h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi All

Taking on board the report on BBC R4 this am,, that here in the UK we throw away up to £10Million worth of food a year, much of it still packaged, isn't it time we looked at the BY One Get One Free systems in operation in our supermarkets.

What looks like a good offer, say , on a prepack of washed carrots actually means that you take home twice as much as you needed. Then, when the excess is out of the (short) Use-By dates you throw them away. Stupid but human nature perhaps.

Why can we not have the first bag of carrots at half price?

Well I know the answer of course, but I'm sure someone will tell me!

Novo

I did hear a report not long ago that supermarkets were starting to move away from buy one get one free offers, on the grounds that as purse strings tighten people will think more about what they are getting. Half price offers will seem more appealing when you are working to a tight budget.

It's not based on ecological grounds, however.

Hey Novo,

Supermarkets are in the business of making money. Why blame them (I take it) for doing so? Why don't people eat the extra carrots rather than buying something else?

Hi Pedro

I think you're missing something here...

If 1Kg of carrots are £1 but you get another 1Kg free , then the two bags at 1Kg each would net the supermarket £2 if sold seperately.

Alternatively, if you can get 2Kg of carrots for £1 , why can you not buy 1kg for 50p. Much more sensible for reducing waste when buying for one person, and the net profit to the supermarket remains the same?

And of course it isn't only carrots, these offers exist across many varied products. The maths don't stack up, but the waste does particularaly in food - which was the context of my opening post.

Novo

Who are these wasteful people who throw away all this food waste/uneaten products? I love the buy one get one free offers, but I'd only take em up on those products for which I know its worthwhile; either stuff I can get through before its out of date, stuff that keeps forever (tinned stuff, household items etc), or things I can freeze down the extra pack/item for later use Don't most councils recycle/compost food waste now? At least the food waste is biodegradible so surely not exactly the most delaterious environmental challange ever?

Didn't hear the R4 discussion but isn't it the case that the vast majority of food waste is dimply down to the retailers chucking away perishable stuff that hasn't been bought? If so, surely anything that helps to shift it has to be a good thing?

I agree with nove on the BOGOF vs half-price thing. I live on my own so it's rare for me to want two of a single product - I'd much rather have it half price.

I have noticed that a supermarket I use does have a lot less BOGOFs than other shops, but has more discounted stuff, which is rather handy.

I agree with *novo* even! I have no idea who this nove person is. Where's that edit button?

>Where's that edit button?<

Good question

Post 6: dimply -> simply

<>

But the supermarket sell more stuff, thereby generating higher turnover. That is their job, after all.

novo - you're an anti-capitalist if only you'd just admit it!

In a capitalist society, things must be so. As pedro says: they sell more this way, and that's their job.

Novo came out a couple of weeks ago as a ull on communist at heart now all he has to do is rid his lie of all the capitalist paraphenalia he once thought was important and come to join us on the baracades


Novo, you are getting the irst kilo at 50p...and giving them another 50p for the second kilo is part of the deal. The supermarket dont care if you really want the second kilo or dont care because they really want your second 50p and that's the most important thing to them.


Now a few weeks ealier you were among the people saying how the cost of living is getting higher I countered that things might be getting higher prices in some cases and that some products might be rising in price faster than others but the news you higlighted about people being able to afford to throw away food makes a mockery of the notion that the cost of living is getting higher.


The only cook book I own (Beggars Banquets) has only engaged me or one page, the first page of the introduction. Infact only the first half of the first paragraph. It gives this sage advice:
"buy what' in season or on sale, buy as much as you can freeze - cure or pickle"

Since adopting this philosophy into my lifestyle, which is based on "waste not - want not", Ive never gone hungry.

Obviously one needs to buy a horse. Give the extra carrots to the horse which will provide transportation and fertiliser to produce more carrots.

