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

Yellow sticker food & non food is for everyone
Why would it not be so ?

Too Good To Go food waste apps is for everyone

Olio is for everyone

Free cycle is for everyone

Reductions on seasonal goods from Christmas, Easter, school holidays, Halloween etc are for everyone

yellow stickered items usually have 24 hour or less until their use-by date... they couldnt given them to charity if they dont sell.

This is food on limited safety time not wonky carrots or dinted tin cans.

If there's reduced stuff that I'll use, I snap up as much of it as I can.

Please just buy it. It’s heartbreaking throwing away food, we can’t just give it away to random people or take it home at the end of the night shift as it’s seen as theft. Food bank picks up after 9 three times a week but they rely on volunteers so don’t always make it. A local school also have stuff but yet again depends if they come that night, we can’t save it and give it to them the next morning as it’s all out of date by then. Endless forms have to be filled in to be part of the scheme so supermarkets avoid litigation.

They charities come and collect after the store closes, and depending on what it is, whether it can be frozen, or if it says Best Before etc the charity can take stuff. This is what I have gathered from a couple of people i know that work in big supermarkets.

YABU. You're preventing food waste and enjoying the thrill of the chase. Buy the reduced items and then donate some money to the food bank.

First come, first served in my book

I absolutely love a supermarket bargain. My freezer is full of yellow sticker stuff. I can’t remember the last time I paid full price for a pack of sausages. It would never occur to me not to grab whatever is on offer at M&S or Sainsburys.

I do, however, draw the line at Lidl’s £1.50 fruit & veg boxes which are available at the tills of my local store. Someone else’s need for those is greater than mine.

First come, first served I say.

It's a good question to ask, though. Sometimes you'll be in a supermarket at just the right time and reduced items are everywhere, and it's very tempting to get more than you can actually use in the time. My mum does this all the time - has done for decades - and will gloat about her bargains when she gets home, which is all very well, but I know a fair bit ends up being thrown away because she doesn't eat it/freeze it in time. So fill your boots, but sensibly and realistically.

I subscribe (eg pay) to a community larder that is aimed at cutting down on food waste - everything there would apparently otherwise go to landfill. So some of it is fresh food that will be out of date by the end of the day, but lots of stuff is tins and dry goods - end of line stuff or oversupply. Apparently it's offered to food banks but they haven't taken it. Every week when I go, I dither about the rights and wrongs of it. We all pay the same amount - £3.50 a week for ten items - and subscribing helps keep it going (for those who really need it) but I don't really need it. I like the idea of cutting food waste and I love the sometimes generous bags of fresh fruit and veg we get, but I also know some people who are on their uppers use it too. So on one hand I think I should stop subscribing and leave it to those who really need it, but on the other hand I still remember the day when they had literally 100s of passionfruit and nobody else wanted them!

Our local community larder states it is for everybody and encourages those that are better off to use it to reduce food waste. It also means they can wave the fees for those who are really struggling.

What I find unreasonable is people buying ALL the yellow sticker items & leaving nothing anyone else.
I’m dairy & gluten intolerant so there are rarely any reductions I can buy BUT if I spot something I need or I will definitely use I will pick it up. I also love finding yellow sticker eggs, probiotic drinks, meal replacement shakes & sausages.
I’m on a budget but luckily not a super tight one.
If you see something you like just buy it & enjoy.
I doubt many on a tight budget will buy a profiterole tower as they will see it as an overindulgent & unnecessary purchase.
Their shopping is often more basic, necessity & bulk cooking based so yogurts, meats, tinned products & fruit & veg are more the things they go for; I know this from experience.

Tldr the whole thread but if you feel guilty, buy it for the food waste avoidance but make up the difference in stuff that you can donate to a food bank. That way you know it’s going to someone who needs it, not a rich person with a bit less conscience than you who comes along 5 mins after you!

I said YANBU, not so much because I think it's wrong to take a bargain, but I do think it's really worth thinking about things like this and how ourconsumer behaviour firs into the whole economic system.

What it makes me think of is rules like they had in some ancient societies, where grain that fell to the ground during harvest shouldn't be all picked up by the farmer, so that the poor could glean from the fields. Or similarly, in the middle ages there were laws that said that some producers had to continue to make certain types of cheap products, even though it would have been more finanically rewarding to make only higher end things, because the poor needed acess to those products too.

What would irk me is that I might leave those deals behind and some well off person might snap them up!

Yanbu. If I were in charge everyone buying reduced items would have to show their bank statement at the checkout!

I'm on a very tight budget but I'm also aware I'm not the only one. I head straight to the reduced aisles every time I shop but I only buy what I need. If there were 2 packs of reduced chicken, I'd only buy one as I'm aware that someone coming after me could desperately need that for their dinner. I'm certainly no Saint but it makes me furious to see people block the reduced section with their trolley so no-one else can reach anything and then proceed to load their trolley up with everything, leaving nothing for other people.

It's fine to buy yellow labels and I wouldn't feel bad. I wouldn't buy masses of them but it's rare there are loads of great bargains anyway. Most things are looking a bit ropey and getting past their best, so noone would stock up on them. I never see loads of salmon that could be frozen, more things like salad bags and fresh veg that needs to be eaten pretty soon.

Buy the yellow sticker food. It’s because you buy it you are in a decent financial situation.

I think it's fine as long as you aren't taking all of it! Especially if it's something you'll definitely lose. Thing is you'll never know who might snap it up if it's not you. Might be something with loads of cash! Or it might end up in the bin

It's about food waste not poverty. They don't reduce them so poor people can eat.

Unless you're prising them out of the hands of someone you've decided is needy, then buy them. You have no idea if anyone else wants it.

Maybe that person has 6 dependents and no cash?
Just saying.

I think but the bargains. I’m not sure if you realise how much food from the yellow sticker aisle gets binned and for me it’s not about cheap food it’s about not wasting, whoever you are! I collect yellow sticker food from stores and distribute it FOR FREE in my local community (after churches and food banks etc have taken what they need!) this week alone my collections were 374 items in one collection, this is happening every single day in varying proportions! Save the food!!

It isn’t even enjoy the bargains or first come first served mentality it’s just buy the food with the quickest use by if you’ll use it. The food wastage in this country is disgusting.

It's everybody's job to help prevent food waste. You don't have to barge people out of the way or stick all the reduced chicken in your trolley though.

So this.

My brain hurts.