When I worked in ASDA on the Fish Counter we used to start clearing up about an hour before the store closed.
PURE INSANITY!!
- Thread starter mattyjim123
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When I worked in ASDA on the Fish Counter we used to start clearing up about an hour before the store closed.
This really annoyed me today.. in fact, every time it happens it ****es me off.
I work in a supermarket, I shan't disclose which one, because I don't wish to be judged, or put my employer to shame, as I'm sure other supermarkets do the same.
It's few days after the Christmas period, so we were overstocked in the past few days. I got into work this morning, to find that there were 2 cages (big thingies we pull around the shop floor) full of potatoes that went out of date yesterday. Granted, they had been reduced the day before, to try and sell more, but they were still out of date.
Now... We aren't allowed, by law, to sell out of date products. So I had to stand there, for half an hour, throwing PERFECTLY FINE bags of potatoes into wheelie bins. Potatoes that would have lasted another 2-3 weeks and been edible. I filled five wheelie bins. FIVE.
I wanted to refuse!!
That could have fed homeless people. Simple potatoes. That could have gone to a food bank, to help those in need of extra food. That could have had an extra week on the shelf life written on the bag, and sold, just as the day they came into the shop.
The way I see it is, if you would eat it, its in date. We have milk in our fridge that's a week out of date. It smells fine, and tastes fine. As soon as I saw it was out of date, I didn't think "Oh no, I MUST throw this perfectly fine milk in the bin and waste my money!"
I understand that "Ooh if they get ill, they'll sue us". But something as simple as potatoes?! Why can't they just slap an "Eat at your own risk" sticker on it and be done with it?
I know there's probably a lot more to it, laws, ethical issues and such. It just really ****es me off to see this every single week at work.
I'm interested to your thoughts and explanations in regard to this criminality.
EDIT: When I say 'Out of date' I mean the 'Display until' date you find on fruit and veg products.
sounds like you work for Tescos, as they are well known for binning everything
the supermarket chain i work for, rewrap best before products the day after, so we dont bin loads of stock like you do
@Droolinggimp
What time does your store open till? we open till 10 and all street dept close 8pm and then they stay till 8:30 to finish cleaning down and go home
What time does your store open till? we open till 10 and all street dept close 8pm and then they stay till 8:30 to finish cleaning down and go home
![[FnG]magnolia](/styles/overclockers/avatars/9.png){kind=avatar}
Caporegime
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Can you explain this in more detail?
Soldato
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We open till 10pm every day except Sunday obviously. M,T,W and Sat the street closes at 8pm. Thurs and Fri its 9pm. Even on the busier day like Thursday and Friday its dead on the street after 7pm. Thats why I suggested this closing earlier and having more hours being utilised during the real trading hours.. and yeah we stay till half past the hour to finish cleanign etc. but in my experience that should be done before and all that there is to do at 8/9 is take off the counters, Which takes minutes ..
[FnG]magnolia;25561877 said:
how do you mean?
by law we have to waste anything with a USEBY date on it, but any thing with a best before date on it we can rewrap and sell it as a selected 2nds item, and we can keep rewrapping it untill we decide the quality is to low to sell, this on produce, not meat counters ect
then we dont have mass loads of waste
You are right.
I worked for a supermarket in management for a whole and if waste (essentially goods chucked due to date etf and including stuff decided not of good enough quality) got toward 1% you were in serious bother. Above that for any period of time and you are fighting for your job.
Most posted between 0.25-0.75% waste which when you see it tossed away is a lot of stuff in comparison to the amount passing through the door it is very little.
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I believe in my store that the fish and meat counters close with the store, if not half an hour to an hour before, but I'm not certain. But the bakery section of course don't 'bake' any more products after about 2/3 through the days trade.
I don't work at Tescos, no points for you!
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Something you might be surprised at is year or so back when the coffee place I was working at got in there order of food for the day, sandwiches/cakes etc.
We were delivered double by mistake. that's 400 packets of sandwiches, 200 gingerbread men, 300 paninis.. you get the point.
As you can expect we weren't able to sell double the normal delivery and the food has to be thrown out each day so everything is fresh that day. So looking at a stockroom of a metric ton of food we rang up a few charities, churches that provide food to the homeless.
Quite happy to run the stuff down to them in my car and they could take a much or as little as they liked. 12 calls and the same thing over and over again...
"we can only accept food that is brand new and has to be bought from a store by members of the charity for health and safety reasons, however you are free to donate money to help us"
So after packing a few bags for our selfs for the week the rest of it filled 2 Biffa bins. Which we have to be padlocked. Needless to say the padlock was left off that night so anyone that benefited from it good for them.
We were delivered double by mistake. that's 400 packets of sandwiches, 200 gingerbread men, 300 paninis.. you get the point.
