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OPINION

Less is less

Less is less
June 12, 2015
Less is less

Discounters have certainly thrived because shoppers have been willing to eschew the convenience of 'everything under one roof' to find lower prices on certain items. Their rise has coincided with an economic downturn, which put pressure on household budgets and encouraged them to seek out better value. Another, less commonly cited change in behaviour is the reduction in overshopping. Go back to the original austerity Britain of the 1950s, when food rationing was still in force, and nothing was thrown away. After incredible changes in the way we eat - brilliantly demonstrated by a recent BBC documentary, Back In Time For Dinner (dripping on toast anyone?) - our relationship with food had become so warped by the quest foro convenience and the pursuit of profit by supermarkets and food producers that mountains of food were being thrown away every year. Figures from food waste research body Wrap show that in 2007 we were throwing away 8.3m tonnes a year, a third of what was purchased, worth, in today's prices, a staggering £15.8bn. That volume had been reduced by 15 per cent when the survey was repeated in 2012 - still a long way to go, but a major shift.

It is possible to argue that such new-found thriftiness is cyclical, and that we will again become more wasteful as we feel richer. Personally, I find it less painful to pay £5 for something I actually consume than £1 for something that I throw away, which is why I am inclined to believe that the change in mindset is in fact structural. If we read across to our consumption of energy it's much the same story, but with the added incentive of government commitments to emissions reduction. A return to an age of petrol- and gas-guzzling cars and boilers or poorly insulated homes is unlikely - in fact, as we move from an era of decadence to an age of economy consumers will demand more innovation to put more of the money we pay for life's necessities back into our fun budgets.

As we discuss in this week's cover feature, efficiency is becoming big business. But for those who have previously profited from wastefulness - utilities and supermarkets among them - life is likely to remain very tough indeed.