Supermarkets: can we shop anywhere else?

Max Hogg on how hard it is to avoid the pull of the supermarket giants.

Clone Town Britain? Boycutt Bush Tescopoly

I don't like supermarkets. They contribute to the destruction of local diversity, as shown by the recent 'Clone Town Britain' report from NEF (the New Economics Foundation). Most of the products on their shelves have more food miles than a migrating swallow's breakfast. And Tesco, as the biggest of them all, have such a large market share (30 per cent of the grocery market) that it is effectively running a monopoly (see www.tescopoly.org).

For these reasons, I do my best to avoid supermarkets, and particularly Tesco. I was excited, therefore, to be coming to live in London for the first time this August. London, famed for its diversity and eclectic population. Surely I couldn't fail to find a healthy, ethical alternative to the local supermarket? Yet, as I leave the city three months later, I look at the receipts in my wallet to find that the majority of my disposable income is spent not at my local store, but at the huge Tesco on Brook Green.

So where did it all go wrong?

I had no problems finding a local, healthy, ethical alternative to Tesco in Bushwacker Whole Foods, and it's not that my views against supermarkets have weakened.

The real problem is that everything is stacked against me as an ethical consumer. Firstly, by the time I had finished work, having cycled there and back, I didn't have the energy left to spend my evening shopping conscientiously. It's much easier to slink off guiltily to Tesco. Secondly, I can get everything I need and more in a single shop from Tesco, and it's two minutes walk home with heavy bags, rather than ten from Bushwacker, which is always missing one vital ingredient from my recipes. Finally, I can share a shop to Tesco with my housemates, whereas I risk ridicule for going out alone to Bushwacker.

I'm not looking to excuse myself for not living up to my principles; instead I am recognising my limitations. While I'm sure these limitations would not apply to everyone, I think there is an important wider point to bring out here. To truly live ethically would require such an unflinching commitment to a radically different lifestyle that we cannot expect any individual to manage it alone, however much they try to do so. Our society simply isn't set up to allow us to shop in an ethical way. I have only discussed the challenges of a tiny aspect of ethical purchasing - what about other things like driving a car? Taking overseas holidays? Boycotting products? Rejecting our excessively consumerist lifestyle? The list goes on, and to address all of these issues together we need change on a larger social scale; we can't leave it up to the individual to make all the sacrifices needed to consume ethically.

Don't believe me? How many of you have been abroad this year? (I have. Twice.) How many of you own an ipod? (I do.) How many of you have bought a product whose makers donated vast sums to George Bush's re-election campaign? (If you're not sure, have a look at www.boycottbush.net. You might be horrified.)

My point is simple. In almost every case, the easy purchase is not the ethical purchase, and the sacrifices necessary to make every purchase an ethical one are too great. This is because our society is set up in an inherently unethical way. For ethical consumerism to really take off, that needs to change. Collectively, we need to make the ethical consumption choice the easy choice, not the hard one. Otherwise, as individuals, we are fighting a battle we cannot win.