Before Rachel Nixon goes to the supermarket, she sketches a quick shopping list in her head. In the garage she usually has a sack of potatoes, and meat, green veg and bread in the freezer. For the bits in between, she will head either to her local, membership-only brand discounter, the Company Shop in Barnsley, or to a mainstream supermarket such as Aldi. “Today I’m going with a £50 budget to feed five of us – £10 a day, £2 per person per meal. I’ll go home and look at what I’ve got in the freezer, check the rice, pasta. It’s make do and mend.”
Unlike other shoppers, Nixon has a press pass, because when she’s filling her basket, she will also be filming a TikTok on her phone, and the Company Shop management requires permission. Her content, which “began as a joke”, follows her around the aisles, scrutinising produce and bargains against the biggest question at any supermarket in 2023: how can this cost this much? At many mainstream shops, Nixon says: “A £50 shop is now an £80 shop. People in the middle are floundering around.”
