Increased food wastage at Co-op!!

xHannahx

It costs them a fair bit to dispose of the waste when it doesn't sell. They lose the cost price of the item plus the waste disposal costs. If they sell it for 5p they just lose cost price less 5p.

The-Truth

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Oh do give it a rest and stop posting the same thing over and over again.

What? The blatant truth!

Pollycat

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

At the co-op the till will not accept an item past the sell by date as happened to me on sunday, and they will not let you buy it.
.

That's what I thought - which is why I asked the question:

Malthusian wrote: »

There is a big difference between a trivial offer that costs pennies, and a policy of selling expired food at massive reductions that may significantly cannibalise your profit-making sales and possibly put you at risk of being sued when some superscrimper manages to scrimp themselves into salmonella poisoning.

Stompa

Bobcrowther wrote: »

I'm just glad that stores are seeing sense and binning these items rather than encouraging vultures who clog up the aisle where the reduction shelf is, then taking longer at the till by making sure everything has gone through at the reduced price. It really is pathetic.

What a bizarre comment.

Jsameds

Just shop at Aldi.

Feral_Moon

Jsameds wrote: »

Just shop at Aldi.

I do! But my nearest Aldi is almost 15 miles away so I only manage to go once a month unless I happen to be in the area. Therefore, I do all my top-up shopping in my local Co-op and I'm in there most days buying fresh groceries.

Contrary to what some on this thread might believe, the reduced price groceries I pick up when I see them contribute approx 5% of my overall spending in there. So, no, I'm not some scavenger just looking for bargains, I'm a regular daily customer of the store!

trukdiver

Malthusian wrote: »

There is a big difference between a trivial offer that costs pennies, and a policy of selling expired food at massive reductions that may significantly cannibalise your profit-making sales and possibly put you at risk of being sued when some superscrimper manages to scrimp themselves into salmonella poisoning.

The amount that supermarkets reduce or throw away is tiny as a percentage of what they sell, so I doubt it will "significantly cannibalise" their profits. A certain amount of wastage is taken into account when setting prices. The margin varies according to type of product and wastage is one of the factors that affects it. A high percentage of waste just increases the original asking price.

It isn't just food that's affected this way. Seasonal items can be dumped because they need the space for new stock..

Malthusian

I stand corrected. Expiring food. Much of which will have expired when the buyer eats it. I know, I buy stuff with reduced stickers and eat it after its sell by date all the time. (The look-smell-taste test has not failed me yet.) However, I don't claim it's a human right to do so. It makes sense for the shop if the choice is between selling something reduced and throwing it away, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence in this thread that when customers start to expect reductions, the reverse happens and you are selling stuff reduced instead of selling it full price.

Karmically, I bought a pizza that had been reduced by 50% from the Co-op this afternoon and they scanned it through as full price. I'm not blaming them, the sticker was on the side of the box and difficult to see, I should have paid attention when it was scanned through. I could bring it back with the receipt but life's too short. Serves me right for falling for a "bargain" which is still more expensive than making my own dinner anyway.

*edit* Someone mentioned mince on sale at a 90% reduction which had gone grey, to me grey mince = expired.

POPPYOSCAR

trukdiver wrote: »

The amount that supermarkets reduce or throw away is tiny as a percentage of what they sell, so I doubt it will "significantly cannibalise" their profits. A certain amount of wastage is taken into account when setting prices. The margin varies according to type of product and wastage is one of the factors that affects it. A high percentage of waste just increases the original asking price.

It isn't just food that's affected this way. Seasonal items can be dumped because they need the space for new stock..

Yes I think this is outrageous.


A well known high street store has skips at the back and one day I saw them running over gardening stuff such as wire hanging baskets etc. so that people do not take them from the skips.


Why not donate to a charity shop instead of destroying them.

trukdiver

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Yes I think this is outrageous.


A well known high street store has skips at the back and one day I saw them running over gardening stuff such as wire hanging baskets etc. so that people do not take them from the skips.


Why not donate to a charity shop instead of destroying them.

I thinks it's outrageous as well! The only reason for doing it is because it's cheaper for them than storing it. Also, because they're not perishable, they are worried that people may buy up all their surplus and then sell it in competition. When I worked for a mail order company, they used to mark stuff down as much as they could and then job it off to market traders, but that was a long time ago! (before Ebay...)

I know a photographer who was given some wedding dresses by a bridal shop to use for a photoshoot. They were discontinued and the shop wasn't allowed to sell them below a certain (still high) price because discounting too much would "devalue the brand". He got them free on condition that they weren't useable afterwards.