French supermarket displays CO2 data as well as price for each item

probe

The Leclerc hypermarket chain in France now displays the CO2 emissions generated by the production of merchandise on the shelf price ticket (or electronic shelf tag) for food items. The checkout receipt shows the total CO2 kg of the items in your trolley/bag.

It will be turning their customers into vegetarians!

I suspect that the Marks & Spencer checkout receipt would be particularly unpleasant, if that company revealed the CO2 content of its merchandise…. Not to mention the salt content - considering one is only supposed to consume 3g of salt per day.

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http://www.e-leclerc.com

Húrin

cheesy greenwash. Super- and Hypermarkets themselves are totally unsustainable.

probe

Húrin wrote: »

cheesy greenwash. Super- and Hypermarkets themselves are totally unsustainable.

While one might argue that it is greenwashing for the Leclerc brand name as a retailer, it is useful information for the consumer, and there is nothing stopping every supermarket from providing CO2 information to their customers. And farmers market stall holders should be doing it. As well as every other retailer. If CO2 is such a big issue.

As to the sustainability of the “supermarket” as a distribution channel, it is down to planning policy. A Swiss Migros is a supermarket. But it is about as green as one could get, short of growing everything in your own garden (which wouldn’t probably be green because it would create low density housing, a la Ireland). Most Migros shops are on streets served by public transport (transport often/mainly powered by green electricity), and mostly within walking distance of people’s homes if they live in an urban area. There are very few American style “shopping malls” in Switzerland (ie where one HAS TO drive to get access) – the Swiss version of the shopping mall invariably has high quality heavy duty public transport connectivity, making it not worth the effort getting the car out of the garage and parking it, and all the other hassle. When public transport is as good as it is in Switzerland everybody will get a monthly/annual subscription for unlimited use (as most Swiss do). This brings the marginal cost of transport to do your shopping down to €0,00.

Much of the merchandise going to Migros travels by electric rail. Most of the “boxes” the merchandise is packed in are plastic cases which flatten and go back to the distribution centre on the return journey, with a near infinite life.

Employee/customer-owned Migros is a model of retailing which should be studied with a magnifying glass by every retailer on the planet.

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www.migros.ch

AngryHippie

Switzerland sounds nice, but is it much craic, really ?

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AngryHippie wrote: »

Switzerland sounds nice, but is it much craic, really ?

Comparing Dublin with Zurich – the latter always comes out streets ahead on quality of life assessments. Craic in Dublin is narrow spectrum, and usually involves a good dollop of CH3CH2OH. It is more broad spectrum in Zurich, though not without its share of CH3CH2OH.

People have more time to enjoy life in Zurich, because they don’t have to waste time stuck in traffic. And the air is a lot cleaner and dryer (less humid).

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JIMSTARK

Húrin wrote: »

cheesy greenwash. Super- and Hypermarkets themselves are totally unsustainable.

And when everybody lives in the city, what are they going to eat?????????????

Húrin

probe wrote: »

While one might argue that it is greenwashing for the Leclerc brand name as a retailer, it is useful information for the consumer, and there is nothing stopping every supermarket from providing CO2 information to their customers. And farmers market stall holders should be doing it. As well as every other retailer. If CO2 is such a big issue.

As to the sustainability of the “supermarket” as a distribution channel, it is down to planning policy. A Swiss Migros is a supermarket. But it is about as green as one could get, short of growing everything in your own garden (which wouldn’t probably be green because it would create low density housing, a la Ireland). Most Migros shops are on streets served by public transport (transport often/mainly powered by green electricity), and mostly within walking distance of people’s homes if they live in an urban area. There are very few American style “shopping malls” in Switzerland (ie where one HAS TO drive to get access) – the Swiss version of the shopping mall invariably has high quality heavy duty public transport connectivity, making it not worth the effort getting the car out of the garage and parking it, and all the other hassle. When public transport is as good as it is in Switzerland everybody will get a monthly/annual subscription for unlimited use (as most Swiss do). This brings the marginal cost of transport to do your shopping down to €0,00.

