Local Food
In these cash-strapped times,
local food producers offer consumers a way to not only save cash but
eat healthier too. It’s a little known fact that locally produced
food can be cheaper than that available in the supermarket, the problem
is people just don’t know where to look. Until now. BigBarn,
the UK’s leading local food website, has just made finding out how everyone
can save by buying local that much easier.
While
many Farm Shops have signs showing price comparisons with local supermarkets
and others check prices and are confident they are cheaper, consumers
only find out they are saving money when they visit the shop.
Thanks to BigBarn all this has changed. BigBarn already puts consumers
in touch with local producers through its popular postcode-generated
map technology and has now introduced a new £ flag to its maps, showing
producers who are cheaper than the local supermarket.
All people have to do it visit www.bigbarn.co.uk and type in their postcode.
Over 6,500 producers and retailers have icons on the BigBarn map from
farm shops to Farmers Markets. Clicking on a producer’s icon
reveals what they offer, ratings and feedback from the public and the
ability to get in touch direct with the producer themselves. Over
400 of these local producers and retailers have already registered cheaper
products.
How can this be? The
supermarkets huge buying power does mean they can buy cheap, but the
supply chain costs mean that farmers only get 9p in every £1 spent
on food in a supermarket. The maths is simple – if the producer
can sell direct for even 50p he will be getting five times as much and
giving the stretched consumer a 50% discount on supermarket prices –
a win-win, for all but the supermarket! No wonder the new BigBarn
flag is proving so popular!
Thousands of people have already
recognised the difference and changed to shopping locally every week
for essentials and the supermarket once a month for dry goods. Many
are even making extra savings by avoiding BOGOFs and impulse buys.
Tags: drink, farm, Food, glasses, innovation, local, shopping