food wastage supermarkets and whoopsies

celebrate

I love whoppsies, my favourite place for them is Asda-get there at the right time and you can get great fruit and veg at amazing prices. They always seem really keen to make sure all stock is cleared.

However i 've been to tesco a couple of evenings this week on whoopsie hunts, one of my locals is a 24hr and the other closes at 10pm, so i got to the 24 hr one at 9pm and this lovely SA is reduciing the bread and asksme anything i want he will reduce it, got a massive celebration cake reduced from 8.99 to 80, also bread 7p and so on...


then i go about .45 to the other tesco which shuts at 10pm and they have shelves full of items only reduced by about 1/3 eg finest plum tomoatoes 1.99 reduced to 1.65, same with a fridge full of meat and stacks of bread , about 5 of the same party cake I just got for 80 at £5.99.

So I ask a couple of Sa's that as the store was due to close soon woul the yellow sticker items be reduced any further and they said no because the girl who reduces them has gone home. This was yesterday and the same again happended today. I asked well there is so much stuff it will be wasted-they just said "we know", I said can't you reduce it a bit for me , I will clear your shelves!!! They refused.

Just wondering how often this happens in others experiences or is it just this particular store. I have been in this particular a few times and it is always the same. Just wondering if I should put in an email to head office or write to the store manager.

Claire_Bear

I think it does vary, times and days. I usually go in an hour before closing, most of the time the reductions will have been done by then but sometimes they haven't even been done by ten mins before. I always thought that reductions had a certain time frame to them, like 50% off 3 hours before closing, then reduce by another 50% 1 hour before closing etc? I guess a lot of places don't stick to it though, this is Sainsbury's - I'm not sure what Tesco is like. I know Asda always seem to be really good with their whoopsies like you say, bread and doughnuts reduced to about 2p or 5p half an hour before closing, we even once had a member of staff give us a bag of bread for free as we were the last customers of the night and they said they didn't want it to go to waste.

I was in a tesco store a while back, about 15 mins before they closed, a member of staff was putting absolutely loads of the fresh bakery items like muffins and doughnuts into a big clear bag to throw them out, they hadn't even been reduced once :eek:

recovering_spendaholic

I went into Sainsburys the other evening and the SA was filling these big cages things with all the reduced stuff - there was loads and loads of bread, cakes, meat, fish and ready meals. It was nearly 10pm (their closing time) and I asked what was going to happen to it and he said it was going to be thrown out. I said that if they reduced it more (it was all marked half price) then people would buy it and he said that the store manager had a policy of not reducing stuff past half price. When I drove away from the store the same SA was putting all the stuff in the big dumper bins outside the store and then padlocking them to stop "fregans". I was really disgusted at the waste.

jumblejack

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I went into Sainsburys the other evening and the SA was filling these big cages things with all the reduced stuff - there was loads and loads of bread, cakes, meat, fish and ready meals. It was nearly 10pm (their closing time) and I asked what was going to happen to it and he said it was going to be thrown out. I said that if they reduced it more (it was all marked half price) then people would buy it and he said that the store manager had a policy of not reducing stuff past half price. When I drove away from the store the same SA was putting all the stuff in the big dumper bins outside the store and then padlocking them to stop "fregans". I was really disgusted at the waste.

We should all send complaints addressed to the store managers saying we are disgusted by their wastage produced by their reduction policies and are determined to boycott them entirely until they act in s more responsible and ethical manner!

geordie_joe

jumblejack wrote: »

We should all send complaints addressed to the store managers saying we are disgusted by their wastage produced by their reduction policies and are determined to boycott them entirely until they act in s more responsible and ethical manner!

The problem is, they are a business and their first duty is to make a profit.

You, me and everyone reading this may love reduced items, but the store manager knows that most people who buy a reduced item don't then buy it at full price.

Suppose you go into a store for a loaf of bread, fully expecting to pay £1 for it. Then find some that has been reduced to 10p, and grab 5. The store has still got £1 out of you, but the next 4 times you need a loaf you won't go into the store and pay £1 for them.

Some people (the customers) think it is better to sell something at a reduced price than to bin it. Other people (store managers) know that most times when someone buys a reduced item they have lost a sale for a full priced item, either that day or some time in the near future.

Middy

celebrate wrote: »

So I ask a couple of Sa's that as the store was due to close soon woul the yellow sticker items be reduced any further and they said no because the girl who reduces them has gone home. This was yesterday and the same again happended today. I asked well there is so much stuff it will be wasted-they just said "we know", I said can't you reduce it a bit for me , I will clear your shelves!!! They refused.
.

I work for Sainsburys and each of the dept managers has a different attitude to reductions. Some don't bother such as your experience, some reduce it down to 10p.

All managers, team leaders and a few others have access to these handsets. I did have a username, but forgotten my password. As my main role is checkouts, the admin manager won't reset my password. The colleagues can reduce things as low as they like. Though there are records kept. If colleagues abuse the system - they will get disciplinary action. One colleague at another store got dismissed as she reduced everything she wanted to buy after work for a penny per item. Nothing wrong with the items, but she was short of cash.

If there are loads of reductions, the duty manager can ask the colleagues to look through them and buy a few bits. One manager will not let you buy anything when you are working

Best reduction was before Christmas. There were tons of party food with use by dates of 22nd Dec. They were down to 10p each (some of these party food packs cost £5). So for the next 3 weeks, my evening meals were a mixture of these party foods - kept within my ww points. I got about 12 packs for £1 (after discount) and kept me going for 10-12 meals. 8p a tea.

jumblejack

geordie_joe wrote: »

The problem is, they are a business and their first duty is to make a profit.

