Supermarket bargains - is this greedy, or fair enough?

There's a food bank near me that gives out fresh food to people. One of the very few in the area that do. I've not been for around 6 weeks or so but there are 90 odd people who go every week and even if you are last in the queue and get what's left you'll still get around 100 quids worth of stuff at it's full price. It's Tesco, M and S and mostly co-op produce they give away.

Nah, it's fine. I have a few customers at work who buy up all the yellow sticker meat to put in their freezer to save money because they're on a low income. I'm glad they can get a few meals a bit cheaper. Obviously that's probably not the case with fresh figs (I have no idea what you would do with that many) but it's fair game.

Meh - better than it going in a skip…

Some of it doesn't sell because the last reductions are later. My local Morrisons used to reduce everything to 10 per cent of the sale price at around half past four to five. Now the last reductions aren't done till half 7 and the discount is less.

My local Morrisons does do too good to go bags but they are very hit and miss. Their garage bags are much better and I tend to buy them more.

Exactly

Selfish and greedy - probably.

I would assume she intended to make Figgy Puddings for Chriistmas.

I couldn't cafe less about figs to be honest

Tesco wasted 74,000 tonnes of food last year. An awful lot of it still ends up in the bin. So if people want to buy 6 boxes of figs, they can.

I treat yellow sticker stuff like anything else in the shop. I take as much as I need/want. That's how shop work outside of emergencies.
I love figs. I would probs be the one with 6 boxes too

That's not entirely true. Tesco's goes to staff if they want it and some supermarkets donate leftover food to Olio

I work in a supermarket and you’d be surprised by how much reduced stuff doesn’t end up selling. I’d rather someone bought the lot than having to throw it out, I hate to see wasted food. Obviously if there’s lots of people wanting some while you’re there then yes it’s good to share but don’t assume others after you will want it. If you will use it and want it, take it. I assure you we don’t judge we’re just glad it’s sold. No charities near us that want to collect anything left either. Some of the leftovers can be used by companies for animal feed or anaerobic digestion but some isn’t suitable and is binned. Either way it’s better to be eaten by humans that could use a bargain.

First come first served. If nobody buys them, they go in the bin. There's plenty of food in the supermarkets, we don't need to be fussing over who buys what.

Its a bit greedy but you snooze you lose, first come first served

No problem for figs in my opinion.

Assuming no covid style shortages, I still think it would be a bit unfair to grab all discounted nappies or baby milk. Can't think of any more examples that seem "unethical" to be honest.

If that happened in my supermarket I would complain. There were two women who used to go to my local Morrisons when the reduced aisle used to be really good. One would block you and the other would take all the reductions. I spoke to staff after she grabbed a packet of grapes out of my mum's hands. For context she had taken all the rest of the grapes. I get that some people don't have much spare cash. I don't have much myself but they were really aggressive.

There was almost fights one day because there was reduced priced Salmon and she was determined to get it before everyone else and someone challenged her.

I used to take as much as I could but -I always left stuff for other people. I wouldn't clear out an entire reduced section and leave nothing for anyone else. They did it with fruit and veg. They did it will chilled meals. And they were there several times a week

Another time this man started shouting at me saying something I lifted my hands to take was his. In times where there were lots of people standing trying to block you I used to ask to get in.

I don't eat meat anyway so it's not like I'm going to try and grab certain items.

I think if someone else was there and they wanted a box, it would have been the right thing to give them a box.

But if no one else was there, the figs might have just ended up unsold and as food waste.

I don't know, it does feel a bit off but it shouldn't be.

If someone is having a party, it's absolutely fine to have 3 trolleys full of party food and drinks. Supermarkets are there to supply what you need.

So if you just happen to want boxes of figs her, or sport boxes of reduced items you will make us of, why not.

I think it's when people buy everything because it's cheap but they wouldn't buy otherwise.

Exactly this.

Recently I happened to be in the aisle when they were doing the yellow stickers, fillet steaks were reduced to half price from £18, there were 3 packets so I bought them all and froze them.

Anyone else coming along afterwards wouldn't have known that any yellow sticker steaks had even existed so it was no loss to them. Why would I leave say, one packet, for someone else I know nothing about and who had no expectations of buying them reduced, it doesn't make sense?

It's not greedy, it makes complete sense if you will eat them.

Fig woman obviously can use them, why is it better that several people buy them instead of one person, the shop won't care.

I also can't see what possible benefit anyone who can use them all would get by leaving some of them, is it a feeling of self-sacrifice and being generous to strangers? I'd rather get that feeling from making a donation to a recognised charity. No one can know anything about the circumstances of the next person who picks up the stickered food.

What has manners got to do with it? If she had knocked the OP out of the way to grab all of the boxes, then that would be bad form. I would think judging her, when knowing nothing about her, is poor manners.

It's one of those things where, just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

depends on upbringing and manners I suppose

Priced to sell so it doesn’t go to waste. Doesn’t matter who buys it.

That's a bit judgy. I was in Asda when they had reduced 1kg bags of pasta to 13p each. I didn't take the last ones but I bought 2 cases of 10 packets each which went straight to the food bank. If you'd been there and saw my trolley it sounds like you would have been tutting at me being "greedy". You don't know her situation. The supermarket is offering them for sale to whoever wants them. That's what they do.

In my local supermarket when the staff are doing the reductions they set up barriers around the shelves so no one can get to it until they've finished, so people aren't grabbing the stuff out of their hands.

They've reduced it because they want to sell it, not to be charitable. If she has a use for them all, that's the point. It's only greedy, and a bit stupid, if they end up going to waste.