy a lot more veg from your store if they were available loose and with greater range. Rather than looking at a bag of sweet potatoes and wondering how I’m going to use them all before deciding to get something else instead, I’d happily pick up one or two without thinking twice.
So please, Little Waitrose, High Holborn, can you change your ways and stock loose vegetables and a greater variety to boot?
Yours Sincerely
Chief writer and editor on Green Steve. Blogging since 2011, Steve likes to delve into a wide number of topics.
15 Responses to “Just The 2 Carrots Please Waitrose”
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Steve this is a massive problem globally and unfortunately the cause of so much food waste and of course so much use of this excess packaging that we really do not need.
I’ve had same experience so many times just needing one sweet potato and not a whole packet which will deteriorate before use.
PLUS as you say it works out more expensive. That extra money would be better spent paying a wee bit more for organic. No packaging and no toxins on the food.
Oh I agree Karen, I’d much prefer to spend more on organic and avoid all those pesky pesticides but I have to walk a mile to the larger supermarket to even get organic, let alone loose organic!
I think that is one of the main issue with the smaller inner city supermarkets where they simply don’t have the space to stock everything so organic often gets overlooked.
Oh I agree. With just my husband and I, I hate when I realize that cucumbers have gone soft and the potatoes are all moldy. I hate wasting food and I also hate wasting money, and stores are forcing us to do both!
I have the same shopping habits (ie: shopping for one or two meals at a time) but then I live walking distance from the shop. If people were to follow these habits and drive to the shop it would be a nightmare. Furthermore, why not just buy the bigger pack of veg and then make a soup. Veg lasts for AGES in the fridge. Save up all the leftovers and soup it. Unless you desperately want to pay more for single items of veg.
The strange thing is George that bigger packs seem to cost more than individual items – these carrots are no exception, they are ever so slightly more expensive when in wrapping – weird no?
You have to pay more, you have to buy more, and you can’t even pick out the individual carrots you prefer. And then there’s the packaging waste! I’d always rather buy a few at a time.
I guess that’s what you get for the convenience of having a local store just a few minutes away – being such a small store means less choice and less option to buy small quantities but they are working on it so they tell me.
Could you go to a market stall or a greengrocer? They usually sell produce unpackaged.
I shop every day instead of doing one big shop a week and one thing this means is that convenience is a must and there is no greengrocer within a short walk (that I am aware of) and so supermarkets are my only choice. I have since found that the Sainsbury’s local just a but further away actually sells loose verg so I’ll be going there whenever I need some.
I agree. My wife eats a predominantly raw diet, so she always aims for the organic when she can. We buy bulk from Waitrose as it don’t last long (she eats it all) sometimes 15 a day (not the 5 a day they suggest) We prefer to pick the ones we want and not have to buy the ones they choose in the bag. She has a (only if you’re interested) Facebook page “Life Regeneration” we really can do without the extra plastic bags.
Yep, I can only agree with you Dave – the extra plastic is just not necessary and we owe it to future generations not to fill up the land and oceans with our rubbish.
Hi Steve
I am glad you put this on.
Very true, too many plastic packages are used, and I believe many of them are not necessary.
I usually go shopping in Sainsbury’s and only buy the loose food or with paper package, and take home in my own back pack. I am glad Sainsbury’s provides loose food products.
I agree with you the big entrepreneur should provide this option as their single action can bring about big change due to their impact.
Good on you Ken for opting for loose items only AND for using your own bag – that’s at least 2 fewer bits of plastic that enter the waste stream! Not to mention the saving in terms of food waste – I think I may start buying frozen carrots (even though I have a very small freezer compartment) – at least this way the food gets eaten and not thrown in the bin like I did with some of these carrots.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, I hope you’ll come back and read more of my posts and share your views on them.
Since being widowed trying to live within a budget & being environmentally aware I find loose veg the only way to buy within my means & wants. If we go by foot to shop then lugging huge bags of veg is not an option so just buying correct quantities makes sense. The plastic packaging is doubled when another carrier bag is used to cart the hefty bag of veg home. We should all choose to use reusable shopping bags & decline unnecessary packaging if only everyone woke up to the legacy we will leave to our children/ grandchildren.
Good point about having to lug a heavy bag of veg home Vivienne – while I mostly shop in the small Waitrose near my flat, when I need to do a more substantial shop I go to the larger store about 15 minutes away and carrying unnecessary veg back that far is a right pain. Thanks for commenting and I hope you’ll check out more of my posts in the future.