Jay Rayner writing in today's Observer offers a stirring defense of supermarkets "self-satisfied opponents overlook their social benefits" - they are responsible for about half the fair trade products sold in Britain. And he reminds us that without supermarkets, foodies wouldn't be able to buy exotic foods to make the dishes they rave about.....

Money quotes....

Almost all of us use them and for one simple reason: they are bloody convenient. Not simply convenient as in that's more time for leisure pursuits. They are convenient as in they enable us to keep family and work life on an even keel. Why, in the years before mass retailing, did one parent stay at home and the other go out to work? Because keeping the house supplied was a full-time job. Whenever I have to listen to a full-on rant from my foodie brethren about the evils of supermarkets and why we should all shop only at local independent retailers, what I hear, unconsciously or otherwise, is an argument that is distinctly anti-woman.

.....There is another culinary argument in their favour. Yes, they sell too many ready meals loaded with too much salt and sugar. Yes, some of their products are simply grim. But at the same time, over the past 10 years, they have vastly increased and improved the range of ingredients available to the home cook. Many of our food writers rage against supermarkets, while at the same time proposing recipes that it would be impossible to prepare were it not for the economies of scale which enable those supermarkets to stock the esoteric ingredients they demand. They are also responsible for around half of all fair trade products sold in this country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/17/fooddrinks.retail