You can quite happily grow Strawberries all year round. Grow your own, they taste a lot nicer
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Sorry OP this is de-railing your thread.
To play the antagonist, I love strawberrys too, how do I go about growing my own? I live in a flat in a city centre. I do have a balcony but it hardly gets any sun so its terrible for growing things.
Allotments in the greater manchester area are currently on a 2 year waiting list.
I am not saying growing your own food is not a good thing, it is, my grandparents (who live in a greater manchester suburb) are actually totally self reliant when it comes to food, except recently when they have stopped keeping meat animals and buy from a local farmshop. It's a lovely thing, but totally unrealistic for anybody living in a more normal UK setting. Perhaps this isnt the case in most of the Cambridgeshire area, but it certainly is up here.
Supermarkets are a near inevitable consequence of a small landmass supporting far more human beings than it should be able to.
It's a very nice idea that we could become totally self reliant as a country on British or even just UK grown food, however it's just not going to happen anymore, not unless we somehow cut our current population (and thats not counting growth rate) by at least a quarter, some say more.
Some people will always have the time and more importantly, space to live the "good life" and tbh good luck to them, for the rest of us though who spend 8+ hours a day 5+ days a week sat in an office or in a lorry or whatever, it really isn't feasible it simply isn't.
Neither are locally run small shops. It isnt even always about cost, for many people it would simply be a case of, would a local greengrocer be willing to stay open until gone 8 when I often come home? The only reason I can go shopping is because my local supermarkets are all open at least until 11pm. None of them shut for lunch either...
Food self reliance in this country would require MUCH more than just local suppliers and small retailers, it would require the entire economy and way of life at least 4 generations have now become used to to change entirely. We would need to step away from being a world economic power and host nation to large global corporations, it isn't going to happen.
To the OP (just to try and keep it on track), for the small amount of money it costs, i'd get a membership and see if you use it. Costco is brilliant come christmas time, they tend to have a few of literally everything, but the few things they have are always the best quality at a good price. It isnt just food, for example, I recently bought 8 litres of Castrol GTX car oil for £17.99, which is cheaper than you will find in most places. It's a great place to do a lot of your christmas shopping, and their enormous mince "tarts" (they arnt pies) are great as well