A note about BOGOFs. Did you know that it is the supplier who bears the cost? For instance, Tesburysons want to do a BOGOF on strawberries, buy 1kg get 1kg free. They inform the strawberry suppliers that they will be running this promotion for 1 month in 3 weeks time and instruct the supplier to provide extra stock for nothing. If the supplier says no, the supermarket finds another supplier. The upside for the supplier is the promotion will mean he sells 200 tons of strawberries instead of 150. The downside is he has to supply 200 tons free. Suppliers know all this in advance of course so from the outset they hitch their prices to compensate. The supermarkets in turn throw away so much of this BOGOF produce because it effectively cost them nothing so they don't care.

Similarly, if a supermarket says they are going to do a special on whisky, say £10 a bottle instead of £13, the supplier has to compensate the supermarket for the lost profit.

If a supplier puts a special display in the store that makes goods easier to steal, they have to compensate the supermarket for the projected losses through theft.

Suppliers will do *anything* to get their product into the supermarkets and the supermarkets know it.

How about hanging around where people are looking at the BOGOFs and ask if they want to go halves? I've done that in British supermarkets - the first time I got funny looks. The second time I targeted what I thought was a single person, and did me a deal.

I've also been at the checkout buying one thing, and the cashier has tried to be helpful and tell me I could get another item free - then been astonished that I don't want it.

Basically if everyone was a bit more careful - and could remember what to do with leftovers, we wouldn't have so much of a problem with wasted food.

Morning all,

There are two orthree strands to this thread.

1 I still do not believe that selling the second pack for £1 instead of
charging £1 for the first and giving you a free one makes mathematical
sense. OK ,it might be a way of ridding themselves of over purchasing
2 I have followed Sho's example and done a deal with folk at the
checkout. J and I sometimes buy for other members of the family, to
stick to carrots - giving a bag to daughter in law denies the
supermarket of another £1 sale ( Pedro?)
3 Like other posters we buy what we need and take advantage of BOGOF's
for cleaning products , or things we WILL use.

So I accept that the consumer can make the choice. But, as SWL says , the buying / stocking policy ( at the lowest price to the grower possible)plays a significant part.

Note to Blicky - I am not a rampant capatalist you know

My initial post was a reaction to a waste that is truly dreadful when so many in the world have too little to eat. We should ALL be looking at ways to reduce what we buy, in packaging we don't need, rather than encouraging the idea of getting something for free - which of course we are not - it is paid for by higher prices on other items.

If we don't change our buying habits the rise in fuel costs etc may well force us to do so on cost basis alone.
I simply query the wisdom of persuading us to have 2 of something rather than 1, at half price.

Novo

PS I actually by one or two fresh carrots at the local market, along with other fruit and veg! - so it's not a crusade.

I absolutely HAD to have a tub of Crema de Mascarpone ice cream the other day and was extremely annoyed that it was on a BOGOF offer. Suddenly the simple purchase of a luxury treat became a minefield. I really don't want 2 tubs of the stuff in my freezer, it's bad enough I can't just buy a portion sized tub to satisfy the craving. If I have 2 tubs I WILL eat them both, over less time than I should, no doubt. But if I ignore the offer and just take the one, when I get to the checkout I'm going to be made to look stupid for not taking something which is free.

In the end I took both and asked around the family until someone took the spare tub.

I never go for the offers unless I'm planning on buying the product anyway.

Deb

<>

What!? It's not my fault.

If the supermarket think that they'll sell more units at 2-for-1 than they will at half-price, then they'll get more money. A lot of people would come in to buy one, so the idea is to get them to still pay the same price, plus the others who think 'Ooh!', and buy it cos it's on sale.

The equivalent deal here is "3 boxes/bottles/packets for $3.00" (where the normal price is $1.50 for one box, bottle etc.) on a range of different things! With only two of us here, I usually ignore them, unless it's a deal on something like shampoo, tea or coffee.

Vicky

Yeah that sounds the same as our "three for two" offers in the UK. They aren't so bad cos if you just buy one you don't get hassled at the checkout in the way you do with BOGOFs.

Deb