Are Supermarkets using short use by dates for profit?

Makeandsave

I am always looking towards the back for better dates, If there is bread with 2 days on i always ask if they have any out back with better dates on. I would not mind if it was a cheap loaf but at nearly £1.25 for a loaf i want it to last at least 4 days

calleyw

elfen wrote: »

It's FIFO (First In First Out) Basically, when food comes in, all your old stuff goes to the front, then all your new stuff to the back, so the shorter dated stock sells first and the new stuff doesn't. Most of the time use by dates mean nothing as stuff is still usable.

:rotfl:

That is how is suppose to work.

You obviously have never worked in a supermarket over night stacking shelves. All I can say is :eek:

Yours

Calley

SophieCat

I had my Asda shopping delivered today. Have just checked the best before date on the 6 pinter of milk, & it runs out tomorrow :mad:

paulwf

With the exception of the very small express stores I would imagine that all supermarkets would get a delivery of fresh goods 7 days a week, and bakeries and dairies would be running 7 days a week.

The problem comes down to stock ordering. Having a man/woman walking round the store with a clipboard and making out an order is too costly. Instead a computer takes the stock files which are updated from the tills and places an order.

What happens is that one day you might run out of bread so the computer panics and sends huge orders in for the next 3 days. This then causes a huge stockpile in the store and eventually the computer stops sending any more for a few days. What is left of the stockpile then goes out of date so the shelves are cleared then it all starts again *sigh* Sometimes the system works well but sometimes it really is frustrating and causes high levels of waste or product unavailability.

I think you are reading too much into it by thinking that supermarkets change the use by date depending on trading patterns. As most bread products have a 4+ day shelf life and most milk has 7+ days they wouldn't be able to get it to work anyway.

Any pattern you might see is because if a stockpile is created in the middle of the week that is the quiet trading days so it won't be cleared until the weekend when sales increase and the stock levels get to go back to how they should be.

paulwf

BTW bread has a "best before" not a "use by" date. This means the bread should be safe to eat after that date. Retailers put a date on their goods that isn't too long because they want you to get a fresh good quality product...if you got stale bread in the long term you would switch to another shop. Plus in the summer bread does go mouldy not long after the best before date so I think their dates are fairly realistic.

Supermarkets do have lots of tricks to get more money out of customers but sometimes there is a logical and consumer friendly reason for what they do Besides, the shorter the date they put on a product the more it costs them in wastage.

elfen

Calley, you I have, I've stacked shelves before, and so does my dad, who I got the information from. If it's not being done right, it's obvious staff aren't being trained correctly..

winnie81

I don't bother looking at dates as they are useless to me but if I was only buying or myself then I would as I would need it to last longer.

As for milk we use at least 6pts a day and bread we'll use almost 2 loaves so we have a freezer just for milk and bread lol our food is geerally eaten way before sell by dates my kids are food dustbins lol

geordie_joe

paulwf wrote: »

Retailers put a date on their goods

I thought it was the manufacturer that put the dates on not the retailer. After all, a product is only good for a length of time measured from the date of manufacture, not the date the retailer buys it.

paulwf wrote: »

that isn't too long because they want you to get a fresh good quality product...if you got stale bread in the long term you would switch to another shop.

And if you got a longer date on the bread you may not throw it out and go and buy more.

And as I said, it's the manufacturer that puts the date on, and they don't care which shop you buy their product at. So a customer going to another shop won't bother them because the shops have bought the products from them, not the customer.

calleyw

elfen wrote: »

Calley, you I have, I've stacked shelves before, and so does my dad, who I got the information from. If it's not being done right, it's obvious staff aren't being trained correctly..

Personally I don't think you need training it is common sense and obvious what to do.

I found a lot of the staff could not care less. And where under such time constraints that it was just a case of whack it on the shelves come what may, as we where not allowed to have comps going back to the warehouse half full.

I always felt bad when I had box full of out date stock to take out the back.

It was a few years ago and hope things have changed .

Yours

Calley

DCFC79

geordie_joe wrote: »

This does happen in my local Morrisons. They employ young kids (showing my age) and I often see them pushing stuff to the back and putting the new stuff in the front.

It's funny, I haven't stacked a supermarket shelf for over 12 years, but I still spot others doing it wrong

i get that as well sometimes,