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

There's this same bloke every time I happen to be in sainsburys at reduction time, he fills his trolley with everything yellow stickered then scurries over to the next aisle and stands there looking through every item, turning it over and examining it, and if he doesn't want it just chucks it in a random place in the shop, I hate him 😂

I've also been behind him in the local village butchers buying really lovely hampers and some hand made cracker things (lemon and thyme, they sound delicious to be fair) but they are £8 a box! So I'm not convinced he's on the breadline. But even if he was it's a poor show doing his thing in sainsburys

My late Dad used to love a yellow sticker item in Waitrose, despite being well able to afford things at full price. His eyesight wasn't great so half the time he didn't actually know what allegedly amazing bargain he was buying!! 😂

Generally Waitrose reductions weren't much to shout about anyway 4 burgers was £4.99, now £4.75 ...if you were on a strict budget you probably still can't afford them at the yellow price.

I think those who vacuum up the entire yellow sticker section are greedy. Like buying 20x something. Just seems glutinous and selfish.

I buy them because o don't want them to go to waste. Not because I can't afford full price. Though I'm wondering what on earth to do with the 6 packs of sandwiches I was given In a 'Too good to go bag' I only wanted something for tea!

Someone on the absolute breadline is hardly going to pop into Waitrose in the hope of bagging a profita stack. I think it is fine to grab a bargain. I got a family sized steak pie for 59p but I don't take more than one. I think it is a bit greedy to come and take 7 or 8 of them, all the rest on the shelf, like the customer after me did.

I was introduced to dump-diving by environmental activists who were living in a wood trying to protect ancient trees from being taken down for a road extension. Has dump-diving gone?

I buy something for a food bank every time I food shop, which is often. I agree that some yellow stickered items aren't necessarily what someone is going to feed a family. Our local food banks tell us what's needed each week. Allotment holders also donate direct to the main bank.

Years ago we were a bit low on cash and stayed in a Travelodge when visiting family, it was behind a petrol station which was an M and S food place. We would go in around 8 pm and buy stickered sandwiches for the following day's breakfast and/or lunch, about 20p each.
My late OH was once in Asda as they were reducing some sausages, he picked up a couple of packets and the woman working there recognised him as her son's teacher. She insisted he let her reduce them further, he was so embarrassed, which as a Yorkshireman getting a bargain was very rare!

Actually disgusted that so many people condone this during a crisis.

I have a relative that does this every week and boasts about their bargains. This person is rich. It's awful.

Grocery stores yellow sticker stuff to get rid of it, so it does not go to waste. They are not providing a service for the poor.. just like charity shops are not providing cheap clothing for the poor.
It is all about avoiding things going to landfill.

But they donate it to charity if it's not sold, so it's not going to go to waste anyway.

I thought about this thread as I did a quick post work sweep of aldi bargains. I got a salad pot, an avocado and 5 punnets of raspberries at 75% off tbh if I was properly skint I wouldn't be buying fresh food. Cheap noodles and a £1 bag of frozen veg.

The Foodbank gets loads of ‘fresh’ stuff that’s been yellow stickered. Most has to be binned as we can’t send it out to people.

Great dealing with the Supermarket cast offs.

This I used to do an Olio collection. You can't pass on any food that has hit it's use by date (meat/ dairy) and if you're collecting from a supermarket at 9pm it's difficult to get rid before midnight. Stuff that's on it's best before is ok but really some places are basically foisting off loads of cheap white bread and tired salad that no one will want passing disposal costs along to the foodbank/ charity/collector.

some places are basically foisting off loads of cheap white bread and tired salad that no one will want passing disposal costs along to the foodbank/ charity/collector

Oh dear...this thread has reached a new low...Now virtue signallers are being guilt tripped because allegedly charities are being used for waste disposal 🙄

Also not true. I started shopping in Waitrose when my DS became old enough to leave in the flat my myself, and I could go there in the evening, at yellow-sticker time. I find my local Waitrose discounts more heavily than my local tesco, so I'm getting better food for a lower price. Also I can get a bus door-to--door from Waitrose, which is important for me as I can't carry too much a long way on foot. It was absolutely invaluable to me to be able to feed DS decent food on a tiny, tiny income as a single parent. They've closed the deli counter down now, but the staff often gave me a further discount (without me asking) on deli items which were already very heavily discounted.

Just on a dignity point: waitrose also often leaves their YS stuff just on the same shelves as the regular stuff, so you do have to trek around the whole store, but it avoids that really humiliating scrum you get at tesco, where everyone is hovering about waiting for the staff member to finish placing items in the discount bay, then a couple of sharp-elbowed shoppers use their trollies to block everyone else from getting near until they've had their pick of the bargains. I find the whole process at tesco really humiliating, whereas the YS at waitrose is just like normal shopping, not the Hunger Games.

Though I'm wondering what on earth to do with the 6 packs of sandwiches I was given In a 'Too good to go bag' I only wanted something for tea!

The sandwiches most likely to go off that night for tea, with soup if you want something hot. The other sandwiches for breakfast. If any are cheese sandwiches you can turn them into grilled cheese sandwiches (for tea or breakfast) which is easy and delicious.

I love a yellow sticker. I once bought some salmon for 20p for two fillets in Lidl once. Best bargain ever! They went into my freezer for another day.

The think with the sandwiches too is that it’s very unlikely that on the stroke of midnight they’ll ‘go off’ and will be fine the next day.

There's a food waste charity where I live and they give away bags and bags of free food that's been yellow stickered every single night for free. They always have loads left over, so I would say go for it.

As long as you're not elbowing your way to the front then I'd say that it's better in terms of avoiding food waste for someone to be getting the yellow stickered items than to leave them in case anyone else wants them. It's first come first served and supermarkets tend to put out the reductions at a certain time so if someone was relying on those to make up their food shop then they can come in at those times. You could always let others have first dibs if theres someone else there but no, I think better to reduce waste and keep costs down overall by purchasing reduced food where possible.

Actually the yellow sticker food goes to Foodshare if it is not sold not in the bin.Many towns have Foodshare where for a small donation you are given or choose food on the date.

You are without a doubt the best and saved thing about this ludicrous threat. You made me giggle 🌷

It’s not true they donate leftovers to foodbank etc - 2 local supermarkets definitely just chuck it all in a plastic bag with other rubbish I’ve seen it multiple times.

I think supermarkets start reducing use by today food quite early, say after lunchtime, 50p off and some people passing will buy, if not sold another sticker reduced by 90p etc and they are probably glad it’s sold, what they don’t want is a group of people at the end of the day scrambling and fighting over really reduced stuff.