Published on 12, July, 2020
For the first time ever I went to a fishmonger's shop with my mum. I've always had a kind of phobia of butcher's and fishmonger's shops.
Anyway, the staff in this fishmongers were all my worst fears confirmed. My mum asked the young woman behind the counter if any of the fish were local.
A young man and an older man both heard the question too. There was a silence for about 5 seconds while they looked at us like we had three heads.
Then the older man stepped in, and looking at the fish in the window and said with some disdain or annoyance the mackerel was probably local.
We bought a plaice and it was tasty enough but mine had a few bones still in it. we won't be going there again.
The thing that amazes me though is for a fishmonger's to keep going in today's economic climate they must have plenty of repeat customers. I just wonder why. The fish was more expensive than a supermarket, and in my opinion it's only worth paying more if the fishmonger is able to tell you about where the fish have come from.
I would rather know if they are good quality and if the price is reasonable. I cant see how location is relevant. I've had amazing fish from the Mediterranean. Lidl have delicious German-style breads but probably made and cooked on the premises.
I am returning to this discussion after two years and continuing with the theme of shops displaying where their fish and chips originates from.
My local chippy has started these displays again.
Try a local market, the fish vans usually go to those too
I really like the sound of that! I had a look but it doesn't seem anything runs like that here. There's another fishmonger's in a posher part of town though. The one we went to was in the town centre. So we're going to try there next, the place we just went to has a 4.3 review average on google but the other one we want to try has a 5.0 review average and they both have 9 reviews each so it looks quite promising.
Those fish & chips shops sound great to me!
That's another way of looking at it. If most customers don't ask, I find that pretty disappointing. I've seen cookery shows where chefs have eaten fish caught minutes ago on a ship and they tend to say they're the best they've ever had. Maybe a lot of people don't realise how important the freshness of the fish (which would diminish if it had to travel more).
Some places, including near me, have a fish van which sells locally caught fish the day it has been caught. Literally it comes off the boat and into the van and on it’s way to a number of local villages. It might be worth checking online if there’s similar near you, that way you ‘know’ that the fish is both fresh and local without having to ask the seller.
Selling local produce and publicising it. Is trendy. Should we believe what they say?
A bad case was a few years ago, where a door to door salesman was trying to persuade me to sign up to energy from British Gas, saying that my current supplier Npower was owned by a German company.
Robert124 said: There are places where they emphasise the locality of their products.
Like Vauxhall telling everyone how British they are when they've just been sold to Renault......
I understand what you mean. There are places where they emphasise the locality of their products. Even supermarkets are copying the trend.
Several of my local fish & chips shops even have chalk notices stating which trawler caught their fish in which sea and where the fish was landed. And the type of potatoes and which farm they were grown on.
But many other shops are totally ignorant of this type of marketing and think people asking these questions are strange.
I wouldn't say it's bad service - you just caught them off-guard. I doubt anyone else asks them anything about the fish so their lack of training and not having a pre-prepared answer meant you got 'glitch mode' - which you can perceive as poor service.