As you can expect we weren't able to sell double the normal delivery and the food has to be thrown out each day so everything is fresh that day. So looking at a stockroom of a metric ton of food we rang up a few charities, churches that provide food to the homeless.
Quite happy to run the stuff down to them in my car and they could take a much or as little as they liked. 12 calls and the same thing over and over again...
"we can only accept food that is brand new and has to be bought from a store by members of the charity for health and safety reasons, however you are free to donate money to help us"
So after packing a few bags for our selfs for the week the rest of it filled 2 Biffa bins. Which we have to be padlocked. Needless to say the padlock was left off that night so anyone that benefited from it good for them.
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Hmmm... that is quite interesting actually, so its not just the Supermarkets/establishments that have policies about this stuff, its the charities too.
I would bet, however, that the homeless people that benefit from that charity, would have eaten as many of those sandwiches they could have gotten their hands on, health and safety wouldn't have even crossed their mind.
I would expect the same thing, another case when health and safety is a waste of time.
Although if you really want to be wound up over good food going to waste it is icelands policy. When I worked there for all of 3 weeks the procedure is to throw powered bleach onto all the food so it can't be eaten. One of the big reasons I left along with packing in working for retail full stop.
Soldato
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This really annoyed me today.. in fact, every time it happens it ****es me off.
I work in a supermarket, I shan't disclose which one, because I don't wish to be judged, or put my employer to shame, as I'm sure other supermarkets do the same.
It's few days after the Christmas period, so we were overstocked in the past few days. I got into work this morning, to find that there were 2 cages (big thingies we pull around the shop floor) full of potatoes that went out of date yesterday. Granted, they had been reduced the day before, to try and sell more, but they were still out of date.
Now... We aren't allowed, by law, to sell out of date products. So I had to stand there, for half an hour, throwing PERFECTLY FINE bags of potatoes into wheelie bins. Potatoes that would have lasted another 2-3 weeks and been edible. I filled five wheelie bins. FIVE.
I wanted to refuse!!
That could have fed homeless people. Simple potatoes. That could have gone to a food bank, to help those in need of extra food. That could have had an extra week on the shelf life written on the bag, and sold, just as the day they came into the shop.
The way I see it is, if you would eat it, its in date. We have milk in our fridge that's a week out of date. It smells fine, and tastes fine. As soon as I saw it was out of date, I didn't think "Oh no, I MUST throw this perfectly fine milk in the bin and waste my money!
I understand that "Ooh if they get ill, they'll sue us". But something as simple as potatoes?! Why can't they just slap an "Eat at your own risk" sticker on it and be done with it?
I know there's probably a lot more to it, laws, ethical issues and such. It just really ****es me off to see this every single week at work.
I'm interested to your thoughts and explanations in regard to this criminality.
EDIT: When I say 'Out of date' I mean the 'Display until' date you find on fruit and veg products.
It's not that hard to understand is it??? It obviously makes more financial sense to bin large quantitiys of fairly low margin food than it is to regularly sell it at a discount driving sales away from the full priced product.
Ethically it's not right but the way the world is today unless you want to grow your own food, this is the price of nipping to a shop and buying cheap ready grown produdcts, companys need to make money and to make money they need to make a profit on what they sell.
Edit: Giving the food away to another company charity or not may have tax implications as well iirc, hence the it goes in the bin.
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it doesn't drive sales away though. Most people are stupidly tight on such arbitrary dates and chuck good food away at home. Most people don't buy stuff that is out of date in a day or two, Because they want it to last a week.
Theres always stacks of almost out of date food left unsold as most people aren't interested, unless its snack food, which they can eat instantly (like the bakery isle)
Theres always stacks of almost out of date food left unsold as most people aren't interested, unless its snack food, which they can eat instantly (like the bakery isle)
Soldato
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In which case it does not make sense using store space to keep a product with no value... bin.
I do agree though food should be reused once a company can see no value in it, pure insanity it is not though.
It means it has to be sold cheaper and charities etc would happily take it off you.
In fact theres this great company in clifton (bristol), who takes such food off shops, makes it in to to chutneys etc before the date and sells it at farm market prices.
Plenty of things that can be done, supermarkets just need telling off from the public so they are more flexible and have policies in place, so its not down to the manager on duty to take a potential risk.
In fact theres this great company in clifton (bristol), who takes such food off shops, makes it in to to chutneys etc before the date and sells it at farm market prices.
Plenty of things that can be done, supermarkets just need telling off from the public so they are more flexible and have policies in place, so its not down to the manager on duty to take a potential risk.
This sounds very familiar. I am unsure whether the charity or regulations/liabilities are the cause, but the end result is food goes in the bin and people go hungry.
