The 'Tremendous' Tales of Tightfistedness Thread

[djchapsticks]

9 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

One time my dad was visiting from Oz, we went into M&S for some food and he saw the rather sizeable reduced section. £6 dishes reduced to 50p etc.  He cleared out every single item that was freezable as if Supermarket Sweep was back on the box.

I made the mistake of being in M&S at Braehead at about 7pm one night picking up a sandwich for work the next day.

Now, I had no idea that in M&S, there gets a cut off where everything perishable reduces by about 80-95% to clear it that night. As I stoated in, the shop was quite quiet....as it approached this bewitching hour though, the lad started putting out the cheap sandwiches, the deli counter stuff etc....I sauntered over to have a look and it was like fucking day of the dead behind me. Pensioners coming out of every nook and crannie to find a cheap slice of that manky ham with egg in it.

[Sergeant Wilson]

18 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

I made the mistake of being in M&S at Braehead at about 7pm one night picking up a sandwich for work the next day.

 

Who thinks that far ahead?

Edited March 19, 2019 by Sergeant Wilson

[lichtgilphead]

21 hours ago, tamthebam said:

this wasn't your grandfather by any chance....?

You're right. Jonesy wasn't my grandfather. Clive Dunn couldn't hoist a dead deer onto a tripod if he tried.

Edited March 19, 2019 by lichtgilphead
Autocorrect fuckup

[101]

being frugal is fine like turning off the lights when you leave the room, being tight is awful like making folk sit in the darkness so you don't run up a bill.

Pubs expose a lot of tight fistedness but I thought it was fairly standard practise to, have rounds and only get a more expensive drink when its your round.

[Bairnardo]

Who thinks that far ahead?

Rugster does. Thats when he fires the toast in the fridge.

[Cardinal Richelieu]

15 hours ago, djchapsticks said:

I made the mistake of being in M&S at Braehead at about 7pm one night picking up a sandwich for work the next day.

Now, I had no idea that in M&S, there gets a cut off where everything perishable reduces by about 80-95% to clear it that night. As I stoated in, the shop was quite quiet....as it approached this bewitching hour though, the lad started putting out the cheap sandwiches, the deli counter stuff etc....I sauntered over to have a look and it was like fucking day of the dead behind me. Pensioners coming out of every nook and crannie to find a cheap slice of that manky ham with egg in it.

I tried to buy a sandwich in the Co-op that had been heavily reduced and was one day past its use-by date. They refused to let me buy it even though I said I don't mind it being out-of-date. They then threw it in the bin in front of my very eyes. 

[Honest_Man#1]

46 minutes ago, Cardinal Richelieu said:

I tried to buy a sandwich in the Co-op that had been heavily reduced and was one day past its use-by date. They refused to let me buy it even though I said I don't mind it being out-of-date. They then threw it in the bin in front of my very eyes. 

Whilst this is obviously a disgrace overall, you can’t really blame shops for doing this. Unfortunately with the state of things as they are with lawsuits for the most frivolous of things being so common, they can’t give any chancers any excuse to try to make quick cash.

[I'm Brian]

52 minutes ago, Cardinal Richelieu said:

I tried to buy a sandwich in the Co-op that had been heavily reduced and was one day past its use-by date. They refused to let me buy it even though I said I don't mind it being out-of-date. They then threw it in the bin in front of my very eyes. 

If it's a use by date they can't legally sell it. 

The safety of the food can only be guaranteed until the day that was on the item. After that there is a potential food poisoning risk.

 

[Rugster]

I've seen this happen in a Co Op and they physically couldn't sell it as when they tried to scan the barcode (without realising it was out of date) the EPOS system refused the sale and wouldn't let them process it.

[DA Baracus]

25 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

Whilst this is obviously a disgrace overall, you can’t really blame shops for doing this. Unfortunately with the state of things as they are with lawsuits for the most frivolous of things being so common, they can’t give any chancers any excuse to try to make quick cash.

This.

When I worked at Iceland we had to chuck a horrendous amount of food in a skip at the end of each day.

Folk would rake through the skip so a lock had to be put on it.

The lock was frequently broken so the skip had to be locked then wheeled up behind the store to a small brick 'compound' that had a thick metal gate and heavy lock.

Most of the food was perfectly fine but was a day past it's sell by date. Horrendous waste but seemingly it was to ensure that the company didn't get sued from folk getting ill from it.

[Cardinal Richelieu]

Aye, I agree with all this. Just seems like a waste of what was likely a perfectly good though slightly stale sandwich. Cannae believe you had to go to such measures DA to stop people getting at the binned food. There's out of date food, then there's food that's been festering in a manky bin for hours. 

[I'm Brian]

3 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

This.

When I worked at Iceland we had to chuck a horrendous amount of food in a skip at the end of each day.

Folk would rake through the skip so a lock had to be put on it.

