Shops aren't allowed to discount infant formula are they?

[StealthPolarBear]

even if it's that yellow sticker "near its use by date" reduction?
And so what do I do about it?

My local Sainsbury's had reduced cartons the other week. I emailed head office and they were removed very quickly.
Def contact them or report them.

Hmm, but it's still a waste. Someone is going to use another carton of formula to feed their baby, so why not use that one rather than throw it out?

I have a thing about waste though, it's probably irrational. I have been known to cry over throwing something away which didn't get eaten

AlpinePony, I'm with you on this one!
I can't believe most of you would actually report a shop for reducing a tin of formula, do you not realise how expensive that stuff is?
I'm assuming you all BF, therefor what harm does it do you personally, if a tin of formula has a yellow sticker on it?
As for taking photos!!! Do you not have anything better to do?
If you saw a FF mum, who's down to her last fiver, reaching out for the reduced 'offending item', would you grab it out of her hand and tell her she shouldn't be buying it?
I'm all for promoting 'Breast is Best', even though I FF DS, but some of you just take it over the top

"do you not realise how expensive that stuff is?"

Yes. It should not be. All formula should be marketed ethically, and the savings on marketing should be passed to the consumer, so there is a stable, low price on it.

"what harm does it do you personally, if a tin of formula has a yellow sticker on it?"

None, directly. But do you not have opinions on things that don't affect you directly and personally? What a limited outlook. I feel strongly about having a society where formula feeding is not promoted and where parents who formula feed have a right to safe product at a consistently fair price, and where Big Business obeys the law.

"As for taking photos!!! Do you not have anything better to do?"

It's not the only thing people do! Cheek!

"If you saw a FF mum, who's down to her last fiver, reaching out for the reduced 'offending item', would you grab it out of her hand and tell her she shouldn't be buying it?"

No, of course not, because it's not about undermining mothers, down to the last fiver or not....it's about upholding the law and supporting ethical marketing.

It does annoy me somewhat reading this post. Formula costs a fortune. It's gone up in price again since I bought them for my DS1 so dreading the cost with DC2 if I cannot BF again. We should be fighting for formula to be permanently be 'reduced' in price, rather than the opposite. I would love to see infant formula on discount. But guess this post will have absolutely no support as I'm guessing most of you BF and therefore cost of formula doesn't affect you. :(

oh just read your post, tiktok. I do like this:
"Yes. It should not be. All formula should be marketed ethically, and the savings on marketing should be passed to the consumer, so there is a stable, low price on it."

It would be brilliant if that was the case, but I don't think it's going to happen somehow. Mums who formula feed, such as myself, have normally failed BF and feel awful having to FF babies so we are the silent majority. When my DS was really young I used to sneak a tub of formula in my shopping trolley as I felt like such as failure not being able to breastfeed. Therefore it's very unlikely that mums in my position are vocal and do things like push for formula milk to be a reasonable price. All the legislation, formula manufacturers and supermarkets seem to hear are health workers and mothers supporting breastfeeding and being somewhat 'anti-formula'. Therefore I've always got a picture in a my head of supermarkets and formula manufacturers rubbing their hands in glee knowing they can charge as much as they want because that is what the legistation requires and what campaigners want.

anonMum, did you read Tiktok's post right before yours? other posters,myself included already mentioned that formula should be available at a low cost to all parents who find they need to ff. Formula is by some estimates, marked up by 80%. That is price gouging. Why is it acceptable to do that with formula? If the cheapest bread, milk or potatoes were marked up similarly, there would be food riots in the UK.

Yes, most of us who post on things like this breastfeed. That does not mean we don't understand issues surrounding formula too. Breastfeeding does not make us anti-formula. As a mother who had NO practical or useful support from the NHS when I had difficulties establishing breastfeeding, I get quite angry with the services around breastfeeding and formula feeding which is why I (and many others) trained to do peer support and spend a lot of time on this message board supporting mothers who are struggling in the early days and beyond.

The ladies on this site will spend a lot of time supporting you if you ever ask for their help. I hope all goes well with breastfeeding for you this time and just shout if you need to know anything now or after your baby gets here. We are open 24/7.

x-posts.

Foxytocin, Where did you get that card?? I think I need one!

I've only just caught up with this thread, but one of my issues with formula being discounted is that I live in a very poor area, look here

Thats pretty bad - agreed?

Ok so what we discovered was that many of the women in the area would bulk buy any formula that went on offer from the moment they fell pregnant, because they were so frightened of the prospect of not being able to feed their baby. That is awful on many levels. Including the fact the babies were not kept on one brand or type for much more than 1 tub.

So you may say that by photographing discounted tubs ( including the ones which are ripped open and have holes taped over with packing tape - thankyou asda, how hygenic!) and reporting the shops that I am being a terrible person, thats your call.

