![]() Front cover of Shopped | |
Author | Joanna Blythman |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Publisher | Fourth Estate |
Publication date | 4 May 2004 |
Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
Pages | 384 (first edition) |
ISBN | 978-0-00-715803-4 |
OCLC | 56444289 |
Followed by | Bad Food Britain |
Shopped: The Shocking Power Of British Supermarkets is a book by British author and investigative journalist Joanna Blythman first published by Fourth Estate in 2004. [1] [2] [3] Described by one reviewer as "an emotive and bitter attack on [Britain's] supermarket culture" the book examines the way supermarkets have changed "diets, cities, countryside and economy" in Britain and argues that consumers have unwittingly "surrendered control over what [they] eat to a few powerful chains." [4] [5] [6] Along with Felicity Lawrence's Not On The Label (2004) and Colin Tudge's So Shall We Reap (2003), Shopped was seen by some critics as representing the frontline of the emerging, radical Slow Food movement in Europe. [7] The book helped establish Blythman's reputation as "one of the most influential commentators" on British supermarkets. [3] It was the winner of the Best Food Book prize at the 2005 Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards and was shortlisted for the 2005 Guild of Food Writers' Awards. [8] [9]
A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is often used to mean "supermarket".
Tesco plc is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK.
Safeway Limited is a British groceries brand, and former chain of supermarkets and convenience shops. The British Safeway was founded in 1962 by the American Safeway Inc., before being sold to Argyll Foods in 1987. It was later listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was purchased by Morrisons in March 2004. Most of its 479 shops were rebranded as Morrisons, with others being sold. Safeway-branded shops disappeared from the United Kingdom on 24 November 2005.
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales in September 2022.
Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still sells groceries under the brand. Its head offices are located in Bracknell, Berkshire.
Tesco Ireland Limited is the Irish subsidiary of supermarket group Tesco. Tesco Ireland was formed by Tesco plc's 1997 purchase of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limited and its subsidiaries, trading as "Quinnsworth" and "Crazy Prices". There are 152 Tesco stores in operation in Ireland as of August 2018. Tesco had approximately 21% of the Irish grocery market in 2019 and its main competitors are Dunnes Stores and SuperValu.
Sir Terence Patrick "Terry" Leahy is a British businessman, previously the CEO of Tesco, the largest British retailer and the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues. He is now a senior advisor at private equity company Clayton Dubilier & Rice.
Budgens Stores Ltd, trading as Budgens, is a chain of grocery stores in the United Kingdom. The business was founded in 1872 by John Budgen, who opened the first shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire and was incorporated as a private limited company on 28 May 1962. The company is a subsidiary and retail fascia of Booker Group, part of Tesco plc.
Heston Marc Blumenthal is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with unusual recipes, such as bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge. His recipes for triple-cooked chips and soft-centred Scotch eggs have been widely imitated. He has advocated a scientific approach to cooking, for which he has been awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Reading, Bristol and London and made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Nigel Slater is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for The Observer Magazine for over a decade and is the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly supplement. Prior to this, Slater was a food writer for Marie Claire for five years.
Joanna Blythman is a British investigative food journalist and writer and a commentator on the British food chain who has covered subjects including salmon farming, supermarkets, intensive pineapple production, bird flu and the causes of obesity.
John Radford, born in Nottingham on 1 December 1946, died on 19 October 2012, was a British writer and broadcaster in the field of wine and food, with an emphasis on Spain. He was educated at Stamford School in Lincolnshire.
Criticism has been directed at Tesco from various groups, including national organisations, trade bodies, individuals, consumer groups and watchdogs, particularly since the early 2000s.
Ellie Harrison is a British artist known for her use of large quantities of data, collected through labour-intensive games, trials, systems and experiments, and, more recently, for her activist work campaigning for the re-nationalisation of Britain's railways and founder of Campaign to Bring Back British Rail. She is based in Glasgow, Scotland and in April 2013 was appointed Lecturer in Contemporary Art Practices at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
SavaCentre was a chain of 13 hypermarkets and later a further seven discount supermarkets owned and operated jointly by Sainsbury's and BHS, beginning in 1977. Sainsbury's later took full control of the stores alone in 1989, rebranding them as Sainsbury's SavaCentre, until 2005 when the stores were integrated into the Sainsbury's supermarket brand. The hypermarket stores ranged in size from 66,000 sq ft (6,100 m2) to 117,000 sq ft (10,900 m2) and the discount supermarkets ranged in size from 31,000 sq ft (2,900 m2) to 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2). At the time of its inception, it was the only dedicated hypermarket chain in the UK.
Rose Prince is a food writer, author, cook and activist. Her writing career started in her mid thirties, after she worked as a chef and the cook in the Notting Hill specialist bookshop, Books for Cooks. She worked there with Clarissa Dixon Wright. She was the in-house cook at The Spectator magazine for seven years.
Dan Lepard is an Australian baker, food writer, photographer, television presenter and celebrity chef. He was previously a fashion photographer working for Italian Vogue before changing careers age 27, and is today known for reconciling historical methods with innovation in baking.
Jill Norman is a British editor and food writer. She published authors such as Elizabeth David for Penguin Books and then started writing books about food herself. In 2001 she published the 564-page New Penguin Cookery Book.
BOSH! is a duo of British vegan chefs from Sheffield consisting of Henry Firth and Ian Theasby. They rose to fame in 2016 with the launch of their YouTube channel, and have gone on to host the ITV1 television programme Living on the Veg and author a number of books. Their eponymous vegan cookbook ranked fifth in the Sunday Times Bestsellers chart in 2018, and is among the top 50 best-selling UK cookbooks of all time.