Customers who mess up shelves of food

In our area some shops allow the community pantry folk to collect it and folk can go to the pantry at certain times to collect.

I take from the front if I am using it soon. If I need it to last, I go further back.

I might look at the yellow sticker section for something for that evening.

I never throw food away.

Someone tried to tell me off in Tesco for doing this, saying 'it's all the same', in a grumpy voice, when it most definitely was not all the same.

Exactly this.
Having worked in a small supermarket I know how stock rotation works.
While we're on this, can supermarkets stop rearranging everything to make us buy more when we're looking for the thing we actually want.

Get this with bread at work.

Customer gets a loaf at the back and crushing bread as doing this.

”All that line has the same date”
”How do you know?”
”Shelf was empty and filled 5 trays”

Which is 50 or 60 loaves depending on brand as some have 10 loaves per tray and some have 12.

When I shop, I shop for the whole week, therefore I have to go through the produce and ‘shop from the back.’ It angers me that so much in supermarkets is so short-dated.

You could ask a shop worker to get them for you rather than knowingly spoiling stock you're not going to purchase.

I don't make a mess but I certainly will not be starting taking produce from the front...it almost never the "exact same date". I'm going for the latest date and freshest food I can find and it's unreasonable to suggest we don't. I examine fresh food carefully to make sure it's the best quality I can find before I buy it...

That's just normal behaviour!

I don't understand why pp want longer dates on stuff at the front? What do you think will happen to the stuff with short dates? Oh wait I know, it will either get wasted= increased prices or will get missed when dates are checked = increased prices and pissed off staff and customers.
It's clear not many folk know anything about working in shops. If only it was as simple as putting shit on a shelf. Actually laughing that you all think that's all we have to do.

As there are no dates on the veg bags where I shop, if you take from the top tray you're very likely to get older, often rotten stuff. I always seem to get rotten carrots no matter how carefully I check, unless I take from the new in tray beneath. So I'm going to keep doing that thanks.

sorry but I am dyspraxic with severe peripheral neuropathy. Nothing I can do about making a mess. And yes I am going to rummage around for the longest dated product. i am paying for it, why wouldn't I

Supermarkets like customers who come in with blinkers - grab the first thing, have the same food each day of the week - Monday sausages, Tuesday pork chops.

Plus with more people buying things daily - which overall costs them more money, then if they bought something to use n eat that night- doesn’t it matter if it’s got the next day’s on?

I do just take form the front if I’m going to use it. I won’t rifle through to get an extra few days on fruit if I’m going to eat it today or tomorrow anyway.
Things like yoghurt if I’m buying a 6 pack I want at least a week’s date on it.
I don’t like food waste including the supermarkets throwing it out.

Waitrose …. It isn’t wasted, it will be collected by a local charity (via Fareshare) after the store has closed.
All products should be re-reduced (the first reduction is from the day before) but basically there isn’t enough staff to do it the second time, whoever is working that section is probably doing the reductions for the next day….believe me we want to re-reduce it but just don’t have the time to.
We honestly don’t care if you take from the back or mess the shelves up…..we’ll tidy up after you if we have time, but mostly don’t have the time to. The only thing that really does bother us (me) is when some fresh (from chiller) is just dumped in the ambient section and we have to throw it away …. seen legs of lamb just left by the breakfast cereal for example, now that’s really annoying.

I always take perishables from the back because of the longer date and also because I don't trust the staff to not have put discarded stuff that has been out of the fridge or freezer back there.
The thing that annoys me more is shoppers discarding refrigerated or frozen items randomly in aisles. Absolutely lazy and disgusting behaviour in my opinion. And while I'm on my soap box why do people leave frozen stuff they don't want in a random fridge or refrigerated stuff they don't want in a freezer. Put it fucking back in the right place. GRR!

If I knew that the stuff (fresh produce,not canned stuff) was going to have a decent length of 'use by' date on it,I WOULD take it from the front. But why should I take something that has 'use by' tomorrow on it,when there are packets with a week on further back?

On the other hand, I was dithering about looking at dates recently, just as an employee brought out a fresh load of bread to stack, and he actually asked me if I’d like one of the newer loaves!

Doesn't matter in Tesco. Their fruit and veg goes off before they sell by date anyway.

That’s one of the reasons we stopped having deliveries. Far too much was short dated items, including milk. There’s nothing wrong with selecting what you are choosing to buy as long as you don’t damage the stock. You’re paying for it after all.

Poor handling from staff putting stock in the shelves is partly responsible for goods, especially fruit, being damaged.

My bugbear is customers who pick something up, change their mind and can’t be bothered to put the item back where it came from. If it’s chilled and ends up with the biscuits or tins, it’s wasted unnecessarily.

Best dates are at the back.

it is a shelf stackers job
however i was appalled in asda yesterday,
masses of oddly placed food,
strawberries in with the tins,
as well as just roll pastry

they will have to be thrown out now

Luckily we only do Deliveroo and Uber and are told specifically to pick longer dates. But as a pp says some staff don't care or more. likely they are completely demoralised by the job.

Tough. Customers have the right to choose the longest lasting products or the juiciest strawberries. I agree they should be careful not to damage produce though.

While whe're at it maybe we should bring our own sheets to hotels and not use the toilets because the cleaners have got better things to do. We could also take our own food to restaurants because the chefs have got better things to do. And please, if you could all educate your kids at home that would be great because then I can get on with surfing the internet for my next holiday instead.

@lazyarse123 what I hate is when the stuff that's out of date are left on the fucking shelves and then get picked by the home delivery team and delivered, or they choose a really fucking short date on fresh items.

No I'm not going to eat all this fresh fruit and veg in the next two days.