I don't buy any of my meat and fish at supermarkets, full stop. I have a couple of actual fishmongers and butchers within 5 minutes on foot from my apartment, and failing that I have actual old-style wet markets within walking distance.

I do buy produce and fruits, as well as dry goods, from chain stores but what we call "supermarkets" where I live is not the type of large "discount" surface shop located 15 km away from the city that you have to drive to, but neighborhood grocers.

I'm lucky to have a variety of them immediately around my place, so I can pick and choose. All carry clearly labeled local whole foods, and at least one is specialized in eco-label, organic, etc. food, including proteins and household items.

In this scenario, I have the opportunity to completely avoid the larger, more industrialized bastardized national and even pan-European big chains like Auchan, Mercadona, Lidl, etc. which are truly disgusting. But I pay for the privilege of access to so many good options in the form of extremely expensive rent for living smack in the center of my city.

Lots and lots of other people just don't or can't, and are forced to buy from the big stores, or their small format franchises which carry the same trash. Even though absolutely everybody here has access to a wet market in their neighborhood or town, at the very least, they often miss out on them because of their work schedules. Supermarkets are more adapted to the stupid schedules of double-working couples who have kids.

And then of course there's sill the issue of price and cost. I spend A LOT of money buying good quality groceries, I don't have children, and I have time too cook. I am an exception among my friends, even though I have done the math for them many times and proven to them that buying whole foods and cooking at home is not so expensive.

And that even if they use the "bad" products from the big shops because of cost concerns, they'd still be better off compared to buying processed shit.

As I said in another note, even though we are objectively in a better situation than the US, it's nowhere near as rosy as it looks, and it's not improving. There is a clear drive towards destroying people's cultural and historical food habits, for ideological and financial reasons, it's globally coordinated, and it's moving forward here too.