Much of the merchandise going to Migros travels by electric rail. Most of the “boxes” the merchandise is packed in are plastic cases which flatten and go back to the distribution centre on the return journey, with a near infinite life.

Employee/customer-owned Migros is a model of retailing which should be studied with a magnifying glass by every retailer on the planet.

.probe

www.migros.ch

This is pretty convincing. But there are no hypermarkets located on central public transport routes and in any case, people buy so much stuff that they need to use their cars to go to hypermarchés.

I think that supermarkets are the main reason why so little of the food sold in Britain and Ireland is actually grown here.

Personally I don't think that the emissions of each product are that important. It trivialises the climate change issue. It makes it appear soluble by changing consumption choices, rather than the radical political action that is actually needed.

probe

Húrin wrote: »

This is pretty convincing. But there are no hypermarkets located on central public transport routes and in any case, people buy so much stuff that they need to use their cars to go to hypermarchés.

I think that supermarkets are the main reason why so little of the food sold in Britain and Ireland is actually grown here.

While one would agree with the latter point that supermarkets are the driving force behind "food miles", I live within walking distance and public transport access to my local Carrefour. I buy what is needed fresh every day – easy enough to carry. I don’t think I have ever driven to that mall in seven years or so. I pick my spot where I can walk to the hypermarket (and street market) and manage to live close to the sea [you don’t have to live in a business park to achieve this, when the planning authorities responsible for an area aim for near perfect planning!]. Not everyone can do that, and while French planning is good generally speaking, the Swiss are a zillion km ahead in terms of integrating public transport with daily routine of work, shopping, going out for leisure purposes, and related matters.

When you have a good supermarket like Migros planned into your community, that you pass-by every day going to/from work, you don’t need to buy a trolley-load on each shopping trip. Most of the food sold in Migros is Swiss - Switzerland is one of the most open and "globalised" countries in the world, but it does not allow itself to become a victim of globalisation, like Ireland and most of the rest of the EU has become. Typically, to take Zurich again as an example, the tram takes you to your local home shopping street, where you stop and shop, and if necessary take a connecting shuttle bus almost to your door.

If you live in suburbia, you use the SBahn (high speed, high capacity suburban rail which doesn’t stop so often) to get you quickly to your home shopping zone. Trams take you from city centre to Ballsbridge type of distance. SBahn would take you (and 1500 others at the same time) from city centre to Blackrock in about two stops, Dun Laoghaire in three stops. (Town to Dublin Airport in 10 mins), and the airport is a mainline station where many inter-city and regional trains start their journey (calling in the centre for 3 min en route).

You do your daily shopping at those hub locations, and finish your journey using a network of local feeder services which takes you near your door. Not a metro in sight. Cities that use metros continue to have big traffic problems, because regular commuters don’t want to have to become virtual coal miners, travelling underground every day, day in day out. While travelling underground is a novelty for tourists who come from an area that doesn't have an underground, it is very depressing for most people to use day in day out commuting in a hole in the ground. With the result that people use their cars or some alternative - anything but going underground. The German, Swiss and Austrian strategy makes maximum use of existing overground lines using duplex trains (double deck), with fewer stops than a metro, and excellent connectivity to other modes of transport using the same zone based ticket to get you to/from each stop to get you near your final destination. Lower cost, faster and a better option to use than a car. Paris gave up adding to the metro system 30 years ago - virtually all new lines over that period have been a French version of Sbahn (RER), which unfortunately was executed in a somewhat second-rate manner (unusual for France....)


This type of network is much more efficient and compelling to use than a DART or Luas which stops everywhere, and it allows you to do your shopping in dribs and drabs rather than by the car load, which forces you to use a car. Luas is great – but it is being stretched too much. The lines are getting too long, and it becomes overcrowded, unscaleable and journey times get longer and longer.

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