To think it’s morally wrong to buy yellow stickered items if I’m not on a tight budget?

[FlatpackHater]

Just to be clear I don’t necessarily think it’s morally wrong but AIBU polls don’t really work on uncertainty do they?

Basically I feel morally conflicted about buying discounted food in the supermarkets, particularly now during the cost of living crisis.

I’m not on a tight budget, but I do LOVE a good bargain. Few things beat the thrill of finding profiterole stack reduced to 25p.

But should I be thinking about people who might be depending on picking up such bargains just to make their food budget stretch.

I often shop in Waitrose and frankly think that most people who shop in Waitrose aren’t on the breadline. But I shop in Lidl as well and feel maybe I should be leaving the Lidl bargains for someone else.

Or should I just crack on, enjoy my bargains and focus on the fact I’m reducing food waste?

YANBU - leave the yellow stickers for those who need them

YABU - enjoy the bargains

Never heard of Lidl veg boxes.

YABU - it's avoiding food waste. And IME yellow-sticker tends to be more 'luxury' items that are priced to normal price (fresh fish, vegan ready meals, pre-prepared side dishes) than essentials are cheaper anyway and will be what people on a budget are likely to prioritise.

I've wondered this too. In posh supermarkets, I buy the bargains. In cheaper supermarkets I'd probably leave the bargains unless there were loads of a particular item or it was just before closing.

Is £1.50 for a crate full of veg. Tends to be hit and miss. No one can find a use for 3 punnets of expired grapes. Sometimes there are mostly potatoes.
No good if you meal plan. If you like to make random soups/smoothies, they are great.

Same here really although I'm not often there at peak reduction time so it's just luck if there's anything left. Snagged some fresh fruit today bit that's the first in months

After a 12.5 hour nursing shift, having been up for the past 14 hours then walking home with leaden legs and aching feet, I used to plod into M&S Food around 21.00 to grab a few bargains.

I wasn't on the breadline but had no hesitation in buying any yellow stickered goodies that were real bargains - felt I deserved them!

Where we live there are some people who always hover for the yellow-labelled items and often can be found at the checkout with a full basket of them, not just the odd item! They never look as if they're hard-up either.

What does a "hard up" person look like?
Please describe them.

First come first served, but as for food waste most big supermarkets donate anything unsold to charities that collect after close anyway, so it doesn't make a difference if any is left.

In third world countries, where supermarket workers are paid a pittance, they generally get to take home food that's on it's use by date.

Anybody who shops in Waitrose for their weekly groceries is not on a tight budget. Waitress ought to be donating their yellow sticker items to charity or giving to staff.

I avoid reduced items, purely because I think they’ll be going off soon.

But they’re up for grabs for whoever wants them.

I used to shop in M&S, as a HCP student. It was the shop that was open when I finished my shift.
Believe me, if there was somewhere cheaper/more accessible, I would have shopped there.

No need to feel bad. Unless you are one of the hawks hounding the person with the sticker gun and then grabbing everything just because.

that’s nothing to do with low income but being an arse. However I’m your situation finding the odd yellow sticker thing. The fact it’s still there implies it’s either not reduced to a level people would want to pay or it’s not something that would sell (or overstock). Therefore nothing wrong with picking it up and saving it from landfill

If you can freeze them, it's great.

my local waitrose give any left over yellow stickered food to the food bank so at 7:50pm you cant buy them anymore. when I found this out I felt so guilty about buying the yellow stickers so I dont buy their yellow stickers anymore

I'd just like to add I only buy basics milk and bread or special occasion cakes in Waitrose there is no way I could afford to do a weekly shop in there

absolutely loads of stuff gets chucked out if unsold. Yellow sticker discounts are a way to stop food going in the bin more than anything.
If you were pushing in front of homeless people to get to the reduced section then thats a bit mean, but if youre there and theres noone wanting it then you got lucky.

its ridiculous to be self righteous over the reduced items in the supermarket. Seriously, as PP have said, who is going to go hungry because you took the M&S yellow stickered bao buns or edamame bean and quinoa salad without waiting for someone on the poverty line to nip in to that out of town Simply Foods to stock up.

people who are genuinely on the bread line and struggling to feed their children do not buy Waitrose or M&S goodies, or even an Asda rack of lamb.

people who can afford to eat very well would be very unlikely to take that Tesco value 20% fat mince reduced to a quid.

The church in our town has a community fridge to prevent food waste and the supermarkets all donate their unsold stock.
I have not used it as I hope that people who really need it get it first although they always add on FB it’s for everyone.

I do love a yellow sticker though, and buy fish for that nights dinner and desserts.

The aim is to buy them and use them the same day!

Things like biscuits are fine.. depends what it is.

How do you know that person isn’t shopping for a hard up relative or friend.

Our local foodbank regularly post pictures of the supermarket donations from the end of the night, with all the yellow stickers on. So I don't think that you can argue by buying them you are somehow stopping food waste.

Keep buying, keep cooking, but share the result where you are able.

Are you shoving the starving waifs out of the way with your sharp, middle-class elbows? If not, it's probably fine.

The ones who should be ashamed of wasting food and dousing it in bleach, etc are the supermarkets themselves. (I hope they've stopped?!)

Speaking as someone who has relied on yellow sticker food to make ends meet for many years, I'd say enjoy the bargains. But, if there's a big pile of something, it's best to only take what you can use immediately. No-one else knows how large your family is, your meal plans etc. Bollocks to them if they criticise you for sensible buying. But, sweeping the shelf clear is rude & selfish, & more likely to lead to food waste than refusing to buy the yellow sticker food.
I might occasionally look at someone's yellow sticker trolley haul enviously or in admiration, but I wouldn't judge them negatively unless they had a ridiculous number of the same item and had cleared the shelves. And I'd never say anything, it's rude.