Are Supermarket Recipe Booklets a Waste of Time and Paper?

Are you the type of shopper who brings home those free recipe booklets from supermarkets? You know the ones — glossy covers, bright food photos, and promises of easy weeknight meals. You pick one up with good intentions, thinking you might try something different. But if you are being honest, you never read it, never make anything from it, and eventually throw it out weeks later — after it has cluttered your kitchen bench or dining table long enough to annoy someone in the household.

So why do supermarkets keep printing these?

They are not inspiring gourmet meals. Most people do not get past the first few pages. What they do accomplish is wasting paper, ink, and transportation resources. When you multiply that across hundreds of stores nationwide, the result is tons of glossy booklets contributing to landfill and unnecessary pollution.

It is even more baffling when you consider how easily people can find recipes online. A quick search on your phone gives you thousands of choices tailored to your taste, ingredients, and cooking skill level. Yet we are still printing booklets that most people never use.

Many of these so-called recipes are little more than disguised advertising. A three-ingredient salad with a branded dressing is not a recipe. It is a subtle pitch to add overpriced items to your cart. Others are vague, overly simplistic, or simply uninspiring. You do not need a printed guide to make pasta with jarred sauce or toast with avocado.

It raises the bigger question: is this really helping anyone? Or is it just an old marketing habit that has outlived its usefulness? In a time when consumers are more conscious about waste and sustainability, continuing to print unwanted material seems out of step.

Maybe it is time for supermarkets to rethink this approach. And maybe it is time we stop pretending that the supermarket frittata is going to make it to our dinner table.

Until then, those cheerful booklets will likely keep doing what they always do — head straight for the bin.

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