Motorway Madness at M&S Simply Foods - why no reduced to clear?

vodkacokebloke

What they are trying to say (albeit rather poorly) is that should a sandwich that is dated today be ever so slightly off and cause nausea be sold to somebody who is driving on a motorway, then the consequences are more likely to be serious than somebody who is walking home or driving at a far lower speed with more options to pull over quickly.

I agree that it is a big waste, but that is one of the main reasons.

sexki11en

vodkacokebloke wrote: »

What they are trying to say (albeit rather poorly) is that should a sandwich that is dated today be ever so slightly off and cause nausea be sold to somebody who is driving on a motorway, then the consequences are more likely to be serious than somebody who is walking home or driving at a far lower speed with more options to pull over quickly.

I agree that it is a big waste, but that is one of the main reasons.

No, what they were saying is they don't want to be sued for making someone ill.

SK x

withabix

I've bought 'last day' reduced food at Lancaster Services M&S, so they aren't consistent.

geordie_joe

I think the reason is simple, if they reduce a sandwich then someone will buy it and not buy a full priced one.

People who shop at motorway service stations are different to those who shop in city stores. They have not stopped there to do their weekly shop, they have stopped because they are hungry and don't want to continue on to the next service station to see if it is any cheaper.

If there is a sandwich reduced that must be eaten that day they will buy that, because they are going to eat it as soon as possible after picking it up.

But if the only food available is full price, they will pay it, because they need to eat food now and are willing to pay the high price for it.

moonrakerz

My daughter used to manage a "Simply Food" on a motorway. She used to take the "out of date" flowers (most of which were guaranteed to flower for 10/14 days after that date !!!) to the local hospital.
As long as the patients didn't eat them they should have been OK :rotfl::rotfl:

withabix

moonrakerz wrote: »

My daughter used to manage a "Simply Food" on a motorway. She used to take the "out of date" flowers (most of which were guaranteed to flower for 10/14 days after that date !!!) to the local hospital.
As long as the patients didn't eat them they should have been OK :rotfl::rotfl:

Flowers are banned at nearly all hospitals now. MRSA and all that. Stinky vase water is an ideal breeding ground for germs.

david39

I think Geordie Joe is correct - on motorway service stations, the customer is looking for food he needs to eat there and then and price is of minor importance. If he wants a cheese and pickle sandwich to eat in the car park, he'll willingly pay £2.50 and will not be worried that he cannot find an end-date one at half price.


There is a huge mark-up on pre-packed sandwiches - that must be obvious to anyone who sits down and works out how many sandwiches can be made from a loaf of bread, a handful of salad, a few prawns, some mayonnaise and a mass produced box to pack it in.

So, if the cost of a sandwich to M&S is less than half the price they sell it at, then it is more profitable to sell a full-price one and to throw the end-date sandwiches away, rather than to sell the older ones at half price. - Cost price of sandwich (say) 60p - throw it away and lose 60p but make £1.90 on a fresh one instead.

That may not be what conservationists want to hear but it is the better course of action for the shareholders' dividends - so no point in raising it at the AGM.

DCFC79

M&S know they can get the normal price for the food so no way will they reduce it. Its up to the retailer what they choose in terms of a stores running.

ilesmark

All

I think the last few posts have hit the nail on the head as to this dastardly practice - I had the following yesterday evening from M&S

Dear Mr Iles

Thank you for your further email about our policy regarding the pricing and disposal of near date expired food.

I am sorry for the delay in responding to you but I have taken a little time to get fully briefed on our policy.

The Motorway Service Station Simply Food stores are run as franchises by MOTO; however, their food disposal practices are broadly speaking the same as those in our mainstream M&S stores.

Most of our food products are subjected to successive price decreases on the day of their sell by date expiry, depending on how much stock of an item is left. The general rule of thumb is the more stock left, the greater the reduction. We follow this policy in an effort to reduce the amount of waste we send for disposal in a landfill site.

Our Food on the Move range, however, has clear late night strength of sales and our policy is to keep it at full price. Food on the Move products should only be disposed of after the close of business and it is disappointing to hear this was not the case at Exeter services.

We have asked our franchise partner for the South West region to investigate why this is happening in Exeter.

As you may be aware, we have set out to be the most environmentally friendly retailer in the UK by 2015. We call this our Plan A, full details of which can be found by following this link:

http://plana.marksandspencer.com/?intid=gft_plana

This explains our participation in the FareShare scheme. As I am sure you can imagine it is quite a challenge for an environmentally friendly public limited company to make a profit while trying to save the world. There will inevitably be inconsistencies in any major companies’ policies but overall we are making a positive effort to reduce our environmental impact.

To further complicate this issue, we are rolling out ‘Customer Ready Food’ in the autumn, essentially a re-branding of Food on the Move, which will result in a rationalisation of our waste policy across the Food Department. Our customers will then benefit from all of our near date expired products being reduced at the same time.

I hope I have been able to answer your query and thank you for your continued interest in M&S.

Kind regards
Geraint Saunders
Executive Office
Your M&S Customer Service


But at least they have said they'll be stopping it in the autumn.

k3lvc

To be fair I think that's a bloody good response from them and far better than you'd get from most others. As expected the weak link in the chain is the franchisee i.e. Moto and that's always a challenge when two key brands come together and don't share the same ethics or objectives