How Super are our Supermarkets?

Thirteen years ago, my life changed forever. Horrified and inspired by several Netflix documentaries on the food industry, I began hunting down new food sources. Jackfruit replaced pork, tofu replaced chicken, and lentils replaced beef.

This transition took work. Every meal choice had to change, and a footnote accompanied every event I attended. (oh, by the way, I don’t eat meat). While this was a challenge for those who wanted to share a meal with me, the personal challenge was exciting. I love discovering new foods and cooking up a storm.

Things have become a little easier today. Now, when I go to the supermarket, there is a growing selection of meat alternatives, and vegan products are clearly labelled. I no longer have to hunt down cans of jackfruit in specialty grocery shops. As my needs as a consumer have changed, so has the supermarket.

Supermarkets offer an unparalleled shopping experience for all. In addition to catering for almost all dietary requirements, they cater for affluent and low-income people, young and old and operate in urban and rural communities.

Back in the 1970’s, supermarkets had roughly 9000 unique items for sale. Today, a large format supermarket has nearly 40,000. The variety is enormous.

As we all continue to get busier, supermarkets have started selling more ready-made meals in Australia. In Japan, many larger stores have a kitchen that cooks meals throughout the day, ready for the consumer to buy and take home. Many Australian supermarkets also have bakeries and roast chickens. Some supermarkets now even have cafes and smaller format retailers inside. The supermarket aisle you walk down today vastly differs from the one of 40 years ago.

When I was a kid and went to the supermarket with my mum, the supermarket chat was always dreaded. Mum would talk to seemingly random strangers for what felt like HOURS! Supermarkets are more than just a place to buy food. They are also a social space.

Physical isolation is increasing. Many of us now work from home. Our entertainment is streamed straight to our living rooms on our massive flat-screen TVs. Uber Eats means we can now have restaurant food delivered directly to our door! It’s a miracle we even make it out of our homes! For some, a trip to the supermarket could be one of the few times a week when we interact with other humans.

The recent COVID pandemic showed just how vital the supermarket is to society. Even though we were locked down, this was one of the few places we could escape to! The pandemic also showed us how reliant we are on the supermarket. Who would have thought the humble toilet paper roll could cause so much panic? We are used to having everything we want at our fingertips when we visit the supermarket.

Around the globe, many supermarkets have phased out single-use plastic bags in response to the global plastic crisis. Coles has also stopped giving away plastic toys as part of their promotions.

Yet, plastic pollution continues to increase. The amount of plastic that comes home in our reusable shopping bags is a disaster. In 2021, humans created 390 million metric tons of plastic a year. Forecasts predict plastic production will increase to 590 million metric tons by 2050. That is a 30-40% INCREASE in VIRGIN plastic production. (source)

A report published in 2021 by the Australian Government, “Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water”, on “Plastics Flows” (source) showed Australians consumed 3,791,000 tonnes of plastic in 2021. We managed to recycle only 334,000 tons of plastic. This number may include plastic REDCycle was stockpiling in warehouses around the country.

Over the next five years, a forecast increase of 87% in Australia’s plastic recycling plastics takes us from a recycling rate of 8% to 13%. This is not even close to where we need to be.

That is why we say, “We must remove all plastic packaging from supermarkets!”

The removal of plastic shopping bags has been a drop in the ocean. Our shopping bags are still full of single-use plastics and plastic packaging. Recycling plastics is not working at the scale we need, if it’s working at all.

Supermarkets have shown time and time again that they can evolve as our society changes. We need supermarkets to lead the charge in our war on plastic pollution!