SHOPPED: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets

This was a disappointing read. I'm a little bit "converted" already, and I feel the supermarkets are responsible for a lot of ills in the UK and US; however this book was so rife with logical gaps that I started to feel sorry for Walmart/Tescos et al.It sets up these straw men, doesn't really connect the dots in the narrative, leaving us with "Supermarkets have left our town centers destitute, with all the shops closing down and nobody going there anymore" and then, 2 paras later, "Supermarkets are moving now into the town center, because people find it more convenient to shop there"... There are complex relationships between these two trends that involve us shoppers, town planners, worldwide shopping habits, technology and price power that deserve exploration, but you won't find that in this book. Instead, it comes across as a diatribe, whereby everything supermarkets do is wrong by definition and "solutions" are scant.I think I share some of the writer's goals; I'd like to see people consuming less, buying better (though fewer) quality products from more locally-based merchants and producers, regenerating some dormant civic values and local economies, but I don't think this book is a useful part of the conversation that needs to occur to achieve this.

Only given it four stars as it's now quite an old book, but don't think things have got any better than when this was published - if anything they're worse! Didn't actually tell me much that I didn't know already, but I'm a follower of what supermarkets get up to, and live in a more or less agricultural area, so hear most of this locally. This book actually confirms all the information in print. If you use supermarkets (or pretending not to be supermarkets when they very obviously are) for any of your shopping, then you ought to read this book. I know we all have to do what our purses will allow, but it might make you a bit more keen not to buy low price and then waste half of it because it was cheap!

This is a well researched and thorough account of how supermarkets have risen to stardom, and eliminated taste. What a pity the horse meat scandal happened after it was written. And how bad I feel for mindlessly accepting it all. Supermarkets aren't all bad, of course, but all the same I will buy my vegetables from our local market from now on. They are dirty, odd shapes, and don't come in neat packages. Today's purchase of a cabbage came with a couple of caterpillars. Joy! No pesticides! The taste and smell of this fresh produce makes me remember what I was missing. And definitely no more of those tasteless supermarket strawberries. A big 'well done' to the author for revealing the terrifying power supermarkets have over us all and reminding us there are other options.

I saw Joanna on a BBC1 programme recently and was immediately impressed by her knowledge and candour - so I bought 'Shopped'. The book is an unsettling look into the practices employed by the big supermarkets to get us unsuspecting consumers to buy stuff we think we need, or which has spent days in transit, from suppliers who have been systematically bullied into selling their goods to the supermarkets for - quite literally in some cases - pennies.For those who work in supermarkets, the day to day drudgery of formulaic questions about loyalty cards takes the human touch out of customer service; and all for a paltry wage, while senior management lap up the spoils while devising cheesy induction programmes to turn intelligent, unique individuals into corporate robots.Sadly, it does make you wonder whether it's too late to reverse the trend - not just to reintroduce specialist shops into the high street, but to encourage us to make time to use them, rather than relying on the convenience of having everything under one roof.A great book, worth reading, even more worth acting on.

I was beginning to question whether the supermarkets were selling me what I wanted OR what they wanted to sell me. How many times have you gone looking for an item to find it discontinued and replaced by an own brand item? On this basis I was very receptive to the facts in this book.Only a few pages in I was extremely disappointed in the authors knowledge of english geography, stating that Warminster was in Hampshire and Cirencester was in Wiltshire. Not a good start to a book that should be accurate in detail.However the remainder was very enlightening and also frightening. It all begins to click with what we all have seen and experienced. This book has helped change the way this family is now shopping and will shop in the future. Supermarkets are changing the commercial viability of our towns, not for the better. This book is an essential read to all those who use supermarkets and will stop you believing that they are your wonderful friends.

I remember Nick Cohen commentating on this book in The Observer years ago. And, some time later Jeremy Vine remarking about it during his Radio 2 show. Both basically saying that reading it will change the way you view supermarkets. So I decided too, to buy it for an university essay on Waste, Consumption and the role of Supermarkets. Yes I too was blown away by it. I now avoid Tesco.

Outstanding work, exposing the way supermarkets operate and change our shopping and eating habits

Very interesting. Comprehensive analysis about the UK food retail market. Strongly recommend it