Crunch time: Our writers hit the high street

Tag : Stainless Roll

Janet Street-Porter buys her groceries at Netto
I've got to admit, shopping at Netto is a bit like class-A drugs– not something I'm that keen on doing on a regular basis. Ireckon I am already pretty good at shopping economically –I'm a good cook, grow vegetables and published a book earlier thisyear which included my tips for simpler living. I've been weaningmyself off supermarkets – as I believe that overall theydon't offer real bargains – and I want to support small shopsand local suppliers. Now I only visit Tesco to buy printer paper,knickers, wine and face cream – so I'm not exactly a typicalcustomer.
Netto in Northallerton is just down the road from a massive Tesco,but the difference is striking. Netto is an uninviting box with nowindows, not that different from the branch of Kwik Fit on the nextcorner. The layout inside was confusing, and I spent ages trying tounderstand how they could muddle up flour, wine, batteries and beer... Where was Parmesan? Answer: not available. Where was thatstaple of economy cooking, lentils, either tinned or dried? Notavailable. Environmentally friendly washing powder, recycled bogrolls and kitchen paper? Not available. Economy shopping in Nettomeans you can forget about namby-pamby middle-class concerns likeair miles and carbon footprints. To shop here, you need to stopobsessing about buying British or from local suppliers.
The good news first: a two-litre bottle of Filippo Berioextra-virgin olive oil was just £7.99. This is a well-knownbrand and a real bargain. Close inspection of the label says it is"packed in Italy" but does not say where the actual oilcomes from. Still, it tasted perfectly OK when I splashed it overmy home-grown rocket salad for lunch, which is more than I couldsay for the cherry vine tomatoes, which were 99p (the most popularprice for Netto products) and came from Spain. They wereflavourless, not a patch on Marks & Spencer's. The Norwegiansmoked salmon (a snip at £1.99) was OK, but mystifyingly thepacket said it was packed in Lithuania. The biggest bargain was apacket of pasta quills at 19p – I bought two. They were madein Italy from durum wheat. Taste-wise, I was thrilled with theWalkerswood Jamaican chutney at just 79p – made with pureingredients, including mango, papaya, bell peppers, ginger andgarlic. It tasted fabulous on my pork pie from the local butcher.Which brings me to meat and veg – there were no free-rangechickens and no organic meat, so I didn't buy any. Instead I boughtsmoked mackerel – not dyed and good value at £1.19– and a decent-sized tub of crayfish tails for a prawncocktail or a pasta sauce for just £1.99. Not enough of thefresh fruit and the veg came from the UK – there were noBritish peas or broad beans – but of the stuff that did, Igot a very good cauliflower for 59p, chestnut mushrooms for 99p, aswede for 34p, waxy potatoes at 75p and spring onions for 49p. Thestrawberries were British, but at 99p a punnet didn't seem goodvalue compared to tastier local ones on sale at the greengrocerdown the road for less than £2 for a much bigger punnet. Twobottles of Cloudy Bay merlot ros