“Pollock for puss
Coley for the cat”

Back to my tour of Booth’s flagship store in Garstang (see yesterday’s posting). We were shown the fresh meat, the fresh fish and the vegetable sections. For some reason our host skipped over the processed and frozen food aisles, which is a pity because this is where they make most of their money. A young man who works on the fish counter proudly told us about his training and the store’s policy of selling only ’sustainable’, fish- which means pollock rather than cod.

After seeing what was on offer, did I feel tempted to change my shopping habits? I’m afraid not- in fact I was rather shocked at the lack of choice and the inferior quality. The fish counter was frankly pathetic, with very little on offer and what there was looking tired and shrivelled. Funnily enough there was no sign of pollock, coley or cod
On the meat counter there was a decent choice, but the beef had no marbling and looked very red, which is an indicator that it hadn’t been properly hung. It wasn’t a patch on the choice and quality on offer at Higginsons in Grange.

The brutal truth is that if Booths are to survive they have to compete with the likes of Tescos and Morrisons which means that, whatever their PR people might say, they are driven down to the lowest common denominator on price and quality. And so, in answer to your question, No, I’ll not be tempted to return, as long as there’s an alternative to go to.

I don’t patronise any supermarket for the very simple reason that if they get my custom the small independent shopkeeper doesn’t. But I’m very interested in what the supermarkets get up to which is why I accepted an invitation for a behind the scenes look at a new Booths store in Garstang at the invitation of Slow Food, Lancashire. It seems pretty clear that Booths are trying to position themselves as the Waitrose of the North West and they have a PR department who publicise their policy of supporting local suppliers.

Tonight we were treated to a talk by one of these suppliers, Singletons, who specialise in making Lancashire Cheeses. It was very good of Booths to support these local artisans but could they, we wondered, supply enough to satisfy Booth’s customers? Too right they could- it turns out that they produce a whopping 1,500 tons of it a year. Enough, as it happens, to supply not only every Booths store but every other supermarket chain. But their factory happens to be just round the corner from Booths, so they could validly claim to be supporting a local supplier.

Singletons’ cheese-making produces a by-product which used to be sold on as butter-oil- until they had the bright idea of packaging it themselves and selling it as local butter. It’s the word ‘local’ which makes it sell. They had the even brighter idea of making a donation from each packet sold to the Mountain Rescue charity. This is wonderful, we were told, because every four or five months they get to donate about £1,000 and when they do they get their photo taken for the local paper handing over one of those over-sized cheques. Their PR people estimate that this stunt is worth £40,000 of press advertising a year. Let me just remind myself of the principles of Slow Food- yes- “Good,Clean and Fair”- and not a trace of cynicism anywhere.