You, me and everyone reading this may love reduced items, but the store manager knows that most people who buy a reduced item don't then buy it at full price.

Suppose you go into a store for a loaf of bread, fully expecting to pay £1 for it. Then find some that has been reduced to 10p, and grab 5. The store has still got £1 out of you, but the next 4 times you need a loaf you won't go into the store and pay £1 for them.

Some people (the customers) think it is better to sell something at a reduced price than to bin it. Other people (store managers) know that most times when someone buys a reduced item they have lost a sale for a full priced item, either that day or some time in the near future.

I see your point but I disagree entirely. When I see whoopsies I buy, buy, buy!!! I go in the shop with the intention of spotting a bargain. If none are available I leave. I buy things that I wouldn't ordinarily buy and use it as a chance to experiment with cooking or to try new things that I wouldn't have bought.
If I buy more than I can use, I share with friends and neighbours. Nothing is wasted.

Tesco lose no money from myself as I do not spend there unless I cone off the winner.

No bargains = NO spending.

eleanor73

jumblejack wrote: »

I see your point but I disagree entirely. When I see whoopsies I buy, buy, buy!!! I go in the shop with the intention of spotting a bargain. If none are available I leave. I buy things that I wouldn't ordinarily buy and use it as a chance to experiment with cooking or to try new things that I wouldn't have bought.
If I buy more than I can use, I share with friends and neighbours. Nothing is wasted.

Tesco lose no money from myself as I do not spend there unless I cone off the winner.

No bargains = NO spending.

I am the same as you but I do think we are in the minority. My friends and family next to never buy from what I call the bargain bin where as the only meat without yellow stickers on in my freezer was bought from the Lidl weekend deal!
It does make me angry. Supermarkets should be fined for high wastage!

geordie_joe

jumblejack wrote: »

I see your point but I disagree entirely.

No you don't you are just trying to make yourself look clever and not seeing it from the other side.

jumblejack wrote: »

When I see whoopsies I buy, buy, buy!!!

And every time you buy a whoopsie, you don't need to buy that item at full price.

And that is the side the store manager sees.

jumblejack wrote: »

I go in the shop with the intention of spotting a bargain.

So do most people, but EVERYONE goes into the store needing to buy something. If they get into the shop, and find they can get it woopsied then they don't buy another at full price.

jumblejack wrote: »

If none are available I leave.

But you can't keep on leaving if there were no whoopsies. Sooner or later you would have to buy food. And if it was not whoopsied you would have to buy it at full price, or starve.

And that is my point, store managers know that if you can't get reduced items you would have to buy full priced items.

jumblejack wrote: »

I buy things that I wouldn't ordinarily buy and use it as a chance to experiment with cooking or to try new things that I wouldn't have bought.

But every time you cook a meal with whoopsied items it means you don't have to buy full price items. So the shop has lost the sale of some full priced items.

jumblejack wrote: »

If I buy more than I can use, I share with friends and neighbours. Nothing is wasted.

But now your friends and neighbours don't need to buy something at full price. So the stores have lost out on full price sales again.

jumblejack wrote: »

Tesco lose no money from myself as I do not spend there unless I cone off the winner.

Where would you shop if no supermarket reduced their stuff?

jumblejack wrote: »

No bargains = NO spending.

I disagree, if there were no bargains then you would still spend, you would be forced to spend or starve.

Try getting your mind off telling everyone how clever you are at saving money.

Stop pretending you look at store managers and think "If you don't reduce it, I won't buy it"

And put yourself in their place, then think "If we didn't reduce it what would you do, starve or pay full price"?

When you have done that, come back and tell me again that if it isn't reduced you won't buy it......and I'll tell you that if they stopped reducing stuff you would either buy it full price or starve.

The question every manager asks them selves is "When a customer buys a reduced item, would they still have bought it if it was not reduced". The answer is "Sometimes yes, and sometimes no, but which ever it is, at some point in the future they will not buy something at full price because they have bought something reduced".

recovering_spendaholic

I see what you are saying Geordie Joe but I have more of an issue with the wastage than the reductions policy. I understand that they have to make a profit but is there not something they can do with all the waste stuff - surely there must be homeless shelters or other charities which would take the stuff?

geordie_joe

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I see what you are saying Geordie Joe but I have more of an issue with the wastage than the reductions policy. I understand that they have to make a profit but is there not something they can do with all the waste stuff - surely there must be homeless shelters or other charities which would take the stuff?

I'm sure there are plenty of charities that would happily take the waste food. But why don't the shops give it to them?

Well, when I worked for Tesco I had to take waste food to the warehouse to be scanned and binned. When ever I mentioned giving it to homeless charities I always got a different answer.

One manager would say "We can't, if someone gets ill, or claims to be ill, we'll get sued. So we have to destroy the food to protect ourselves".

Another said "It's for insurance, we are insured for waste, but if we give the stuff away we can't claim on the insurance".

Another said "We can off set the cost of waste against tax, but we would get less tax back if it went to charity".

Yet another said "Because if we don't give it to the charities they will come in and buy food anyway. All charities are loaded, if we don't give them the food they will use some of their money to buy it".

I don't know what the true answer is, but I bet people will come in here and tell you, backing it up with "I'm a checkout assistant for XXX, so I know".

But the fact is, the people on the shop floor never really know why the chairman, or company accountant have implemented a policy. They only know what other shop floor workers have told them, and those people are just repeatring what they have heard from other shop floor workers, not what they were told by the chairman or company accountant.