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 The items at the front are sometimes out of date in the next day or two.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?

A date of at least 3'days for bread,, 5;days for meat and loads of others I can't remember now is what we were told when I worked on home shopping. Otherwise we had to substitute the item.
I always went to the back of the shelf but I could do that without messing the shelf up..

Yes, there's no excuse whatsoever for trashing the items that you personally don't want to buy for whatever reason.

I hate it too when people change their minds and dump fresh stuff anywhere. In principle, how is abandoning a fridge/freezer item next to the tins really different from theft? The owner has still lost their item (or the value of it) because of somebody else's direct actions.

I mean, not all theft is by people who want to properly keep the goods for themselves. You wouldn't say that a car that was only used 10 minutes and then abandoned by the thieves hadn't actually been stolen, would you?!

I'm reminded of those animal rights activists that time who went into a supermarket and just emptied all of the cartons of milk out on to the floor. Surely we wouldn't say that, just because they didn't actually take any goods out of the store without paying for them, they did nothing wrong?

It's vandalism at best - which is also illegal, of course.

A few times, I’ve had to abandon my shopping by the till when the wait to pay was just too long and I had to dash off. I can’t just leave DD at her dance class after pick up time because Morrisons self-service tills are playing up and they’ve only allocated one member of staff to help.

Maybe this is all an inevitable part of modern life and how we do our shopping nowadays?

In the old days, when housewives would go and get the shopping in every day or two, dates didn't really matter. You'd buy a loaf from the bakery for the day when you needed it and it wouldn't occur to you to expect it to last for more than a day or two.

To an extent, you could also buy the amounts that you needed, rather than only being able to buy a large pack/portion, or being tempted to buy ever bigger packs for bulk discounts/better value.

Maybe it's also an issue with supermarkets wanting to be all things to everybody - and we as consumers expecting that of course. If they just did tins, bottles, frozen food and other stuff with months on it by default, this wouldn't be an issue; but we want our bread, milk, fruit and veg and everything fresh at the same time - and frequently don't have time to go anywhere else for it.

I imagine the supermarkets stress over the challenges of the fresh food just as much as customers do!

I have a lot of sympathy with your scenarios - and I don't think this is comparable, when you tell the staff (or it's a busy, staff-heavy part of the shop) that you're going to have to leave it, especially when it's their shoddy tech to blame!

However, I do think it's appalling when people just change their minds, or realise that they're about to overspend, and abandon their butter behind the tins of beans.

A massive amount of food will only be wasted if it is all out on the shelves to start with. If the shorter date stuff was the only ones available on the shelf, the choice would then be shorter date or not have it 🤷

I tend to do proper food shopping about once every three weeks here, so yes I want longer dates. Both to use fresh and to last better in the freezer. But I also leave the shelf meat for others to take what they want.

Possibly. They 'discount' the short date stuff.

Try to be a code checker! Tut and sigh when find:
. something which colleagues didn't rotate,
. Customer threw a pack of ham to the back as they wanted a longer date
. Try to decipher what the date of something is. Blue backgrounds - black ink, smudged dates
. Customers that find a leaky product, don't put it at the front or give to a member of staff, shove it somewhere at the back. We grab it unknowingly its damaged - leaking cream.

There is a couple that only buy 2 apples per day. The apples are 35p each, so 70p a day. The bags of 6 apples are £1.50. So If they do that over a year, that's £36 extra they are spending on apples. They don't stop at apples. They do this with other items. I read somewhere that those customers who shop daily instead of bulk buying things like chicken breasts, putting some in the freezer are spending £500-600 a year on buying smaller packs and on an almost daily basis. Most of these people have low incomes and need to realise that this habit is costing them more in the long run.

Cakes, bacon, cheese, cooked/continental meats, eggs, yoghurts, milks and juices were reduced up to 3 days advanced. If we found a load of items dated the next day outside the date range we are doing, taking into account of offers, weather etc, we reduced these.

Fresh gets reduced daily and if we found loads of stuff with the next day's date, we advanced that.

I believe you - I am sure this is what happens. The point I was making is that maybe the price of fresh stuff is artificially hiked. Rather like the discounts if you had a supermarket card. You get charged the correct price if you have one, and extra if you won't (like me) hand over details so that you can be targeted for marketing.

Oh this one makes me so annoyed as a customer! I can't imagine if I worked there. I've seen so many customers do this and it's quite insensitive to the workers and other customers, to say the least.

Worse are those shoppers who open up a pack of fruits like grapes or strawberries either for themselves or their precious kids, they munch on them while shopping then leave whatever's left somewhere on the shelves or close to the self service machines and don't pay (obviously because it's before they get to their machine). That's just stealing... but you know, they or their little ones have to eat stolen stuff right there and then!

There are exceptions to all these, of course, but I doubt that most aren't just cheeky fuckers who can't be arsed with being considerate of others.

I think the arguement would be made that the supermarket is in control of the whole space so the item has not left their possession. There isn’t any intention to deprive them of the item, Honestly police won’t even come out if it’s theft of under a certain amount. They aren’t going to arrest people for leaving a £2 pack of butter with the beans.

I'm a picker and we're trained to go to the back of the shelves or to the bottom crates to pick from. We have guidance of the dates required for most items on the scanner and we're usually able to flag any short dated items which will show on the customers receipt.

Never had a problem with the fillers about reaching to the back and we all usually collaborate on where the best dates are. The fillers can get annoyed if we're leaving the shelf in a mess, which I don't do, but only because the managers moan at them when the shelves are untidy. So I can understand that really.

How is that related to picking the longer dated food from the back of the shelves

Most supermarkets with hot chicken counters which sell wings, legs, drumsticks etc never get paid for. People pick them up, munch on them, toss the bones in the bag somewhere.

Parents need to feed kids before they shop.

I did find some honest parents who paid for the food their DC munched on. The thing is, we never knew how much food was unpaid for, is stolen.

Parents need to feed kids before they shop.

Exactly. Or grab something for them to eat while out shopping, or buy something, pay for it then go back and shop but they can't be bothered to plan.

Read the post before mine.

No, I realise that nothing will come of it in reality.

It's selfish and annoying - but I don't see anything the supermarkets could possibly do to stop people doing it.

The thing is I have never caught anyone do this. If I did, depending on the customer, I would ask them nicely to put it back!

Read somewhere that the average household pays £50 on food per year because of the idiots of dumpage.

I do this, and I've watched the Tesco delivery pickers do it as well, so I know when we have a delivery it's the freshest it can be.