Is anyone else sick of rotflation?

newpuppy

You are so right about below par fruit and veg.  I stopped doing online shops about a year ago for that very reason.  I was always ringing up to complain about, for example, one out of four pears in a pack being completely rotten, and in the end it got too embarrassing because I felt like all I did was moan after every delivery.  OK, so I got a refund each time, but it was annoying that I had to go without the fruit and veg that I'd ordered to last the week.

I don't know whether it's to do with the supermarkets stopping the sell-by dates (which I disagree with, because I found them pretty accurate and useful for deciding when to eat stuff) or Brexit or whatever.  All I do know is that the customer is fed up as usual and it's just one more irritation on top of shrinkflation and all the other penny-pinching schemes that they think we're too stupid to notice, which we have to steer our way around.

When I see mouldy products still on sale at supermarkets I usually take them to one of the shelf-stackers and ask for them to be removed so that people with poor sight or not enough time to notice won't be fooled into buying them.  I didn't bother in Sainsbury's the other week, however, because the whole rack of black grapes was furry with mould, and I decided customers would probably notice for themselves.

By the way, if anyone is thinking of mentioning the matter to the supermarkets, I've already laboured the point with Tesco and Waitrose, and it was like talking to the wall.

TravellingAbuela

Greengrocers, butchers and bakeries are virtually none existent in my town. We have an indoor market with one remaining butcher in the entrance (at one time there was a whole row of them), the bakers in there disappeared years ago and the one remaining greengrocer stopped trading maybe 6 or 7 years ago. He said he couldn't compete with the supermarkets on price and footfall was also down as most people seem to prefer to do their shopping under one roof nowadays.  It's so sad as we were once such a bustling little town full of little grocery shops, butchers and greengrocers. But never any candlemakers here either!

MrsStepford

I used to use Abel & Cole and Riverford. Now I buy organic veg from ASDA and have Wholegood organic veg from Milk & More and Ocado, sometimes a box but depends whether it has potatoes or not. Husband picks up the occasional bits from Sainsbury's e.g. growing herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme). 

Watts Farm is good.

MartaUK

Removing the dates from vegetables was a bad move in my opinion. Previously, when I had a few bags of various vegs in the fridge, I was able to check the dates and eat them in order of expiration, which saved me a lot of waste and allowed to do meal planning for the week. It was even adding some motivation for my veg intake (oh, this must be eaten today as the date is short), without the date I’m more likely to leave the vegs for tomorrow and tomorrow and they will go bad. Without the dates on the pack I’m probably supposed to check the veg stash every day and use the ones that are going off? Or go to a shop every day and only buy vegs for the day or two? Unlikely. Also, previously I was able to take the freshest ones from the shop (the ones with longest dates). I would never throw away good vegetables only because they’re past their date. The change has probably saved the shops a lot of money while further draining our pockets. “Rotflation” indeed! Speaking of quality, I’m just spending more time inspecting the fruits and vegs before I put them in my trolley and this works for most things. However, recently I was trying to gauge the quality of Morrisons potatoes in bag, and noticed they replaced the clear plastic with printed packaging so I can’t see the potatoes inside. For me potatoes have the most of issues, they’re bruised so often and with cuts. I’ve recently bought a bag from M&S and about half of them had a bruise. I know those bruises come from rough handling, so I definitely handle them carefully like eggs almost, but they still have bruises acquired earlier in their journey to shop.

Thanks a lot @molerat for mentioning the codes, I’ll have a look I hope to crack the codes in my shops.

Re greengrocer vs betting shop: I used to live in area classified within 20% most deprived in the country and there was plenty of betting shops, barbers, a Poundland etc. Recently moved to area which is within 50% most deprived in the country (meaning less deprived than the previous area) and we have a lovely greengrocer within a walking distance (it’s in slightly better area than ours). There’s still a betting shop though

Rosa_Damascena

Tino1970 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Citydel said:

Supermarkets in the UK have taken the best before/use by/display until dates off a lot of fruit and vegetables. They claim it's to reduce waste. If they really cared about waste they could bring back the deep discounting where they sold things at 90% off when it was about to expire.

Now I'm finding I'm getting and eating lots of rotten vegetables. Last night I made Spaghetti Bolognese with onions bought from Asda the day before. Turns out they were rotten. I can still taste the rotten onions 20 hours after I ate the spaghetti. I'd noticed the outer layer that wasn't dried out of both small onions had rotten yellow/tiny bit of mould but I removed those and thought it would be fine. 

A week a go I went to Waitrose to buy ginger. They had a full basket but every piece was dried out and/or had large amount of blue mould on the outside. 

Fruit and vegetables don't seem to last anywhere near as long as they did just a year ago. I used to associate that issue with buying from the very cheapest supermarkets. Now it's happening in with fruit and veg from Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Waitrose (I don't have a Morrisons nearby or buy fruit and veg from Marks and Spencer). 

It seems like a new con like shrinkflation to hide inflation from us. I don't know if it has a name yet. Something like rotflation or rottenflation seems appropriate. 

What's happening to the farmers with this? Are the supermarkets buying significantly less produce from them?

Is anyone else noticing this phenomenon? 

Maybe the solution is to purchase fruit and veg from the local Greengrocer, where nothing is bagged and you can assess the freshness of the produce before purchase.

What I wouldn’t give for a local Greengrocer. Not even sure where my nearest is!

There is one within 400m of my home. Unfortunately it is prohibitively expensive - I am talking quadruple the cost of other the Tesco Express a few doors down.

There are however 3 greengrocers in Southend High Street that are priced more like market stalls. They sell produce by the bowl as well as loose, and are well used. 

kimwp

Agree that I was accidentally bringing home rotting fruit/veg when they took the best before dates off and once alerted staff to a whole create of stinky rotten carrots. But I think a lot of fruit/veg was being thrown when it got to it's best before at the supermarket and again in people's homes. I've switched to local organic store mainly for reduced plastic and the side effect is handling each item which has helped take home only good produce.

maman

Sainsburys sell a number of vegetables loose and matched to Aldi prices. I buy my carrots, parsnips, broccoli and onions there and can choose the quantities as well. 

prowla

Yep selling short-dated produce (with date hidden) is another sleight-of-hand used by the supermarkets, along with shrinkflation.

For onions I just press on each one and if they're not firm then I don't buy them, but TBH, I tend to go for the pre-chopped ones, as they're much less hassle anyway.

I've recently started shopping at Costco and it's been a bit of an eye-opener as to the poor quality of supermarket food, along with their pricing tricks.

mikb

prowla said:

I tend to go for the pre-chopped ones,

Have you worked out how much the "convenience tax" is on that decision? Pre-peeled grapes and pre-grated cheese next? Pre-melted ice-cubes??

Surely the pre-chopped ones are even more likely to go off in storage (leading to more waste) or you have to keep buying small quantities to use pretty much immediately (leading to more expense)?

MrsStepford

@prowla I have been using Costco as an online member for a couple of years now. I buy certified Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil in 2 litre jugs and trays of 12 x 400g organic chopped tomatoes from the Valfrutta co-operative and save a tonne of money. Costco can beat Currys and Amazon for electrical goods too.