Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets

'Shopped' takes the reader on a lively, thought-provoking and incredibly interesting journey through the world of the modern British supermarket, revealing every secret trick and behind-the-scenes truths that they really wouldn't want the public to think about. From screwed-over suppliers to exhausted assistants, corner-cutting to own-label quality, obsessive perfection to global domination; it's all here in candid detail. I worked as a shop assistant for one of the 'Big Four' and within a couple of months of employment, I could see the truth in some of the topics covered in Blythman's book.

This book has affected me a lot. After reading this book, why would I want to shop somewhere that has colour charts to determine whether a tomato show more is good enough to sell? Where checkout girls have to put up their hands to go to the loo like naughty school children? Where staff have no idea what their products are or what to do with them? That shamelessly hire and fire suppliers with no thought as to their livelihoods and the amount of work that goes into large-scale production for supermarkets?

Read this book and be inspired. Vote with your feet and refuse to conform to the supermarket-driven one-stop-shop ideal where everything you need in your life comes from them in a neat once-a-week consumer package. This book is a sharp and well-written call to arms, and should be compulsory reading for everyone from teenagers to grandmothers. show less

Originally published in around 2004/2005, in some respects developments in British supermarkets haven't quite gone the way anticipated in this book, with the largest supermarket chains busily abandoning their plans for new out-of-town hypermarkets all over the country, but on the other hand the changes in relative growth of different supermarket chains in the UK over the past years don't really imply that less money over all is being spent in supermarkets. I have mixed feelings about supermarkets, but I suppose I'm of the generation who has never really done anything else, and I'm much more comfortable with the idea of a supermarket computer system being familiar with my shopping patterns than the local independent shop staff show more recognising me and noting the contents of my shopping basket. So all in all, this was a book to make me think but doesn't neatly fit into what I think is a desirable state of affairs. But I suppose it has now given me a push to try to spread out my spending outside of the largest supermarkets, at least a little. show less

An interesting look at the practices of the supermarkets in Britain, and you can see the echoes of these practices in Ireland. Looking at how some of their practices aren't giving us better produce but a homogenity that may look better but often doesn't taste better. She echoes my own concerns about people complaining that small shops are dying who do their regular shopping in big stores.

It may be because I try to stay up to date with consumer matters, but to me Shopped seems like old news. Yes, it's 4 years old, but the path it's travelled has been travelled well by other works before and since.

I admit it covered areas that were new to me, but they were few and far between. I hadn't realised that producers were expected to fund offers on their products - I thought that supermarkets put on offers when they had too much of a bad thing. I knew the supermarkets put a lot of pressure on their producers, but didn't realise so much of it was financial.

If you're suprised by the news that people dislike supermarkets for numerous reasons, this would be a good introduction. Otherwise, it's a bit past it's read-by date.

Absolute "must read" to anyone in any country.
Without reiterating previous reviewers I would just say that if you were pondering over investments, don't hesitate any longer - buy global retailers' shares. Chances are few and little that anyone in the coming years might oppose their expansionist growth, resulting in rising share prices.