I’m not sure when I last went into an Iceland, so I don’t know what I was expecting. I don’t have a huge chest freezer, but I do aspire to own one, so that feels like a good start.
Frozen food, whether standalone ingredients or ready meals, play a crucial role in getting decent and affordable meals to people who need it. It’s vital for anyone who can’t get to a shop often or can’t prepare their own fresh dishes.
I keep lots of staple ingredients in the small freezer space that I do have, from citrus and herbs to quick children’s meals like chipolata sausages and chicken nuggets. I prefer to cook from scratch when there’s time, but fish fingers are very often a good idea.
That said, in the small Iceland on my local high street, I count over 30 kinds of breaded or battered chicken in strips, nuggets, thighs, drumsticks, popsters, toppers, balls… do customers need a different kind of deep-fried chicken for each day of the month?
I also visited a larger store, The Food Warehouse by Iceland, in a nearby retail park. These bigger stores were launched by Iceland in 2014, while Iceland Foods Group is still co-owned by founder Sir Malcolm Walker, who launched his first frozen food shop in Oswestry in 1970 with just £30, under the same name it bears today.
