Ethicallytainted

This morning I had some time off so we went to Axminster just up the road and called on the River Cottage shop there. It was very nice, stuff in boxes, little plastic around, lots of local river cottage produce, and some local veg. However the longer I was there the more uneasy I became, the place was clearly branded, and seemed to be building on the river cottage brand using this to hike prices on other products. Most of their veg was supplied a well known food box scheme but the prices seemed over the top compared to the door to door supply. I wonder if they pass these prices onto the farmers. Then there was the more subtle things like all the apples were labelled grown in Somerset, reinforcing the brand ethos which is great, but bananas were simply labelled organic. Which is okay and a step in the right direction BUT why not say where these are from? Does acknowledging that they travelled lessen or negatively impact the brand power of river cottage, were they trying to protect the brand identity. The whole enterprise had subtlety moved away from the original self sufficient ethic of the original River Cottage experiment that I watched so enthusiastically. Okay Hugh Fernly -whitingstall needs to make some money but wasn’t he trying to get away form the big business approaches, isn’t this current river cottage enterprise a mask for a consumer identity and development mentality that seems to lurking beneath this supposedly local/ethical brand . I openly acknowledge I use a mix of local shops and supermarkets and I always feel uneasy coming out with a trolley load of stuff, but on leaving the River Cottage shop today I felt far more tainted.

Memento video

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