Are supermarkets manipulating customers towards Veganism?

[Pilatus]

I ask the above, as I have just read this weeks Waitrose Weekend magazine and it looks to me if nearly all the recipes are slanted towards vegan recipes. Chicken and lamb are mentioned in a few recipes but hardly any recipes include , beef or pork.
Just to add we only shop at Waitrose occasionally as I think it is dearer and the portion sizes of some products seem smaller than at other supermarkets.

 

[Steevo]

I would say yes.

The supermarkets would just claim they are “responding to the growing demands of our diverse customer base particularly with regard to growing trends around the issues of ethical eating, sustainability and personal environmental responsibility.”

 

[stewart]

I ask the above, as I have just read this weeks Waitrose Weekend magazine and it looks to me if nearly all the recipes are slanted towards vegan recipes. Chicken and lamb are mentioned in a few recipes but hardly any recipes include , beef or pork.
Just to add we only shop at Waitrose occasionally as I think it is dearer and the portion sizes of some products seem smaller than at other supermarkets.

Short answer would be yes, but then so are the media.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I don't think they care about anything beyond profit margin.
Supermarkets have huge power to manipulate what we buy through what they stock, where they stock it and how they promote it but the only goal is financial.
I guess a lot of investor money in the bio-tech soylent green goes in paying the supermarkets for this promotion. If it's very profitable, it will continue. If not they will soon move on to something else.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

I would say yes.

The supermarkets would just claim they are “responding to the growing demands of our diverse customer base particularly with regard to growing trends around the issues of ethical eating, sustainability and personal environmental responsibility.”

That sounds like a technical masterpiece of male bovine manure as written by someone who's probably a bijzonder klootzak*





* Actually a culturally & politically correct term, doing my bit for "insculisvity and diversity"....

 

[melted welly]

I’ve wondered for a while if the reason that supermarket bought sausages and burgers are so shite is to mimic the blandness and lack of texture/taste of the vegan products, so that they’re more acceptable and folk can’t really tell the difference.

 

[Will Blackburn]

The National Trust, who own a shed load of grazing land, promote mainly vegan menus on their social media.
They always finish with a dessert that contains more sugar than a Tate and Lyle factory, . As if to prove they have no sense of taste.

 

[cb387]

I’d guess the profit margins are much higher on the processed veggie / trendy stuff than the staple items that the majority buy that are more competitively priced. They are selling a lifestyle choice that an increasing amount aspire to, even if a lot of it is crap

 

[beardface]

I think they see an opportunity for bigger margins vs meat based products, plus there maybe more integrated opportunities for them. Many large companies ethos is make as much money as possible at the expense of everyone else.

 

[Bald Rick]

Quoting Lord Sugar's favourite mantra on The Apprentice ...

"Follow the money"

Vegan mark up is in excess of 70pc.

Rather like wine in a restaurant... albeit we still buy it knowing we're being fleeced

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Quoting Lord Sugar's favourite mantra on The Apprentice ...

"Follow the money"

Vegan mark up is in excess of 70pc.

Rather like wine in a restaurant... albeit we still buy it knowing we're being fleeced

exactly, but you need wine!

 

[topground]

Lidl dont appear to bother stocking frankenfoods anymore because their customers have rejected fake meat products. Those veggie burgers and mince oacks I have seen were 30% off because they were not selling and close to use by. Lidl are sharper operators than Waitrose who could well be throwing money at advertising a lost cause.

 

[matthew]

I would say yes.

The supermarkets would just claim they are “responding to the growing demands of our diverse customer base particularly with regard to growing trends around the issues of ethical eating, sustainability and personal environmental responsibility.”

As said, 'follow the money' and add to that the virtue signalling of 'less red meat / dairy' to save the planet and you're on a winner. It's all about profit.

 

[Exfarmer]

They see their customers as being the southern urbanites who tend to be more woke than the rest of us. It is just pandering to their “perceived liberal lifestyle”, although all the men in that grouping I know, would sooner eat a large juicy rib eye than any lentil and tofu concoction that the wives tend to head for.

 

[betweenthelines]

As Baldy says, they're doing it for the mark up not for any other reason.

 

[jondear]

exactly, but you need wine!

That's questionable

 

[Ribble]

I think it's just as simple as the food industry using buzz words used in lifestyle media to market a processed product as premium.

High protein vegan sounds a lot better than hydrolysed soya lecithin. 'Organic Oat Milk' sounds better than diluted porridge. I quite often see things like yoghurt or nuts marketed with 'protein' as some sort of special claim!

 

[primmiemoo]

I ask the above, as I have just read this weeks Waitrose Weekend magazine and it looks to me if nearly all the recipes are slanted towards vegan recipes. Chicken and lamb are mentioned in a few recipes but hardly any recipes include , beef or pork.
Just to add we only shop at Waitrose occasionally as I think it is dearer and the portion sizes of some products seem smaller than at other supermarkets.

Is it the sort of magazine that publishes letters from its customers?

 

[Pilatus]

Is it the sort of magazine that publishes letters from its customers?

Only the ones that say nice things about Waitrose

 

[Pilatus]

I have just sent a message to their Customer Services, saying I think they are manipulating customers towards Veganism as so few of their recipes include meat.