Tesco to cut back on offers and reduce product sizes

kittiej

Has anyone else read this article?

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A7x9Qfj8s5hRrC0AtXBLBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTB2ZHUzMzBvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2lyZAR2dGlkA1ZJUFVLOTlfNzM-/SIG=1730cb2n5/EXP=1368990844/**http%3a//telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568300/s/2c1a8271/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cfinance0Cnewsbysector0Cretailandconsumer0C10A0A663940CTesco0Eto0Ebattle0Ebreathtaking0Elevel0Eof0Efood0Ewaste0Bhtml/story01.htm

Does this mean reduced items will be few and far between too?

It's about time retailers took more responsibility for their actions but are we going to be left out of pocket? Just wondering if smaller pack sizes will cost the consumer less.

I was reading the £7 meals thread with this in mind.

honeythewitch

They could reduce waste by making their "use by" and "sell by" dates more realistic and by selling fresh food loose so people can decide for themselves how much to buy.
Smaller packets of food will mean more packaging being used , and might not even stop food waste either if you have to buy two packs and throwaway the second.
Just sell things in a variety of sizes for goodness sake!

kittiej

That's a good point htw re the extra packaging and dating. I can't help but feel Tesco don't do anything unless it benefits them.

I am also wary that prices will rise thereby crippling even more people who are living on tight budgets.

lobbyludd

this is utter nonsense. They will end promotions on meat/fish/fresh fruit and veg (expensive, nutritious bu short shelf life) and keep them on packaged, high sugar/salt/fat contentcheap rubbish that has a massive mark up (which is pretty much what they do anyway, and have been roundly criticised for). The stats on food wastage are very dodgy, and often include non-edible parts of foods (banana skins, egg shells, which whilst I appreciate can be composted/fed to some animals, aren't really edible to humans), when this is taken out of the equation the estimate is about 10%.

In order to "waste" £700 of food a year, I'd therefore have to be spending £7000 on food: I don't and don't know any one who does. I know precisely how much food waste I have and it is very, very little. In order to balance me out to get this average, there must be someone buying their weekly shopping and throwing it straight in the bins outside Tesco's.

most of the food waste happens up-chain on "perfect foods", wastage during shipping around the world and best-before dates that see foods dumped whole-sale into skips by the supermarkets.

dawn27

i noticed on the bagged fruit and vegetables that they have changed the way they display dates, the display until is now tiny and the use by is huge. Maybe this is one of the steps, so customers will still use the food instead of throwing it away.

honeythewitch

dawn27 wrote: »

i noticed on the bagged fruit and vegetables that they have changed the way they display dates, the display until is now tiny and the use by is huge. Maybe this is one of the steps, so customers will still use the food instead of throwing it away.

It is a step in the right direction at least.

pigpen

lobbyludd wrote: »

In order to "waste" £700 of food a year, I'd therefore have to be spending £7000 on food: I don't and don't know any one who does.

I probably spend more than that a year on food.. it is hard to do though!

I have very little food waste usually about half a little compost bag, there are usually 2 others full of peelings and teabags and banana skins though but actual food waste is very low.

It seems to be those who have fewer concerns about how they are going to make the bills and buy food that have the most waste, or those who are not taught to budget and over spend. There is also an element who buy the fresh stuff 'because they should' then live on ready meals and takeaways because they don't know what to do with the fresh stuff!

I don't think making portions smaller will help, teaching people to use what they have would! .. but that won't make money for the supermarkets. It used to be the parents job to teach the children and the school used to do a fair job.

kittiej

In order to "waste" £700 of food a year, I'd therefore have to be spending £7000 on food: I don't and don't know any one who does. I know precisely how much food waste I have and it is very, very little. In order to balance me out to get this average, there must be someone buying their weekly shopping and throwing it straight in the bins outside Tesco's.

No we certainly don't spend £7k on food either I don't think we spend even half that amount including food for the dog. Apart from curry scraps (which is unusual) the dog normally has any scraps.

Do those shops with the bins of stuff that you scoop yourself the amount still exist anywhere? I used to love those shops as I only bought what I needed.

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

Haven't seen a scoop and save in years, kittiej - something in the back of mind is telling me that people were put off by the thought of others putting their unwashed hands into the bins and cherry-picking the bits they wanted, rather than simply using the scoops. Or I could just be imagining that conversation :rotfl:

Not much waste goes on here. I can always find a use for just about everything. Today's lunch was a bendy leek, half a packet of frozen peas, a bunch of wilted parsley, a lonely wrinkly potato and some stock blitzed into the most delicious pan of soup. Everyone had seconds and the pan was empty.

Where they get their figures from baffles me.

kittiej

Yes scoop n save lol there's an idea.

I might go and ask them (Tesco) on faceache where their figures come from.

[Deleted User]

I probably spend just slightly over £700 per year on food My food budget per month is around £60.00 so I can guarantee that none of it is wasted at all.In fact this afternoon when my DD went shopping in my local Tescos she came out saying that she had bought a boxed cheese salad reduced to 30p,I immediatley sent her back to get one for me :) It had been reduced from £2.00 and will do me at least 2-3 days as a side salad for lunch with a hard boiled egg tomorrow, and a tin of sardines on Tuesday, the last of it will be used up on Wednesday with a jacket spud.

Tesco's are talking through their hat I think The only thing Tesco's want to do is make money That is what they are in business for.Todays bargain was a fluke I think as its not very often that things are reduced that much,usually only 20-30p off.I am an extemely careful shopper and know virtually all of the prices to the nearest couple of pence where I live and whenits the time to find reduced or marked down stuff.I love it when M&S mark down stuff as its excellant quality and well worth buying.
I have found over the past few months a lot of the manufacturers are making things in smaller quantities but charging the same price.Chocolate is one of them