AVIE ON THE WARPATH

  RIP OFF BAKING PRODUCTS 

Times are hard, and in such times sweet treats such as cakes and biscuits can be among the first casualties of belt tightening. One of the few good things to come out of his fact has been the dramatic rise in home baking, suddenly everyone is making cakes and cookies at home:often with the help of their children. A whole new generation has learned how wonderful home baked produce is,how much satisfaction can be gained from presenting the family with a home made treat;and most important of all,the joy of involving their children and turning a necessity into a pleasure the whole family can share.

It sounds wonderful,and it is,but recently there have been signs that the suppliers of baking sundries ans the supermarkets that sell them are cynically cashing in on the home bakers. While we are ,by doing more of our own cooking spending less,well of course that is our aim, they are finding ways to tickle the money from our purses and in my opinion folk,it sucks!

Let us take as an example the baking of a few simple cakes or cookies,and let us suppose that the recipe calls for bicarbonate of soda,baking powder or cream of tartar, all commonly used in baking and until recently always available in good sized tubs for a pound or less. These tubs contained enough to bake a dozen or more cakes,cookies,what you will.

Not any more, I ordered my usual supply of these items from Sainsburys recently and what arrived instead were small packets each containing six tiny sachets which in turn contained level tea spoon of the ingredient. That equates to 1 level tablespoon,enough for about three dozen cupcakes. The real catch is that these tiny amounts are being sold for the same price as the large drums.

OK,I hear you say, buy the large drums and ignore the small sachets,and that is exactly what I tried to do. I found that neither Sainsburys,Tesco or Morrisonmy local supermarkets stocked the larger containers any more. He smaller amounts were,they told my handy for the occasional baker.

I, am not an occasional baker and I resent having this extra expense thrust upon me under the pretext of it being of benefit to me to pay so much more for so much less.

This is by no means the only product which has been subject to change. Packets of dried yeast now contain fewer sachets and each sachet holds less yeast. I now buy my yeast in bulk on line as the supermarkets no longer sell the Doves Farm yeast which has remained excellent value and which will make around twenty loaves instead of five or six.

The solution to this rip off is simple,patronise your local corner shop where they still stock the better value products at a realistic price. These days whenever I come across any of the above products I but at least two of each.

We are all trying to economise many of us out of necessity, if in the face if the current climate all the Chain Groceries can do is find new ways to rip us of we should boycott the offending products.

There are online sources which even with a postage charge are better value.

Above all,don't let this sneaky tactic put you off home baking and cause you to by bought cakes and cookies again,if you do,they will have won!

Today I am pleased to report that after an absence of several months the larger drums are back on the shelves at my local TESCOS on the same shelf are the other smaller packets judging by their relative prices I think it is obvious why we have not been allowed to compare.

The consumer fights back!