To resent grasping behaviour in the supermarket reduced section?

[Catkinsthecatinthehat]

Being a disorganised spontaneous sort, I only tend to make it to the local supermarket (Waitrose - there's posh!) just before it shuts. They have a reduced corner for produce close to the sell-by date and pop stuff in there about half an hour before closing time. I love a bargain but the section seems increasingly to be dominated by those I call 'hoggers'.

I was in there on Sunday to be confronted by a married couple poised like Olympic athletes on the starting block for the 100m final. She was wielding a large trolley, which she was using to fend off any other hungry bargain hunters (think lion tamer with chair and whip). He - hands like Nosferatu - had a poor supermarket worker trapped in the corner of the chiller cabinet. She was ineffectually trying to repel him with her sticker gun. Every time she reduced something he literally snatched it out of her hands and threw it into his wife's trolley before it could be placed on the shelf and anyone else have the opportunity to take it. They cleaned out everything in the section (15 packs of pomegranate seeds, 8 pots of watercress, several litres of custard, 35 sausage rolls, soggy lettuce, a year's supply of coleslaw etc etc).

The staff member, eventually freed from their clutches, later returned with one item she'd forgotten to put in the reduced section. The husband jogged across the supermarket floor, grabbed it, and then triumphantly returned to his queen, carrying aloft with both hands a slightly manky head of reduced price broccoli muttering 'ha ha haaaaaaa bwahhhhhhhh bwahhhhhhhhh!' Seriously, he did. It's on CCTV.

Now either sausage roll with pomegranate reduction is Heston's current 'bizarre recipe of the week' at Waitrose, and Mr and Mrs Nosferatu have 15 starving children at home, or they are being greedy buggers who are willing to purchase a bizarre combination of food they won't be able to finish because it's got a reduced sticker on it and is therefore a bargain. Either they are addicted to mini quorn scotch eggs which for some unknown reason never sell at full price, or they are delighted because the hungry and resentful vegans behind them are too weak to wrestle the little orange marbles away from them.

AIBU in thinking it's not a bargain unless it's something you actually want and can form the basis of a balanced and nutritious meal?

oh dear, mabey they don't get out much.

Love this post :) Especially the picture of the assistant ineffectually trying to repel Nosferatu with her sticker gun. haha :) YANBU.

YANBU...in my teen years I worked in Asda, and the 'Whoops!' waiters were a source of much amusement. I'm happy to bag a bargain that I can either freeze or use within the time, but always wondered what they would do with all that coleslaw and lettuce .

Brilliant. That is the first time I have laughed out load at a thread for ages.

Thank you.

Although I have obvious sympathy for you missing the quorn produce

Wow. And I thought 2 woman having a 'handbags at dawn' with copious fucks thrown in argument about manners over the reduced section of Asda was amusing.

If you're not going to use it and/or don't have the freezer space to keep it, Why the fisticuffs?

Vegans don't eat eggs

And we aren't weak

Brilliant thats really made me giggle for that alone YANBU

I am crying with laughter at this.

Nosferatu and vegan scotch eggs.

I remember reading in a thread where someone called it the 'Mouldy Stall'. Since then that's been my name for the reduced bit.

In our local supermarket (not Waitrose) if too many people crowd the person doing the reduced stickers, they go away with the trolley and price gun and don't come back until it's cleared.

Catkins that post has cheered up my entire day!

the only reduced price items that i grab late night/sunday afternoon are from the bakery section.

bag of 5 donuts for 1, eaten within 48hrs...yup, that's me. was all sliced cooked meat yesterday, i was soooo disappointed.

"Seriously, he did. It's on CCTV."

People are very strange about all this! I love finding great reductions if I happen upon them. My DH on the other hand loiters as the hapless reducer completes her joyless task and then deliberately fights old women for stuff he doesn't even want just to piss them off. A psychiatrist would have an absolute field day with him!

nice to see you've met my mum and her OH i half jest, my mum is a sharer of the reduced stuff, her OH isnt tho the greedy stingy prick , he really is the 'woohoo look at what i got that i dont need but you want and i have haha' type of person

when its just me and my mum we get bakery stuff too love a good reduced pastry me ..

Sounds like an NCT sale

I was wetting myself reading this. They sound like my ILs!

and then triumphantly returned to his queen, carrying aloft with both hands a slightly manky head of reduced price broccoli muttering 'ha ha haaaaaaa bwahhhhhhhh bwahhhhhhhhh!

:o :o :o

dh is very good at whipping great big joints of meat out from under people's noses, but he does just go for stuff we will use.

he has an impeccable radar for the reduced! It's the hunter gatherer instinct honed for the modern day!

Except for the day he phoned to ask if I could make marmalade with satsumas

Oh yes I said

He came home with tonnes of them....I still have three carrier bags full in the freezer.

Great post - I share your dismay! I worked at Tesco when I was younger and was SO pissed off by the people who would whip a reduced item out of my hands before I could even place it in the chiller.

Like, what can you actually do with 8 bags of salad due to expire the following day?

At times I even pretended the sticker printer had failed just so I could hide out back for a bit and OTHER PEOPLE would get a chance at the reduced stuff.

Vegans don't eat Quorn either.

I do love the reduced items at waitrose - unbelievable bargains, especially at the deli counters. However, if I can't make use of something I'd never buy it. YANBU.

I do think that posters who say that 'buying something just cos it's cheap' though are missing a trick. If I can make use of it, bloody right I'll buy it regardless of whether I actually came into the store looking for it. It's usually something different to what I'd usually get, if it's reduced 75% it's like I'm quadrupling my income and having a bit of variety is a good thing! And much better than it ending up chucked in a bin, as the freegan thread has pointed out.

Also I've gone off reduced shelves this very evening. DH works a late shift and goes on his break late teatime-ish. There's a Tesco next door to where he works and him and his colleaugues usually buy the rtc section (likely in the manner described in the op). He emailed me earlier to say he'd got a 3 bean salad this evening and when he opened it it smelt of bins .

reminds of xmas eve one year, i popped in for a few bits i had forgotten, saw a huge crowd [most of which must have been over 65] around the fresh meat, they were pushing each other out of the way trying to grab the meat that was being reduced, i some how managed to get to the front as the assisant was working her way along the section i was getting pushed quite hard by two old ladies, i thought no sod off you rude cow, so i stood my ground and grabed the reduced steaks as they hit the shelf kept 2 for me and handed 2 back to another mum who had been pushed back we both walked off v happy with our bargain steaks. that will serve them right for pushing us. the looks i got as i handed them back .

Is it possible that they were going to donate it to some charity or a zoo where they feed the animals rejects from supermarkets (although admittedly probably not coleslaw and scotch eggs)?

Actually I think I'm probably being a bit too kind to Mr and Mrs Nosferatu, if you were really collecting to donate somewhere you would probably just ask the supermarket.

3 bean salads always smell of bins.