Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Marmite or Vegemite?

I was talking to a friend in Australia the other night. She said, while looking at Vegemite in her local supermarket, she had noticed that the same sized jar of Marmite was cheaper.

Vegemite is Australian made but is owned by the American company Kraft. According to Wikipedia Vegemite is also made in New Zealand, but it is still owned by Kraft. Marmite here though is unique to New Zealand (British made marmite uses a different recipe). It is made in Christchurch by Sanitarium which was founded in Australia and is surprisingly owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Is there any difference then? Marmite is marketed as a New Zealand icon and it does seem more New Zealanders prefer it to Vegemite. If   both Vegemite and Marmite are made for offshore companies though should we be supporting one over the other?

Sanitarium is more local so it seems to make more sense to support them over Kraft. If both can wear the "Made in New Zealand" tag though, is there any difference? Some amount of the money we pay for the product will go back to Sanitarium and Kraft but some will remain here in the pockets of their employees.

I went down to my local supermarket to see if I could get my hands on some NZ made Vegemite but all the jars had “made in Australia” on them.

I contacted Sarah Goffe of the Buy New Zealand Made Campaign who in turn contacted Sanitarium to see if they make Vegemite on behalf of Kraft. The response was that Vegemite IS NOT made here. Sarah said the logo used on the picture supplied by Wikipedia is over 10 years old so Vegemite was once made here but no longer is. I also went to the supermarket to check the Vegemite range, all said "made in Australia".

Personally I don't have a preference, I like Marmite and Vegemite and I think it is safe to buy anything that wears a NZ Made tag. To be eligible for the tag companies have to prove their product is made here and the Commerce Commission hands out pretty harsh penalties to companies that claim something they're not.

So, unless I can find a 10 year old jar of Vegemite, it is off the menu too.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Blinded by advertising


At the beginning of the year two of my favourite people moved up north. I really wanted to get up there sometime in this half of the year to visit them so when Jetstar advertised $29 flights to Auckland I snapped them up without thinking. Obviously Jetstar (owned by Qantas) isn't a New Zealand company though. I should have booked with Air New Zealand but I was blinded by the cheap fares and constant advertising. Now that I have another wee mark in the fail column I realise that we are constantly bombarded with advertising but often it's the overseas companies that have money to tell us how awesome their products are. Has anyone noticed how many ads are shown  for New Zealand companies or products?

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Smoothies and Skincare.


As I write this I am swigging back a bottle of Arano Vanilla Bean and Honey Goodness Smoothie. It seriously has to be the best smoothie I have had in a long time. At $3.90 (375mL!) it was almost passed over, especially as the Simply Squeezed range was on special at $1.99 but I thought I may as well splash out and treat myself...I have had a very hard weekend. So glad I did, it's delicious! They had other flavours too, most notably carrot (juice, not smoothie).

Since running out of the only (sadly French made) nail polish that kept my nails in an acceptable state I have been searching for a NZ made solution. I've had lots of great suggestions; one of which was Trilogy's Everything Balm (thanks Annabel!) It is made in New Zealand, but it's not a product of New Zealand. I did happen to have some already though, I just use it as a hand cream each night and my nails have been all good!

This prompted me to search for other moisturisers, and the like. Skinfood (www.skinfood.co.nz) definitely came out on top. For accessibility and price. The range was all about half that of the equivalents in the other brands and I found it on the shelf at the local supermarket. Mossops (www.mossopshoney.co.nz); Emotional Rescue Skincare (www.emotionalrescue.co.nz) and Manig Olies (www.manigolies.co.nz) were all similarly priced. They are all made from natural ingredients too. Manig Olies is even made in Christchurch! Two others came up in my search but I’m not so sure about them, Geo skincare (www.geoskincare.co.nz) and Oasis (www.oasisbeauty.co.nz). Geo skincare doesn’t actually say ‘made in New Zealand’. Oasis first turned me off when my eye stumbled onto the product information page. It seemed to be a list of warnings. It warned of temporary tingling and other discomforts due to a high amount of active ingredients. It also said it includes natural ingredients where the others said 100% natural ingredients. Why would I want to buy a product when the website lists side affects? The websites look surprisingly similar too. Geo skincare didn’t offer prices and Oasis was similar to Mossops, Emotional rescue and Manig Olies.

So, for now I am using up the last dregs of what I had before I started this experiment but when that’s all gone I will check out the Skinfood range. Maybe later when I have a bit more cash to throw around I will give Mossops, Emotional rescue or Manig Olies a go.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Shrewsburys vs. Creme Eggs.

Photo courtesy of rightee via Flickr
So I found out my fav biscuits (Shrewsburys in case you were wondering!) are made here. They'd been sitting there in the 'aisle of value' for ages tempting me but I kept walking past, sure that they were made in Australia. One day though I decided it was worth a look, thankfully. The 'made in...' bit was really hard to find though, I was looking for ages. An older lady went to grab a packet and noticed me trying to read the back...she tried to teach me how to read the nutritional infomation! Cadbury creme eggs though...omg...made in the UK!!! I'm so dissapointed right now! What do we have a Cadbury factory for if they don't make creme eggs...if only Whittakers could see!

Monday, March 8, 2010

NZ paper?

So I looked up Warwick and Croxley online today. The Croxley website lists Warwicks' 'country of origin' as New Zealand, even says it's a 'New Zealand icon', the Olympic brand too. Why do only the loose leaf refill pads and the 50c notebooks say they are made in New Zealand then? If the other products aren't made here why is New Zealand listed as the country of origin? Maybe it's just that manufacturing has moved offshore. Is it ok to buy then? Afterall it is (supposedly) a New Zealand icon and I need to get paper from somewhere. Fortunately I don't really need more than refill except printer paper but I can do my printing at Uni. I still have to pay for printing at Uni but my money doesn't go directly on paper, or ink for that matter so does it count? Probably yes but at this stage I don't see a way around it.
Photo courtesy of Kristian D. via Flickr.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Petrol again.

The empty light in my car had been on for a few days and I kept meaning to go find a Challenge petrol station but always seemed to be in a rush. Today I had to run a few errands, one of which took me close to a Challenge. On the way though my car started doing all those stupid things they do just before they die and make you walk miles in search of petrol which I was in no fit state to be doing this morning. I happened to be close to a BP though and had a $20 AA voucher (BP is the only petrol station that takes them) so I pulled in and filled up with $20 worth of petrol. I figure it was ok though cos it was the AA's money, not mine.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Expensive but totally worth it notebooks.

I did it...I bought the NZ made notebooks. They weren't the $22 ones though, I found an NZ made notebook section at Whitcoulls!...They only had a few sizes but heaps of designs. The one I bought was $15 so still a little expensive considering how fast I'm going through it but worth it I think. I've also been put onto some NZ made pens (thanks Annabel!). BeGreen pens are made here (with some recycled plastic!) but I have yet to get my hands on some. The Warehouse Stationary assures me they stock them but can never seem to find them when I go in. Hopefully that means they're sold out!