Disappointed with Christmas yellow stickering

[MrsStickMan]

Did I timed it badly, or were supermarkets were being stingy/gave all the leftover food to charities?

In previous years I’ve had cut-price cream and turkey and all sorts, but this year just a few measly pence shaved off.

Wondering if anyone else missed the yellow-sticker madness this year, and what is the best time and day to go so I can make a note for next year?

I think that supermarkets had much less “festive” stuff this year than in previous years. I got lots of festive food items in my food shop at the beginning of December but the week before Christmas a lot of items were unavailable and substituted with the normal equivalent. I didn’t see any nice non-fruit Christmas cakes this year, there wasn’t much choice in the turkey department. Lots of shops discounted all the decorations and Christmas clothing before the kids had broken up from school.

In answer to your question, maybe there wasn’t as much to discount this year? My local Asda puts out the first yellow stickers around 8 am, just a few pence of each item. Around 11 am they knock off a few more pence. At around 2 pm that’s when they go in for the bigger discount and that’s when most of it gets snapped up. If you go in around 30 minutes before closing time that’s when stuff goes down to a few pence.

I think a lot of stuff goes to collection agents for Olio as there was loads of free food, much more than usual being given away on my local Olio on the evening of Christmas Eve.

I agree. I went into Asda on Xmas Eve for my usual bargain run and they had piles of food going out of date but no yellow labels. If they weren’t selling it off I hope they weren’t wasting it.

Tesco seemed to pay more attention to what actually sold last year. There were fewer special Christmas foods, more basics.

I only saw a few small trays of pre-made sausages in bacon, and at a premium price. Last year they sold big trays of them off for 99p on Christmas Eve.

A smaller choice of cheese. Fewer cheeseboard packs. I think it reflects everyone cutting back and being more sensible.

I'd rather they charge a sensible base price than go in for last minute discounts. Fairer for everyone.

I went to M&S and they were restocking the shelves while there. People were just buying everything. So maybe they stocked what was actually selling. It’s a good thing I think. And I also think it should go to charities first

I got a cauliflower and bag of parsnips on good reductions on 28th in M&S…but they had very little other than that and some “stuffing wreaths”. Normally you can see turkeys and other joints on massive reductions, but not this year.

We have a big local food waste charity who collect all unsold supermarket food to give away for free. This has meant the supermarkets no longer bother to do the second yellow sticker mark downs, they just send all the food off at the end of the night.

Our local Tesco sends all its' leftover food to the community pantry now - yellow markdowns aren't really much of a thing anymore.

I went in my local Asda on Boxing Day just to use the toilet as I was walking past and glad I had my fold up bags in my handbag. Came out with free veg, potatoes, broccoli, carrots and sprouts. Soups made, veg prepped for the week and spuds will last for a while.

I noticed mountains of reduced veg, sandwiches and salad bags but little else. Maybe stock control is getting better? It is likely that supermarkets are using sophisticated demand prediction software.

This trend of driving waste food around to another location to give away, ie Olio, is absurd. Supermarkets - just give it away to customers who are already using your shop.

Our local supermarkets still yellow sticker stuff but I think it gets one chance (rather than going from a lower to a higher % reduction through the evening) then goes into the toogoodtogo bags. I also get the sense a lot of supermarkets are avoiding doing big reductions between Christmas and new years because they know people will still buy slightly reduced (club card or nectar reductions) large joints and the like so they're still going to sell.

Places like Aldi did 75% off on beef turkey and all sorts as I saw it shared all over social media. Morrisons is normally pretty good but I did not venture out.

Tesco, sainsburys, co op, Iceland. It all goes off to charity between 8-10pm (olio/food pantry/fairshare)

They give it away as it counts as charity giving so makes the company look good and possible tax breaks. Also saves their waste so again looks good on their yearly food waste stats and saves them a fortune in paying for waste removal.

Tesco after 9:30pm Cs stuff staff get for free.

Apparently AI is massively improving their ability to analyse and predict what actually sells, so I guess if that reduces food waste it’s a good thing?

A friend of mine used to go late on Christmas Eve for cut-price turkeys, which she’d freeze and later cook for her 3 massive Newfoundland dogs!

Defo fewer reductions. Look at @foodwasteinspector_ on instagram; he films what stores are throwing away, tonnes of perfectly good food and other items, not reduced.

I don’t mind it going to charities of course but I wonder how it works - do all these impoverished people get a bagfuls to stuff in the freezer on its use-by date? I can’t even see how that really helps. If you’re on benefits, being given a whole turkey presumably isn’t very helpful since you have to spend money to cook it.

If the supermarkets have somehow AI’d there way into better stock control that would be a better answer.

My Sainsbury's still (today) has piles and piles of Christmas food they're trying to shift - do you want a whole leg of Serrano ham? There are many...

According to a retail senior executive I met recently waste is being designed out for the first time thanks to new AI stock prediction and control tools. I was slightly skeptical that it could be transformative but this could be evidence?

I think there are charities that will take whatever is going and then use it to cook up hot meals for the next day depending on what they have (e.g. stews, curries, pasta bakes etc....)

I struck lucky in Tesco on Boxing Day - most stuff was 70% off - lots of people were buying turkey crowns and big joints which I didn’t need or have room for but I bought loads of other stuff and some ready meals for DP who is out of work at moment

Olio and fair share can and do freeze use by item that are freezable. You just have to put a new label on it stating the date frozen.

Olio is more dependant on that particular food waste hero having the space to freeze the items.

Other charity’s will freeze to later cook the food for meals.

Anything best before is available to be given away will it looks bad. So all the veggies, breads and fruit unless pre prepared can last for quite some time or be rotten the same day pot luck.

Getting whole turkeys is not very normal. (Sainsbury’s offer theirs to staff first) Sausages, chops, diced meat, mince, burgers, meatballs, chicken breasts and Sandwich meats.

A lot of items can be fridge ready meals which are easily frozen and only 4 minutes in a microwave.

Waste food is free to anyone who can get to the distribution point and wait outside until they open. It is advertised as saving waste rather than alleviating food poverty, although obviously it may help those who are struggling.

I often wonder what the net benefit is (other than to the supermarkets). You usually get a pre packed bag of food so it may still be unused if the recipient doesn't like or can't eat a particular item. You are far less likely to waste something you have chosen and paid for yourself, even if it is only pennies.

It also takes a massive amount of coordinating, with armies of volunteers driving across the city to collect food and spending hours distributing. They work so, so hard throughout the year, and especially over Christmas.

When they were giving it away in Asda to customers there was a notice on all the bins saying they were distributing it to the community to save waste so they didn't have to organise anything, it was there for anyone to take.

Went shopping in Tesco on Christmas Eve and got half price beef
in Boxing Day in Sainsburys huge turkeys were being sold really cheaply- seemed about a quarter of the original price
salmon which had already been on offer was being sold for half price so some really good bargains

Sounds like they may have ordered the correct amount of food which they s a good thing as it means that we won’t be overpaying on other things to make up for their ordering errors.