Money Moral Dilemma: Is it wrong to buy cheap clearance food when we could afford to pay full price?

Bonnypitlad

“Live within our means”, Congratulations, you’re doing exactly that by shopping for “whooopsies”
Martin will be proud of you by exercising his mantra
There’s no guilt involved 
I look for an economy in every purchase 

Ron246235

Some people are scoffing at the idea that there is anything wrong with it, or saying "Other people buy trolley-fulls of clearance food so there is no point leaving it", or even just "I do it so it must be fine". These are not very convincing arguments. 

I wouldn't say it is morally wrong to buy cheap clearance food, in moderate amounts, when you can easily afford full price. But I would say it is morally good not to buy it - because this might enable someone to buy it who cannot afford full price. You cannot be sure that it will, but it might.

Donating to a foodbank is good too, but probably won't help the people who would have bought the clearance food. 

benedictadams

There is the cost of actually cooking the stuff in the reduced section. 

For those in real hardship they can't afford the quid a day standing charges let alone using their oven for 40 minutes for those Charlie Bingham ready meals virtually every large supermarket will have yellow stickered on an almost daily basis

as someone is on a limited income I still feel guilty about picking out more than a couple of items because there are people who are in need of the yellow sticker stuff more than me,

witchwoopiggy

Personally I see no harm in it,  as long as you are not buying it then it's going into the bin. Personally I do if I see something that I can use. I am unable to work due to illness.

However every time I go shopping I buy something for the food bank collection.

And I know (from my church running a community larder and supporting 54 family's) Sadly some of them are working but still struggling it's heartbreaking the amount of people who are from no fault of there own need food.

From the community larder I can confirm that the one thing that we never have enough of, and it's the same at the food bank is tinned fish or a meat products. So if you can afford to buy a tin each shopping trip they will be so grateful to receive it.

grassgirl

I work in a supermarket - please buy the reduced items, the amount we have left at the end of the night is sad. We have charities collect but they won’t take the ‘use by’ items. 

As a previous message said, they are literally worth less, so buy what you need. 

There are also charities that take cooked food and share out - maybe once in a while you would like to do this, if you still feel any sort of guilt.

Happy cooking!

Ed264

Unless you're shopping at 6am to 'bag' the clearance items before others have a chance, I wouldn't feel guilty. If you shop at more popular shopping times, then others have their opportunity to buy them. As mentioned several times, make a charity donation and you'll feel better about the situation.

tolpuddleman

Taking this further - should one shop at a discount supermarket if one has the means to pay more ?  And even these discount stores have yellow sticker mark downs. Hmm...

CHRIS---

I don't think this is an issue at all. It would only go in the skip if nobody bought it. I did have an issue with a woman I knew who would hoover the whole shelf up and feed it to the foxes though.

neverthesamedaytwice

Debating whether it's wrong or right to buy discounted food misses the correct target entirely.

Capitalism and the desire of supermarkets to make maximum profit at all cost is the issue here.

Supermarkets make profit no matter what, simply because we need food to survive. 

They will always pass on the increased cost, but seem to be a lot more reticent to lower costs. Notice how all discounts these days are tied to loyalty card membership?! They're run by devious ****s

MattMattMattUK

Mother_of_Many said:

I think with things the way they are money wise, if you don’t need to, you shouldn’t. 

A few weeks ago, a woman in a suit cleared out the reduced section that my children and I were patiently waiting to have a look at.

At some points in my life I was "a man in a suit", I had a job, but I also had debts and I was working 80-100 hours a week to keep my head above water and pay off my debts. Just because someone is smartly dressed does not mean that they have money to spare, or indeed money at all.