Real life MMD: Time to tell on the veg hoarders?

gaily

Stockpiling for hours ahead - I don't have that sort of time to hang around in a supermarket (especially with 5 year old kids!)

But what do they do if the discount isn't big enough - put it back? ...
No thanks - if it needed refridgeration and hasn't been then I don't want to be buying it.

The store needs to be made aware that people may be doing this, but maybe as a quiet word, than an all out hissy at 'discount time'

I love a bargain as much as the next person, but won't do more than peruse what's there at the time. No waiting, no barging and no stockpiling!

A.Jones

I don't get it. In all the supermarkets I use, when something is reduced, a member of staff needs to stick a label over the original barcode, and the price is entered manually. Most barcodes are not date sensitive. An avocado with a use-by of today has the same barcode as an avocado with a use-by of a week's time.

So do these people remove the items, then return, then hope to grab them back once stickered?

DustD

Bizarre dilemma!

Your obviously a frequent 'bargain hunter' when it comes to fruit and veg, if you recongnise the people each time.

Like others here, I am baffled as to how these people are 'stockpiling' produce and then getting it at a discounted price. It can't be once its in their trolley, so are they building a stockade to surround this 'value' veg? Sounds a bit ridiculous to me.

If they are getting aggressive over a 7p bag of spuds then I would complain to management, especially if their staff are discounting items after these nutjobs have put them in the trolley.

stufai

A.Jones wrote: »

I don't get it. In all the supermarkets I use, when something is reduced, a member of staff needs to stick a label over the original barcode, and the price is entered manually. Most barcodes are not date sensitive. An avocado with a use-by of today has the same barcode as an avocado with a use-by of a week's time.

So do these people remove the items, then return, then hope to grab them back once stickered?

In Waitrose and some other stores they simply reduce all of the 'weigh your own' stock, thus making any purchase of that stock, such as onions or leeks, cheaper.

zamzia

I vote friendly word with the store manager /assistant manager too. That would get my back right up.

gobbythehouseelf

Years ago I worked in a supermarket and had to do the reductions. After experiencing the "horders" who used to collect the items and then stick the under my nose to reduce I used to collect all items that would be reduced in a trolley, take them to the store room and reduce the items. I then just pushed the trolley out to the hoards. It was like watching a shoal of piranhas but it stopped those people who used to walk around with their trolley collecting items and waiting for a final reduction. Definitely tell the store management - these people are ruthless. I have many more stories of the tricks people get up to!

milvusvestal

Sounds like the management needs a bit of tightening up.

If goods that could otherwise be sold at their normal price are deliberately being withheld for later sale at giveaway prices instead, the process amounts to nothing less than fraud on the supermarket.

Yes, I think you should report the situation, particularly as some of the people involved are there out of sheer greed rather than necessity.

joehoover

What and where is this supermarket?
I'm imagining people swordfighting with cucumbers and throwing avocado grenades at each other. Sounds like fun.

Aldahbra

If someone is so hard up that they hang around for hours to get a bit of money off their veg then they need it more than you do.

Don't make their lives even harder for them.

ooo000ooo

The wife's mate (mrs x) works in Tesco, they usually do their reprices around the same time every day and there is a group of regulars who turn up every day to nab the cheap stuff.
One day last week Mrs X was busy doing something else so the repricing hadn't been done, one of the regulars approached her with a couple of sides of salmon that had alread been reduced quite substantially and asked her to stop what she was doing and reprice them for her as apparently she'd been told by one of managers that if she waited until repricing time this would be done.
MRs X advised that she wouldn't be doing any repricing until she'd finished what she was doing and she should put the salmon back in the fridge until then as if it's out for more than 15 minutes it should be thrown out.
Customer got quite stroppy, demanding this should be done right away etc.
Mrs X spoke to her manager who confirmed that she was to finish what she was doing first then do the repricing. Customer stormed off in a strop cursing Mrs X.
About half an hour later Mrs X finished what she was doing and went to to do the repricing. The stroppy customer was nowhere to be seen and as expected, the repriced salmon barely touched the shelf before one of the regulars scooped it up.
As Mrs X was heading back into the storeroom, stroppy customer was seen returning from the toilets with her kid.
She wasn't happy