The lock was frequently broken so the skip had to be locked then wheeled up behind the store to a small brick 'compound' that had a thick metal gate and heavy lock.

Most of the food was perfectly fine but was a day past it's sell by date. Horrendous waste but seemingly it was to ensure that the company didn't get sued from folk getting ill from it.

They are legally obliged to do this though. It isn't about getting sued.

From Gov.UK

Quote

Show the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date

You must usually show either a ‘best before’ or a ‘use by’ date on the packaging or label of pre-packed food products.

Only show a ‘use by’ date where there is a safety issue with eating the food after this date. It’s a criminal offence to sell food that’s past its ‘use by’ date.

Certain foods must have a use by date due to them going off and having a risk of pathogenic micro organisms. (Salmonella, listeria etc) 

All food companies who make perishable food items will conduct shelf life testing to ascertain how long the food will be safe for. And depending on those results will determine the use by date on the packet. It wouldn't be fine as you suggest because lab results will tell you that it isn't. Otherwise it would have a longer use by date.

[philpy]

In aldi a few weeks ago, one of the workers was scanning a load of reduced meat through a till, turns out it was getting taken to Edinburgh zoo for some of the animals. I can just see a lion with a hangover munching away on some black pudding and sausage right Enough...

[Melanius Mullarkey]

The amount of tatties I had to chuck into the compressor skip at the back of Asda when I worked there as a lad would make an Irishman cry. 

[KnightswoodBear]

When I was at school I worked part time in Safeway.  Occasionally there would be loads of bread that was out of date that would get put in the skip out the back at the end of the night.

The skip had big doors that were padlocked shut at night, and it was in a yard out the back with a 15 foot high wall and gates surrounding it.  One of the managers used to take great delight in pouring bleach over the bags of bread in the skip to stop "junkie b*****ds getting it".

I always thought that if a junkie, or anyone else for that matter, actually managed to scale the wall and get into the locked skip for a loaf of bread then they had earned it.

[Brother Blades]

Apparently in France it's illegal for shops to chuck all the stuff past its sell by, they have to donate it or find some other use for it.

Fucking EU!

[hk blues]

On 18/03/2019 at 22:28, NewBornBairn said:

...when my mum realised she didn't have bread to make me a sandwich for the plane...

 

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, KnightswoodBear said:

When I was at school I worked part time in Safeway.  Occasionally there would be loads of bread that was out of date that would get put in the skip out the back at the end of the night.

The skip had big doors that were padlocked shut at night, and it was in a yard out the back with a 15 foot high wall and gates surrounding it.  One of the managers used to take great delight in pouring bleach over the bags of bread in the skip to stop "junkie b*****ds getting it".

I always thought that if a junkie, or anyone else for that matter, actually managed to scale the wall and get into the locked skip for a loaf of bread then they had earned it.

There was something similar in the papers about Iceland years ago - one of their managers was so furious about people taking out-of-stock food from the bins that he tried to have someone prosecuted for theft. The bad press they got was enough for them to start giving away the old stuff to people who needed it.

I don't get that mentality at all. How on Earth do you see someone raking in bins for discarded food and feel anything other than pity?

[coprolite]

3 hours ago, I'm Brian said:

They are legally obliged to do this though. It isn't about getting sued.

From Gov.UK

Certain foods must have a use by date due to them going off and having a risk of pathogenic micro organisms. (Salmonella, listeria etc) 

All food companies who make perishable food items will conduct shelf life testing to ascertain how long the food will be safe for. And depending on those results will determine the use by date on the packet. It wouldn't be fine as you suggest because lab results will tell you that it isn't. Otherwise it would have a longer use by date.

You aren't allowed to sell it past its date. 

You can give it away when the shop is shut on the last day. 

There is nothing to compel anyone to take extreme measures to stop people recovering unsold food from the bin, except moral hazard and not wanting smelly folk hanging around the shop. 

[The Moonster]

On 18/03/2019 at 15:44, Shotgun said:

I see it's been mentioned up-thread that it's invariably the most comfortably off who are the tightest-fisted. Now, you could make the argument that this is why they're comfortably off but in my experience, many of them seem to enjoy the game of cheating people with a fraction of their resources. Just because they can.  

Agree with this. My ex's family were awful for it. They lived in quite a nice house, all 4 members of the family had a car each and they liked to spend money on expensive holidays and loved forking out "brand" stuff (my ex bought an iphone despite preferring a different model and bought one of those stupid wee Audi A1's instead of a similar car for half the price). But, head out for dinner and the tables turned.  I lost count of the times the father/grandad got money off a meal or a free round of drinks and it utterly disgusted me.  They would complain about anything, temperature of the food, flatness of the beer, dirtiness of the plate/table, music too loud, poor service and they would make sure their complaint was loud enough for another table to hear. They didn't really want the money off or the free drinks, it was all about grandstanding to the others at the table. I always sat there hoping the waiter would dip his cock in his meal.