In Praise of Supermarkets

Big-chain supermarkets in the U.K. have been a favorite bogeyman of the small-is-beautiful crowd for years, roughly to the same extent that abundance-weary leftists in the U.S. love to excoriate Walmart.

Guardian culinary critic Jay Rayner, whom you might expect to be a food snob, isn't buying it.

[T]he notion that the independent retailer is in some way a much friendlier alternative to the staff of the soulless supermarket is also little more than a myth. We love to imagine the rosy-cheeked, melon-bellied butcher who always has time for everyone and the greengrocer helpfully picking out the finest of produce for his customers. The truth is that they are just people. Which means some of them are very nice and some of them are miserable old buggers. ...

[O]ver the past 10 years, [supermarkets] have vastly increased and improved the range of ingredients available to the home cook. Many of our food writers rage against supermarkets, while at the same time proposing recipes that it would be impossible to prepare were it not for the economies of scale which enable those supermarkets to stock the esoteric ingredients they demand.