My call is to report them and keep the discounted stuff off the shelves, I became a peer breastfeeding supporter and I gave my free time to sit in the waiting room at the local midwifes check up morning ( with her wholehearted support) I talked to every single mother that came through about breastfeeding.

I am not Tiktok and I do not have all the answers, but I do know where to find them if I need to or who they should speak to. I was able to check medications on bfn when mums to be had been told they were incompatable with breastfeeding, most of the time they had been told wrong!

I had women coming in who had been told before that they could not breastfeed because their nipples were too short, that if the baby was only latching on one side they should give up, and all manner of, quite frankly crap. I went with those who wanted support and took them to breastfeeding support groups. If they didn't want to know that was fine, you can't force someone to change their opinion and thats not what I set out to do.

I have hand made drop cup bras for mums who could not afford them. I have been available via text 24 hrs a day to new mums who are worried.

I also have 4 dcs of my own.

Do I have better things to do than take photos? Do you have better things to do than MN?

The breastfeeding rate in the area on that link is going up.

Discounting formula undermines that.

Breastfeeding is free, they will never not be able to afford it.

Every time I go past a rack of formula I check it.

Asda has "new" signs on newborn formula atm.

It won't have for long.

Hope you are still watching this thread foxy, if not I'll cat you.

I bow to you Kickarsequeen.

you can get the card from here along with other nifty breastfeeding support aides.

Good for you Kickarsequeen. :)

The asda offer is for follow on milk in the mother and baby event. So it is allowed to be discounted.

double check that they are not follow-on milk first and
"( including the ones which are ripped open and have holes taped over with packing tape - thankyou asda, how hygenic!) "

photograph these and send them to Baby Milk Action.

anonMum, no-one has anything against mums who ff, nor do we believe formula is wrong or evil, we do not like the formula companies who use unethical marketing and the big companies who illegally sell formula at a reduced price.

As someone said, some mums would stockpile cheap formula, meaning their babies would be given milk that is out of date, because they can't afford it full price. That surely is not good for a baby?

I too am a peer supporter and will try my best to support any mum who wants to breastfeed and to try and educate mums who think formula is just as good as breastmilk meaning they can make an informed decision about how to feed their baby.

KAQ, likewise, I am training as a peer supporter.

I don't want anyone to think that we all smugly take photographs and report shops and do nothing else. So many of my friends ended up ff when they really hadn't planned to, only for the want of a tiny bit of advice or the right phone number at the right time. Those who plan to ff from the outset aren't on my radar.

I thought you could get vouchers for formula milk if you were really on the skids. Is that not the case?

Foxy, Thankyou for the link, Ironically I have been using other items from the site,but somehow hadn't come across the card.

It will be nice to be able to show the management the exact law they are breaking

As it goes I wish I could do more. Atm I am too caught up with family stuff to do much IMO.

Hopefully I can go back to doing a bit more soon.

Mrsgordonfreeman is right that sometimes mums just need to have the right info at the right moment, or just someone to tell them they are doing well.

For some people its easy, for others its not, some people want to do it, some don't. Thats fine. I'm only interested in helping the mums that want/need help, and that does actually include warming bottles for the ff mums. I'm not a fanatical anti formula militant breastfeeder. If I was I wouldn't be of much use in helping people to acheive whatever length of breastfeeding they want to attain no-one likes to be judged and you have to put all that aside if you want to be a successful peer supporter.

Good luck everyone whose training.

I notice my local supermarket was advertising reduced baby formula, a 2 for 1 deal, and the stacker I spoke to immediately removed all the ticketing.

Are you sure it wasn't follow on if they had printed tickets? Seems odd.

Its not odd, it happens all the time.

Unless someone reports them to TS then they can get away with it. Asda for example always say that it must be legal because head office have told them to put up the signs etc. Its not legal and every time I've contacted TS the signs etc have been removed within hours.

Even putting a sign on the shelf saying "new" is wrong because it draws attention to it. After all new is better, right?

Wow, have never seen it! Didn't realise supermarkets would do something so blatantly illegal. I am naive!

Like this

:)

Deary me! I only started buying formula when I went back to work and wondered for ages why it was the same price everywhere. Doh!

Pauline - yes I was sure, and so was the guy I spoke to when we chatted about it. He removed the ticketing without fuss.

I can understand and agree with not discounting/advertising formula. I can also understand not being allowed to accrue advantage points from Boots when buying formula.

I did, however, get annoyed when I nipped into boots to buy a carton of formula for DD and had no cash, only my card and advantage card. I thought I'll use my points instead of switching. I wasn't allowed, I also wasn't allowed to switch as it was under a certain amount!

I then asked if I could use baby room as I was actually breastfeeding but had severe thrush so brestfeeding discreetly wasn't an option. (my winching in pain not a good look). Was told it was out of order!! Baby screaming, me flustered and a little old lady, bless her, gave me the 54p for the carton of formula.

Why can't I use my points to but the formula! hmm

buy the formula! oops...