'I compared a posh farm shop to supermarkets - bread was £4 but I'd go again'

25 February 2023 , 10:28

645     0

Dianne Bourne did her 'big shop' at her local farm shop (Image: MEN)

Farm shops are a great way to support small businesses by buying jams, chutneys, cheese, and meat that have all been sourced in your local area.

And while we all love having a wander around the quaint shops to pick up the odd loaf of artisan bread, they do have a reputation for being rather pricey - and certainly not somewhere you'd do a full weekly shop unless you had money to spare.

But with the price of a big shop already sky-high for many families, is a "posh" farm shop really that much more expensive than a trip to a regular supermarket?

Dianne enjoyed the shopping experience in the quaint store (MEN)

The Lambing Shed in Knutsford, Cheshire, recently posted a price comparison on social media that claimed their prices aren't much different to the supermarkets and said those that are "a few pennies more" help to support the local farmers that stock the shop.

So can you do a big shop in a "posh" farm shop? Manchester Evening News reporter Dianne Bourne headed down to the award-winning Lambing Shed to find out.

Asda praised over inclusive kids clothing range with holes for feeding tubes

Dianne has to feed two adults and two children with her big shop, and when she first entered The Lambing Shed, she admitted she "nearly fell over" when confronted with the price of a punnet of strawberries - which came in at a staggering £4.75.

And the writer was also floored by the price of bread, as she said: "The cheapest sliced loaf of bread when I visited on a Saturday afternoon was a granary tin priced at £3.85."

However, as Dianne moved on to look at the meat selection, she admitted the prices come down considerably when you take advantage of their deals - as she bagged 500g of minced beef and a pack of giant sausages for the 2 for £8 deal.

The giant sausages were in a 2 for £8 deal (MEN)

She explained: "I also asked for a couple of the pork steaks from the meat counter, fearing how much it would come up at. But £5.04 seemed pretty OK to me given they were huge chunks that I planned to make into a big stew for the family.

"The cheapest whole chicken I could find on the shelf was priced at £7.78, but it was a lot larger than the small ones I usually go for which tend to cost me around £3.50 - £4 at the supermarket. I did end up making two meals out of it over two days."

Dianne then made her way over to the pasta to pick up some fusilli to go with her mince and was flabbergasted to find the artisan Lancashire brand, Northern Pasta Co, priced at a staggering £4.95.

She noted that while there was another 2 for £8 offer on the pasta, she didn't pick up a second bag.

And in the world of fruit and veg, prices were fairly reasonable, with the few hand-washed carrots Dianne bought coming in at 37p, some leeks at £1.54, and a 2kg bag of potatoes at £1.89.

She picked up an array of fruit and veg (MEN)

The writer also bought a bottle of semi-skimmed milk for £1.35, some flapjacks for £3.95, and a tub of Mobberley ice cream for an eye-watering £6.50 - which she described as a "taste sensation".

But one of the biggest shocks Dianne received was when she dashed back to the deli counter to pick up some cheddar that she'd forgotten to add to her shop.

Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons shoppers shocked by cost of Lurpak butter and its dupes

She said: "At the last minute I realised I hadn't picked up any cheese and so I dashed back to the deli counter to ask for the 'smallest piece of cheddar'. I was in a rush at this point so I only saw when I got to the counter that the 296g of Wookey Hole cheddar came in at an eye-watering £6.81.

"Now I appreciate it's a 'posher' cheddar than I would get at the supermarket - but that price is simply something I would never pay at a supermarket for my cheese."

In total, Dianne spent £97.03 on her shop at The Lambing Shed, and said that while that is a lot of money, her big shops at the likes of Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Morrisons have all been coming in at over £100 in recent months.

So how did the prices compare to the supermarkets?

When The Lambing Shed claimed their prices weren't much different to the big chains, they compared their items to those stocked by Waitrose - which is arguably one of the pricier supermarkets out there.

And while some items, such as potatoes, bacon, yoghurt, and orange juice were cheaper at the farm shop than Dianne's local Waitrose, the staggering prices of pasta, cheese, strawberries, and bread meant that the farm shop was more than £20 more expensive than the same shop at Waitrose.

Dianne said that while her Lambing Shed shop came to £97.03, an equivalent shop at Waitrose would have been £76.72.

In her final verdict, she said: "Some items I just couldn't justify on my family budget for that sort of expense again - like the pasta at £4.75 and the cheese at £6.81. But the overall experience at the farm shop was obviously much more pleasant than rushing around in a crammed supermarket.

"As the Lambing Shed said in its Instagram post, spending extra pennies here does help to support small local businesses, which made me feel a bit warm and fuzzy about my big shop. Which is something I can honestly say I've never felt after trudging out of a traditional supermarket."

Zahna Eklund