to think supermarket shelf stackers shouldn't get annoyed because I want to get items that have a later best before date?

[supersup]

When I am food shopping, I always choose the items at the back with the later best before dates. The items at the front are sometimes out of date in the next day or two. When I am planning ahead, I want to get food with a later date as possible.

I know the dates don't have to be strictly followed but I prefer the later dates.

Shelf stackers are getting increasingly annoyed when I pull out items from the back and I was told I should just get one from the front. I put everything back properly so it is not as if I am messing up the shelf.

AIBU?

Sometimes I've looked at the items on the shelves and decided that if they're close in date to use by, then I'll put them in the freezer and save them for days of bad weather when I can't get out to the shops, so they've not gone to waste. But yeah as a single person I have to be aware of dates and make sure nothing fresh is going to waste, so I'll take from the back rather than the front.

I used to be a shelf stacker many many years ago and used to put the ones about to go out of date at the back as so many people used to just reach for item the back without checking the actual date 🤣

Shelf stackers get annoyed because their job is tedious. What you do with supermarket stock is up to you.

I've never been moaned at for doing this, but if I had, I'd just be honest and say "Look, these sausages are for Friday dinner. I need them to last until Friday and ideally Saturday in case there are any left over. So the choice isn't me buying the ones that go out of date tomorrow or the ones that have a week on them, the choice is me buying the ones with the longer date or not buying sausages at all or getting them in another shop. It's simple really."

YANBU @supersup ! I've always done the same with items that I need to last longer than a day or 2 - bread, milk, etc but if it's something I'm going to use that day, I definitely don't mind.

I can't remember having stackers say anything (It may have happened but it's been too long to remember) but it isn't far-fetched to think that some would atleast tut at shoppers rummaging through the back even if they know why, and some would get snappy even. People have different personalities afterall.

Your replies to other posters are snappy. Not outright nasty, but snappy. Like sarcastically asking if a poster wants the names and addresses of the shelf stackers, when he/she was clearly saying that they had never had an experience of being accosted by shelf stackers.

Considering most of us do this and have never had an issue but you have multiple times im guessing it's the way you do it such as making a mess, damaging products or leaning over people

The bread we prefer is always on the bottom shelf. So I have to get down on my knees and reach right back. I always feel like James Herriot delivering a calf.

Apologies.

No

Yes

Yes, Lookinggood123 exactly demonstrates the point that it is worth comparing dates on food at the front of the shelf to dates at the back.

Sometimes the front products are better dated!

One reply then?

No

Lifted as in stolen :)

You should see me look at the chicken's weight when all the chickens are priced at the same price in a weight band - so you can get a 2.156 kg chicken for the same price as a 2.005 gram chicken.

I do it for my mum in m and s on a weekly basis. Lately there have been a lot of same day items at the front. One lady on her own does not eat all that food in a day. Never once has a member of staff commented. In fact if help required usually not a staff member to be seen.
How do you draw attention to yourself? Let me know, it could be useful when I can’t locate items. 😉

Yes

No fancy picture.

No

Tbh I very rarely check the dates on things so I'll take the things at the front for you all!

Bread - fresh bread will go off in a few days.

Eggs are normally good weeks passed their bb date but I've never bought eggs and got home to find a really close date. Same with yoghurt, cheese. Im not sure I've ever checked the bb date on cheese tbh!

Milk is always dated ages in advance?
Vegetables/fruit it's irrelevant

Fish I usually buy on the day I want to eat and meat/prawns can be frozen. I guess maybe sandwich fillings but I actually don't think I check the dates when I buy sandwich fillings.

I think the only things I really check is pre cooked chicken and things like meat for a roast that are difficult to freeze. So keep taking from the back and I will mop up the rest for all the shelf stackers 😂

Torn on this. On the one hand I hate food waste, I want as little binned as possible (by the supermarket or the shopper!) On the other hand, you’re absolutely within your rights to buy whichever you prefer. And the yellow sticker section of our supermarket sells out very quickly! (although you can’t build on the yellow sticker model or all prices go up…)

All I will say is that I shop on Monday morning and again on Friday evening. I’m usually picking up 4 dinners on Monday morning. I don’t check use by dates in the shop, but when I got home this morning I looked at all the dates. Sausages have the longest date so it’s toad in the hole on Thursday. Salmon goes off on Wednesday so I’m planning to do that tonight. Food gets eaten, not wasted and I get the recipes I’ve planned. I don’t need to be rigid about the order I eat them in. But appreciate others may.

That's ridiculous. If they don't want something to be bought yet, they shouldn't put it on the shelf yet.

No difference from if they had a product in two different varieties and you liked one flavour but not the other one - nobody would tell you that you had to take the one you don't like/won't use instead of the one that you do/will, even if they had loads more of the former left.

Friend is a shelf stacker and the pressure from Management is unreal! He is currently off sick with stress!

OP the bottom line is that people vary in how they shop - some take the stuff at the front, some from the back, some don’t look at use-by dates at all. But you’re the only one who’s been told off by multiple shelf stackers 🤷‍♀️. Either you’re winding them up, or you shop in the stroppiest supermarket in the world!

Same! I always take care to place products back identically to how I found them. Common sense of course.

I was moaned at by a shelf stacker as well. She said something along the lines of "All the things are the same" and I rarely snap at someone but I had to with her. It's not her job to control what customers take especially if there is absolutely not difference to the shelf display. And really odd how some people can't understand that longer expiry dates make much more sense than getting some that goes off in a week or so.