My anger at supermarket chains

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I am sure that when people got to supermarkets, they often go to the 'discount ' section, but what l am starting this thread on, is the amount food products, each supermaket throws away EACH DAY, l entered a store today, and saw with my own eyes, this occuring, and when l spoke to the member of staff, he told me it was company policy. Why don't these stores on a daily basis, give these products to the needy, ie OAP's, the unemployed, and the needy, who don't have a home, l once saw an OAP, being arrested for stealing a loaf of bread, yet they were throwing bread away, in the bin, these stores make so much profit each year, what is a couple of quid to them, and before people say, about these products, l mean out of date stock, that they cannot sell, and yes stores do sell OOD stock, on discount shelfs.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I am sure that when people got to supermarkets, they often go to the 'discount ' section, but what l am starting this thread on, is the amount food products, each supermaket throws away EACH DAY, l entered a store today, and saw with my own eyes, this occuring, and when l spoke to the member of staff, he told me it was company policy. Why don't these stores on a daily basis, give these products to the needy, ie OAP's, the unemployed, and the needy, who don't have a home, l once saw an OAP, being arrested for stealing a loaf of bread, yet they were throwing bread away, in the bin, these stores make so much profit each year, what is a couple of quid to them, and before people say, about these products, l mean out of date stock, that they cannot sell, and yes stores do sell OOD stock, on discount shelfs.

Yayy, I love a good Arthur Gray rant

Arthur, supermarkets are a business, they are there to make money. I hear what you say about giving to the needy but the big boys already make charitable donations with things like 'computers for schools' and all that mullarky.

[WHISTLED]

and yes stores do sell OOD stock

No they dont Arthur its illegal! They sell food about to expire, not yet expired.

[Nikesh]

If supermarkets gave away free food, people would wait till the end of the day to go and get it all

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I am sure that when people got to supermarkets, they often go to the 'discount ' section, but what l am starting this thread on, is the amount food products, each supermaket throws away EACH DAY, l entered a store today, and saw with my own eyes, this occuring, and when l spoke to the member of staff, he told me it was company policy. Why don't these stores on a daily basis, give these products to the needy, ie OAP's, the unemployed, and the needy, who don't have a home, l once saw an OAP, being arrested for stealing a loaf of bread, yet they were throwing bread away, in the bin, these stores make so much profit each year, what is a couple of quid to them, and before people say, about these products, l mean out of date stock, that they cannot sell, and yes stores do sell OOD stock, on discount shelfs.

If they consistently gave food away, they'd be effectively shooting themselves in the foot. Why would unemployed, OAP's etc actually pay for shopping if the chains started giving food away?
I see your point though. There is a Co-Op near me that used to give OOD food to local shelters. Saved on their refuse bills and someone used to come and collect it. Win/win.

[Charlie_Bubble]

I can't speak for all chains, but when I worked at Tesco for a while during my uni days, any leftover fresh products were offered for pennies to staff to buy, eg pack of 10 jam doughnuts for 10p. I have no idea how much was leftover or what was done with it, but they can't afford to have piles of out of date goods hanging around attracting vermin and rotting. Also, we had many customers who would come specifically near closing time in order to get the marked down goods from the bakery etc.

I'm sure if local charities asked, they would be able to collect some of the food, but as there is no guarantee of any being left over, or what kind of food is going to be left over, what are they supposed to do? They can't plan their food delivery around the off chance that the local supermarket will always have x amount of y product left over. Also, don't you think that people who are being fed by charities deserve good fresh food, not just the stuff not good enough for sale any more.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by WHISTLED

No they dont Arthur its illegal! They sell food about to expire, not yet expired.

Come on guys you know Arthur does not like facts being introduced into his rant threads

My local Sainsbury's gives OOD stuff to the local homeless shelter - they just don't publicise it (I know because my daughter's friend works there, and she has helped sort it out before transportation).

---------- Post added at 18:21 ---------- Previous post was at 18:21 ----------

Originally Posted by Sirius

Come on guys you know Arthur does not like facts being introduced to the rant

Or appropriate punctuation......

[Taf]

Several of our local stores supply "close to OOD" stock to the Salvation Army and similar. I think it was one of the "big 3" that tried to rationalise their high meat cost due to the ammount they "have" to throw away.

[Graham M]

It is legal to sell produce passed it's Best Before End as long as it's made clear, a Use By Date however is illegal.

[BBKing]

I suspect throwing stuff away has something to do with an aversion to being sued by people who've contracted severe gastro-intestinal ailments. Just a hunch, mind.

Arthur, the supermarkets and other companies work with Fareshare to do what you said they didn't do.

Fareshare

Last year, through our nationwide Community Food Network:
2,000 tonnes of quality fit-for-purpose food were saved from landfill.
3.3 million healthy, nutritious meals were made with food that FareShare provided.
20,000 people each day eat a meal prepared with food FareShare provided

While Arthur maybe over stating the problem i and all of us understand what he is ranting about and i have seen supermarkets continuingly throwing out the same stuff day in day out so instaed of wasting it order less of it. Also if you understand what someone is saying is it really necessary to extract the urine because of their wording or lack of punctuation. If it really bugs you that much send a pm explaining it don't be a smart**** and try to belittle someone because they don't have the grasp of the language that you do. Might also help to remember that the biggest BS in the UK is spoken by those with a perfect grasp of the language.

Originally Posted by Zeph

It is legal to sell produce passed it's Best Before End as long as it's made clear, a Use By Date however is illegal.

Correct

New legislation will be coming in soon severely limiting the amount of food waste being sent to land fill

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/...andfilldir.pdf

So many companies are looking at alternatives, such as anaerobic digestion & direct power generation, which won't be such a 'waste'.

[papa smurf]

i saw a hugh fernly whitingstall program on tv where travelers got there food from supermarket skips, and the supermarket staff had taken the time to carefully wrap the food so as it was not contaminated in the bin .[so just become a skip rat arthure food aplenty and free]