Supermarket bargains - is this greedy, or fair enough?

But how could you possibly know the circumstances of the next person to come along and buy the reduced items?

I'm fortunate to be comfortably off and buy the best quality meat, fish and poultry in supermarkets, but if I see that product with a yellow sticker I take as many of them that will fit in my freezer. I have no qualms doing that, if I left one the next person to pick it up might be better off than me. Also to be honest a reduction on expensive food is still quite likely to cost more than the cheapest food which presumably people who are hard up would be buying.

Well, OP, I was in Tesco today and saw boxes of figs on sale with no sale price. Round the corner was a member of staff putting yellow stickers on veg, so he priced my box for me. As I turned away, I noticed his trolley had about ten boxes of figs, at the bottom, so I asked their price and when he said the reduced price I asked for three and returned the full price one to the shelf.
I'm a bit iffy on whether it was actually a bargain tbh, as they aren't as good as the fresher ones for eating, as some had started to get tougher outsides. So ok for baking/cooking and not so good for eating. Luckily I love baked figs, so can bake then freeze, or make fig jam to eat with cheese, as a Christmas gift to neighbours.

Yellow stickered food is better sold than binned after waiting for an imaginary shopper to appear at the end of the day to buy it.

What?
But seriously, other people might clear shelves because they are feeding more people.

I regularly buy huge quantities of food for scout events and activities. If it’s on sale even better.

I bet there are people in the queue behind me thinking I’m a greedy cow buying 80 sausages and 10 bags of marshmallows.

That's rather selfish

No. I shop for my mum as well who is currently housebound after breaking a bone in her back.

Not you again. Seriously go away

How many people are you feeding though? Just yourself?

I wouldn't clear the shelves either and I'm poor. There's always someone poorer than me.

Seriously. I've lived below the line for years. I still don't clear the entire shelves of cut price food.

Maybe not the figs, as they're not an item that households have to go without since the COL crisis. Meat, though, especially the nice stuff, like steak, I would take enough for one meal and let someone else have the pleasure of a treat they could not otherwise afford.

I'm not surprised that most of the people commenting on this thread would grab the lot. I used to think people were nicer until I joined this site. Have learned a lot about human nature here.

Rich people can clear the shop out for all I care. Seriously. All I have ever said is that I don't clear shelves out and leave stuff for other people.

I'm poor and I know what all of these things are. I hate figs by the way. I just don't need to be told that people who are poor should only concentrate on essentials

He's got holes in his shoes. I didn't say he should get priority. Seriously. I never said he should get priority.

But who is to say who needs it more? Just because someone ‘looks poor’ doesn’t mean they are. Everyone is entitled to take what they need/want, we’re all paying customers. Times are hard for a lot of people right now so just because someone ‘looks poor’ doesn’t mean they get priority

How do you know she hadn’t picked up her boxes before you picked up yours, so in fact had left half the boxes there?

Of course you CAN. I’m speaking generally at a population level not about you specifically.

I volunteer in a food bank and frankly a lot of our service users don’t know what a swede, parsnip, grapefruit or persimmon is and turn their noses up at them - let alone a fig. If you’re multigenerational poor then you’re not going to risk spending the money on figs to find out if you like figs and neither did your parents. Poverty often removes the chance to be adventurous with food so unless they had a fig tree in the garden many of the lowest income clients we see won’t have ever eaten a fig.

You may be poor and like figs. Many people in poverty will not have tried them.

I don't have children. I'm poor. Surely even poor people can buy cheap non essentials sometimes

Because they’re too busy trying to buy essentials. Figs aren’t essential, they’re unlikely to be appreciated by children, they also aren’t as versatile as say apples or bananas and have a third of the calories - and as many people hate them as like them. Figs aren’t an economical choice.

Why would poor people not eat figs

No it’s not unreasonable. They’re for sale. She wants to buy them. That’s it. She is purchasing them at the price the shop is offering them not stealing them from an orphan.

Additionally, those in poverty who really need to save on food aren’t faffing around with figs.

Also that’s very expensive for figs. They’re about £3 in M&S.

Meh, it's likely the figs would just be left to rot otherwise. It's not like it was steak or lamb chops which everyone merrily scoffs. Figs are problematic.

Meat is more expensive than fruit and veg

Because maybe people who are poor might appreciate reductions. Not trying to suggest that only poor people should be getting reductions but until 18 months ago I was living on 396 quid a month. I don't eat meat btw. There's a man who goes to my local supermarket every day looking for reductions. He looks poor. I prefer to take what I need and leave stuff for other people

I don't clear shelves. I take what I need. And if supermarkets really wanted to minimise waste they could be doing a lot more