food wastage supermarkets and whoopsies

Middy

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?

We donate bread to homeless charities. Some stores that are near an animal sanctuary donate the fruit and veg that the animals eat such as carrots, apples etc.

jumblejack

geordie_joe wrote: »

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




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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



Where would you shop if no supermarket reduced their stuff?



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".

I do NOT buy full value goods from
Tesco. I only ever buy from there to take advantage. I DO buy regularly from Indian shops where I bulk buy pulses, spices, meat, etc. I DO buy regularly from Heron Foods, B & M, Lidl for my milk (& for the weekend offers), Aldi for the grocery specials if I haven't dropped on any whoopsies & Home Bargains.

I find these other shopping trips keep me wonderfully stocked up so that I NEVER resort to doing 'proper' shops at Tesco.

I use them for my MOC use in conjunction with price matching Asda (as I have none nearby!). I also have used them a lot for my penny finds. I am well stocked up in chilli tomatoes, chocolate eggs, adzuki beans, cod roe, etc etc.

But my main reason to shop there is the teatime whoopsies. If there are none there then I DO leave empty handed.

You do not know me nor my shopping habits so cannot question what I clearly and truthfully stated.

I am not alone in my shopping habits. Many on the voucher and OS threads so exactly the same as myself and will not spend in Tesco unless they come off the winner.

My point is that unless Tesco reduce they get no money off shoppers such as myself and others mentioned and they have to pay for the removal of waste produce which is ethically and morally wrong!

Emuchops

I went o Haverfordwest yesterday evening-got to Aldi at 7.50 (closes at 8)-nothing at all-probably too late. Went to the 24 hr Tesco-again nothing, finally went to Marrisons at 8.30 (shuts a 9) -got a good haul of bread rolls, bagels and fruit-9p per item.

I get the impression with T that I was too late-T's shelves were quite empty so perhaps they do the best reductions at about 6ish? Does anyone know if this is the case? All the remaining bread, meat etc was in date.I d have thought that a 24hr shop would do the main reductions quite late ie after 8pm but I must be wrong-has anyone else any experience of the best time to go to 24hr Tescos?

WishI'dReadSooner

I think it REALLY does depend on the manager of your particular shop.
eg. Our local Sainsbury USED to reduce everything to 10-20p at around 7.30pm Got some fantastic bargains & always had a full freezer of stuff we were more than happy to eat.

Manager changed, no reductions around 7.30pm and the most they would reduce to was half price. Even going in 5 minutes before they closed (9pm) nothing was reduced further. Staff said he wouldn't let them reduce under half price so everything was wasted.

Geordie Joe - you CAN keep leaving the shop if they don't reduce. I just started shopping elsewhere where I KNEW I'd get whoopsies. I'd MUCH prefer Sainsburys whoopsies BUT if I can't get them then I'll go elsewhere.

I MUST go back soon & see if their policy has changed as my freezer used to be a gourmets delight at times - now it's just plain ordinary. I DO like Sainsburys whoopsies, a class above the rest! Pity Marks & Spencer don't do 'real' whoopsies but for variety Sainsburys whoopsies are best.

Boozer

The supermarket i used to work at reduced everything to make sure it sold, any money was better than nothing, 5 an 10p items were available every night, excess reduced items shows very poor stock management, if the same item is reduced many nights then we would adjust the system for ordering less or perhaps stop stocking the item completely.

I did get bored of the same people following me around when i had the reducing gun though, i used to change how i did it each night.

kiddy_guy

Just picking up on your point Boozer regarding the same faces every night, I have a number of irritants that come to mind.

I am a "whoopiser" for want of a better explanation, and it just happens that I pass by the Supermarket most evenings at the right time to purchase reduced goods. I will wait politely, not bothering the member of staff reducing the items, and will take 1 of an item, leaving any excess for others. I'll wait a good few seconds if there is more than 1 (for putting in the freezer), so that everyone has an opportunity.

What irritates me is other shoppers!

• People who approach the member of staff and pick up an item to get them to reduce it. I've been waiting for that item, but hey - you just jump right in there rudely.
• People who take it direct off the trolley; clearly if the process is to put into the chiller and you can see them doing that, don't go and hover round the trolley trying to beat everyone else to the items.
• People who block the chiller. We know what you're doing! :mad: All time favourites are those who use their trolleys to try and stop you getting near.
• Don't go and get items from one reduced section and bring them over for reduction. Wait for them to do them in turn.
• The "I need 5 of that item". Yes - I know you've probably got a large family and 20 bags of bananas might be able to be turned into some form of dessert, but I only want 1 bag. :rotfl:
• Snatching. You wouldn't let your 5 yr old grab out of somebody's hand like that so why do you think it's acceptable to do it a supermarket staff member .

I know that asking for some form of etiquette when you're buying reduced items is a bit like asking for the moon on a stick, but we're British, so show some darn decorum.

julietiff

WishI'dReadSooner wrote: »

I think it REALLY does depend on the manager of your particular shop.
eg. Our local Sainsbury USED to reduce everything to 10-20p at around 7.30pm Got some fantastic bargains & always had a full freezer of stuff we were more than happy to eat.

Manager changed, no reductions around 7.30pm and the most they would reduce to was half price. Even going in 5 minutes before they closed (9pm) nothing was reduced further. Staff said he wouldn't let them reduce under half price so everything was wasted.

Geordie Joe - you CAN keep leaving the shop if they don't reduce. I just started shopping elsewhere where I KNEW I'd get whoopsies. I'd MUCH prefer Sainsburys whoopsies BUT if I can't get them then I'll go elsewhere.

I MUST go back soon & see if their policy has changed as my freezer used to be a gourmets delight at times - now it's just plain ordinary. I DO like Sainsburys whoopsies, a class above the rest! Pity Marks & Spencer don't do 'real' whoopsies but for variety Sainsburys whoopsies are best.

I have to say I agree on the Sainsburys point. Last week we got a '
taste the difference' chicken meal for 20p- reduced from
£7.99, and no we wouldn't have bought it otherwise!-
we usually look for things for husband work lunch the next day, sandwiches
are often only 10p- Morrisons will only take about 10p in
total off, Sainsburys is much better

DCFC79

celebrate wrote: »

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.

speaking from experience any reductins has to be authorised by the manager or wo ever is in charge at the time,

DCFC79

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.

its the comany policy with sainsburys now, any food waste is sent to an incinerator and the output is used to power a depot(i think)

DCFC79

Emuchops wrote: »

I went o Haverfordwest yesterday evening-got to Aldi at 7.50 (closes at 8)-nothing at all-probably too late. Went to the 24 hr Tesco-again nothing, finally went to Marrisons at 8.30 (shuts a 9) -got a good haul of bread rolls, bagels and fruit-9p per item.

I get the impression with T that I was too late-T's shelves were quite empty so perhaps they do the best reductions at about 6ish? Does anyone know if this is the case? All the remaining bread, meat etc was in date.I d have thought that a 24hr shop would do the main reductions quite late ie after 8pm but I must be wrong-has anyone else any experience of the best time to go to 24hr Tescos?

you dont tend to find many at aldi as any that are done are done first thing and usually sell by midday