.

I...look grimly into the larder but, nope, there’s no emergency last carton hidden behind the chickpeas. Come to that, there’s not even any chickpeas.

Time to shop again.

Dilemma. If I’m to achieve the stock-up at max efficiency - which means buying 6 packs - transport is going to enter the frame.

I could drive down to HISBE, curse a bit about lack of doorstep parking, and get all the heavy stuff we need by car - tins, mylk, refills of laundry liquid (last time I did a big shop there, the lovely manager - who is obviously aware that this is a challenge - helped me carry those heavy bags to the car).

I could avoid using the car and order online from Ethical Superstore or something. But, the goods would still travel the same miles to reach Worthing. Plus, the profit from online shopping sales would go to a large and notlocal organisation. With a local CIC (Community Interest Company), all profits stay in the immediate community and neighbourhood, which has to be better. I like reading in our independent CICs about local projects that have been given a hand. I like hearing about and shopping from small local suppliers. Kimchi from Brighton, preserves from Broadwaterthis feels more humanising and I know it makes for more sustainable communities.

I often cycle to pick up a few bits - but what I can carry is limited by the size of my backpack and my own regrettably flimsy infrastructure. I’ve longed for the physique of a 6ft bodybuilder, but all my life have remained a small-boned wimp. Great for being nimble and agile - rubbish for hauling heavy loads.

When I grew up, on an estate in the 1960s and 1970s, my uncle had a grocery van. Almost nobody had a car in those days, but you can bet we all ate potatoes, used laundry powder and tinned tomatoes.

cooking the stuff, not buying it.

What to buy is a challenge when we want to be thoughtful consumers, support our community and town to be more sustainable. Where and how to buy it is equally perplexing.

I grew up, on an estate in the 1960s and 1970s, and my uncle had a grocery van. Almost nobody had a car in those days, but you can bet we all ate potatoes, used laundry powder and tinned tomatoes. A school holiday highlight was to go out with him and help, weighing out the veg and riding up the front. In Brighton, there’s an initiative like this, bringing local produce by electric van. In Worthing, we do have local veg box delivery schemes, plus a doorstep dairy-and-more electric van delivery option that promises to use local suppliers, but they’re not CICs.

And then, I hate shopping. The lifestyle option of a cycle-friendly small daily shop horrifies me; spend 1 of my precious free hours a day outside work doing consumer-related activity? I’d rather be in the garden, or walking the dog, or

Sustainability - one small dilemma at a time.

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