Out of Season but Reduced to Clear

Station

I may be overthinking this but ...

I like Blueberries & quite often buy the UK ones in the summer however I wouldn't generally buy (e.g.) Chillean Blueberries at this time of year primarily for green reasons (although they are blooming expensive as well)

However - when faced with a tray reduced from £2.49 to .75p I was tempted as I figured if no one bought it it'd get binned anyway and hopefully I'm not encouraging future Chillean Blueberry import, just preventing waste.

But I'm not sure if this argument holds up or not. Should I buy what I like at a reduced price or should I avoid it on green grounds even though presumably someone, somewhere has noticed that they had too many to sell & will order less in future ??

paulwf

You would need to check how the supermarket reductions work I guess.

In M&S when an item is yellow stickered it is logged as date expired waste. When the yellow sticker goes through the till it is classed as a general yellow sticker item, not blueberries. Therefore it doesn't really make any difference to their stock file and stock ordering system when you buy anything on yellow sticker.

I think some supermarkets yellow sticker in such a way the till still logs what the item is? I don't know what bearing this then has on their ordering system?

Anyway, if you are in a supermarket that has generic yellow stickers then you can buy without influencing further orders.

A_fiend_for_life

Supermarket stock is reordered depending on how profitable a line is per unit space and stock depletion rate. Both systems provide that information through sales alone and a reasonable approximation for shelf life (unless the sell by / use by date is entered elsewhere).

The less specific one might not indicate what is theft and waste. It might also provide less timely information.

The only way out of it is to grow your own or buy local or regional in season produce and freeze / preserve them or do without which is really the crux of the 'dilema'. The more you try to be green the more you realise your justification is hypocritical I'm afraid. It's good to recognise it and find solutions. I make no claims to be being perfect.

dixie_dean_2

Definitely don't buy them. I don't see much difference in a vegetarian eating reduced chicken as someone else will buy it if not. If you have the idea and principle that you want to buy local food then stick to it. And good on you.

chezmck

Oh dear I work on that principle, if its in reduced to clear, Im not causing the consumer demand. The supermarket knows theyve had to give it away and dont want to do that again so dont order that many in again. Ive done this many times and felt quite pleased with myself.

luce181

Hmm, just been thinking it through, surely if it's logged as 'date expired waste' when the sticker goes on then that would affect their future orders. So it would be better to buy it once it's reduced so it doesn't end up in the bin? Or have I missed the point :think:

Fire_Fox

chezmck wrote: »

Oh dear I work on that principle, if its in reduced to clear, Im not causing the consumer demand. The supermarket knows theyve had to give it away and dont want to do that again so dont order that many in again. Ive done this many times and felt quite pleased with myself.

I think every individual has to make his or her own rules here. None of us are perfect ethical beings, there are always a few compromises along the way. Seems to me it's better to look at what you do than berate yourself for what you don't. For a lot of us there is a trade off between ethics and financial pressures.

chezmck

Having given it some thought I am happy to buy the reduced to clear items. I did today and am still of the thought that my purchases will not create the consumer demand for that item.
I do the same with clothes. Im very fortunate that close to my home there is a hugh warehouse type store that has all the end of line, sales, returns ex demo faulty goods of the major stores which they donate to the store who sells them at massivly reduced prices compared to the stores retail prices. All the money goes towards helping a birth defects charity so not only am I not creating the demand purchasing from the high street I also help a very worthwhile cause.

Caterina

I would buy the reduced item - having the same problem about blueberries, which I love, but normally cannot stomach buying the ones from Chile! I go by the principle that if I did not buy them when stickered they might end up in a landfill.

Am always trying so hard to do everything the ethical way that sometimes I get a bit fed up and allow myself to stray. I am sure that my last 8 years of not driving and not flying allow me the odd punnet of reduced blueberries. Can't always be 100% perfect (and keep smiling at the same time!).

Jeff77

dixie_dean wrote: »

Definitely don't buy them. I don't see much difference in a vegetarian eating reduced chicken as someone else will buy it if not. If you have the idea and principle that you want to buy local food then stick to it. And good on you.

Even I would agree with this answer. Don't buy them. It is tempting yes but is really the price that matters? Is it the price the thing that you should be considering when buying some of it? No right?

Gigervamp

Jeff77 wrote: »

Even I would agree with this answer. Don't buy them. It is tempting yes but is really the price that matters? Is it the price the thing that you should be considering when buying some of it? No right?

I don't think it's the price, but the fact that if they don't sell once reduced, they go in the bin. And that's a waste. Of good fruit and resources transporting them and growing them.

I would buy them if they were reduced.

Oh, also, I'm not sure if things have changed now, but when I worked at Tesco, the reduced stickers were placed over the barcode and they had a middle strip that was peeled off in order to scan the item, so it would go through as reduced, but stock control knew what the item was.