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Delhaize adopts new shelf-stacking strategy
Continuing a tradition of innovation that included insect spreads and ugly veggies, Delhaize supermarket has come up with a new way of avoiding food waste.
About 185,000 tonnes of food is discarded by consumers every year in Belgium, much of it because of the law that requires supermarkets to bin stock that is past its sell-by date. But many customers feel around at the back of the shelves for food with a date further out than the products at the front.
So instead of stocking the shelves with new products while the older ones are still there, Delhaize is simply going to wait until the older stuff has gone before bringing the new stuff out.
According to Delhaize, buying products at the back with later dates makes no sense as most customers will consume the food at the front before the sell-by date anyway. In other cases, the sell-by date is a close guess, and the food can be fine for a few days beyond it.
So Delhaize will no longer provide a fresher alternative in the back, which will avoid so much expired food going in the bin.
Comments
Why not just do this in Flanders, since according to this article, that's where the food is being 'chucked away'? Or why not simply reduce the prices on products that are reaching their sell-by date? Or would that be breaking the price-fixing agreement arranged between the main Belgian supermarket chains?
We only had figures for Flanders, but you made a good point, so we went digging for more information. Also, changed "day" to "year", which was a typo. So thanks for the comment!
Well as a single person it takes me a long time to use up products and I like to go to the supermarket as infrequently as possible. So I tend to buy large quantities of things at one go, 10 pints of milk or packs of butter.
If I find products, particularly dairy products that don't have a long enough shelf life then I don't buy anything and go to a different supermarket.
Thanks for the report now I know to be wary and check the dates when buying in Delhaize.
Another "bright" idea which seems smart on the surface until one takes a closer look. I do one big weekly shop in Delhaize. I like their ready-made meals and buy several in one go. If I go to the shop on 2 September I'm sure as heck not going to buy meals which have an expiry date of 4 September! So yes, I have indeed been hunting for the items at the back, with longer dates. Seems that from now on I will not be given a choice.
Folks , don't believe it.... There is no chance that Delhaize employees will actually be able to calibrate the shelf stacking in such a manner as to ensure only one date is available at a time. Can you imagine? There would inevitably be a long lag between the last carton of fresh milk stamped to 4th of September before milk from the 9th of September is put out. This time lag would lead to huge sales losses.
The issue of consumer waste (the 185,000 tonnes per year) is not essentially from the supermarket (although there might be a small percentage), it's from people chucking out the food at home.
The supermarkets know very well how to get rid of food which is about to expire. They mark it down by 30%, 40%, 50% and a lot of it goes! This new policy will last two weeks and then reality will set it....
The article is right, this very local habit of routing through stock to find stuff with a longer date is usually very silly indeed. It's also infuriating for staff as customers put stuff with a shorter date to the back. I caught myself doing this not so long back, choosing milk with a longer date when I suddenly wondered what the heck I was doing given the milk was going to be used in two days and the shortest use by was six! Of course, that is if you can actually buy fresh milk at all, but that's another story.
I'm guessing each store will decide which items to apply the system to, based on its own experience and that it will apply to a limited number of items, like say, yogurt and other dairy products that people tend to do this with. they're not going to do it if they would tend to lose money on it, like with the prepared meals.
by the way, you can freeze butter. I buy several when it's on sale, put one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer.
Yes I freeze butter and milk, but I still prefer to freeze the freshest product.
What do you mean "very local habit"?
I do the same thing when I go to Tesco, since I'm stocking up for 6 or 12 months on some products.