Some people are happy to use supermarkets; others avoid them at all costs. Most of us end up somewhere in the middle – buying some foods from big stores and others from independent health/wholefood shops.
The case for supermarkets is that foods tend to be cheaper, of course. And, as vegans, we want to see a wide range of plant-based foods become more mainstream and readily available, so it’s good to see more products available to the wider public and better labelling. It’s always tempting to buy foods from these big stores to encourage them to stock more.
Against them: they squeeze the profit margins out of producers, put smaller traders out of business, turn town centres into uninteresting monocultures and often encourage car travel to their out-of-town superstores. They are also heavily involved in the meat and dairy industries.
Independent wholefood shops (other than Holland & Barrett, which is the biggest chain store in the business) are often, but not always, run by individuals with a belief in promoting vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. Their smaller scale means they can’t always compete with the bigger shops on ‘special offers’, but the best of them stock a great range of foods, can give expert advice, and are usually happy to order items they don’t normally stock. Clearly, such enterprises deserve to succeed.
Is it inevitable that, as a movement becomes more popular and mainstream, the modestly-sized innovators are swallowed up and assimilated by the greedy corporations?
Or – if we can afford it – should we carry on supporting the green economy as far as we can?