But why make life more difficult?

“I remember when the first supermarket opened near us in Sheffield when I was a kid. It was a Tesco and it was so exciting, we were just amazed by the choice.

“We used to go down there at the weekend, push a trolly round and fill up the car boot; it was like a family outing. We didn’t even have a freezer in those days but we certainly filled the fridge up.”

This was my mother’s reaction when I told her about my plan to go for a full year without entering a supermarket – her recollections of when superstores first became household names. She also asked why I insist on making life difficult more for myself!

In my mind’s eye Sheffield’s Tesco circa the late 1960s resembles an Austin Powers disco – all mini skirts, primary-coloured packaging and Mike Myers frolicking in the fresh produce to the entertainment of my young, pig-tailed mum.

But a trip to the supermarket still very much counts as a family outing and form of entertainment today. As my grandma once said to me: “Tesco is better than the theatre!”

I’ve had loads of positive feedback about My Year Without Supermarkets so far (thank you!), but one thing everyone is asking is WHY? 

What do I have against supermarkets and what do I hope to achieve?

I don’t really want this to turn into a supermarket-bashing blog but I do recognise the need to answer these questions.

So, briefly, I acknowledge that supermarkets probably have a place in our society – certainly in terms of convenience. But I am suggesting that perhaps our reliance on them has got a little out of hand.

I want to see how hard it is to go about modern life without them. Will it be more or less expensive? Will it be inconvenient? Will it be difficult to fit shopping in around a full-time job and busy life without being able to pop into Morrisons at 8pm on my way home from work?

I suspect the answer to some of these points will be ‘yes’ but I am hoping that the positives will outweigh the negatives.

In these challenging times where every penny counts, I want to know where my money is going. I want to meet the people producing and selling my food; I want to know more about where it comes from and how it was grown or reared.

I care about the environment and would like to minimise the amount of packaging I bring home and the miles my food has travelled.

I would like to support local farmers and suppliers; thereby in turn supporting my local economy in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.

As a foodie I would also like to support all those people out there with small businesses doing something different with interesting ingredients.

I would like to cut down on the amount of food I waste and I don’t think supermarkets are particularly conducive to that. When I walk away from Tesco with a trolly crammed with more things than I need, some of it invariably ends up in the bin.

I also wouldn’t mind betting that my diet becomes healthier as I have less access to aisles stacked with convenience food and more contact with fresh ingredients.

And finally, I think that one thing supermarkets are guilty of is drawing shoppers away from their local high streets and farmers’ markets, which have suffered as a result. If we as consumers want to keep our butchers, bakers and candlestick makers (and I think we should) then we quite simply need to give them our business.

These are just some of the main reasons. I will explore others as the year rolls on.

But perhaps most crucially, I actually hope to enjoy this experience; meet new people, try new things and take away something really positive from My Year Without Supermarkets. 

I hope it’s going to be an adventure rather than just a hassle. Perhaps a bit like my mum’s adventure when she and my grandparents first pushed their trolly round Tesco – but just the other way round.