MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Waitrose, in its attempts to be a ‘premium’ food store and offer freshness are, IME, the worst for over-packaging. But before I take my argument to the store manager and leave the excess plastic at their customer services desk, I need to get my facts straight:
Aside from products such as pasta which are in a bag to contain them, does food/other products arrive, unwrapped, at the packaging facilities?
What are the marginal gains/cost savings achieved by overpackaging them for the short period of time they’re on the shelves?
Presumably there’s a cost to packaging so, from a commercial perspective, the food store could save money by not packaging in plastic?
Alternative multi-pack packaging such as recycled cardboard trays/those things that hold multi-pack beer cans/food tins?
What are the marginal gains/cost savings achieved by overpackaging them for the short period of time they’re on the shelves?
People are willing to pay a lot more for the same thing if it's packaged on a tray wrapped in a bit of plastic. A lot more than what the packaging costs. They think it is somehow premium over the loose unwrapped stuff right next to it.
Someone on Facebook was ranting about the packaging on some food they purchased.
I think the irony of that must have been missed.
Playing devils advocate:
Presumably there’s a cost to packaging so, from a commercial perspective, the food store could save money by not packaging in plastic?
Unless there is a benefit to the packaging that outweighs the fraction of a penny cost of the plastic? eg. does an apple in plastic last longer? is an apple on a tray less likely to get damaged in transit or in the store? does it make sure that the right bar code is on it at the till and it is less likely to be sold as a potato (or some other lower cost product)? If products are wrongly coded at the till (even a Cox's apple being sold as a Bramley) what are the costs of the product being out of stock - and the automated supply chain management tools not working? is it quicker to restack shelves of wrapped product than loose stuff? is it easier to manage your stock room with structured pack sizes? You need to consider the entire cost of ownership - not just the polythene.
And from a counter intuitive environmental argument - could it actually cut down on waste - because one might buy a tray of 4 apples rather than a bag of six?
However it is much more likely that the typical waitrose shopper has proved themselves willing (through data waitrose have collected from actual sales) to pay more for a product with excess packaging, because of its perceived value. The problem is not fundamentally the vendor - its the demand side of the equation.
I think they are all as bad as each other. It does make me angry when we are constantly nagged to use less plastic and yet supermarkets just pump the stuff out wrapped up like pass the parcel. Its already a nightmare trying to work out which product is slightly less likely to give you type 2 diabeties or bowl cancer without simultaneously juggling with the least packaged option.
As for cost, most supermarkets pass packaging costs on to suppliers - in fact you wouldn't believe what they do to suppliers including charging them for promo's (i.e we are going to reduce the price of your product in a special offer which will cost us £100,000 over a 1 month period so please write a cheque for that amount to moneygrabbing supermarkets r us.)
Waitrose are bad yes, but this morning they have released a statement saying by next year all soft plastic packaging will cease and they’ll provide bio-degradable alternatives..
So the threads kind mitigated somewhat.
So the threads kind mitigated somewhat.
Wow that was quick. Waitrose must be Lingscars.com and monitorring STW (not surprising really - they probably want to know when someone posts a nutritional advice for cyclists and there is going to be a rush on Quinoa and Beetroot salad from Audi driving Woodburner owners who pretend to be concerned about the environment.
The worst offence by far that TBF to Waitrose, all the big supermarkets indulge in; is the sale of the half cucumber.
wrap an entire cucumber in heat shrink cellophane, then cut that in half, then drop the two halves into another heat sealed cellophane wrapper...madness.
Waitrose are bad yes, but this morning they have released a statement saying by next year all soft plastic packaging will cease and they’ll provide bio-degradable alternatives..
Bloody hell the power of Singletrack never fails to amaze me.
Marks and Spencer’s is even worse than Waitrose.
Aldi is bad of fruit and veg packaging. Hardly anything is loose
What is the 'biodegradable' packaging made out of? And if you chuck it in the bin, how long will it take to actually biodegrade? It still wastes resources manufacturing it etc.
Why does a 6-pack of baked beans, that costs less per tin, need plastic wrap holding them together in groups of six?
Why does a 4-pack of 2l pop bottles, costing less per bottle, need plastic wrap holding them together?
Why does a cucumber need to be wrapped in plastic?
Why does a promotional metal tin of Gold Blend coffee need the coffee beans to be inside the standard plastic refill bag?
Why does a bunch of bananas, costing less per item, need to be sold in a plastic bag?
Many businesses don't give a flying **** about the environment and what's worse, they encourage those of us trying to keep costs down to but the less eco-friendly options... It's so wrong! 😡
In 2018, most if not all tills should be smart enough to let you scan enough individual items of a product to make use of a "buy in bulk" offer.
Many businesses don’t give a flying **** about the environment
Yet consumers keep giving them their money and the electorate keep voting the same old politicians and parties in who do f all about it. No one gives a shit, that's why. From time to time we like to pretend we do but reality is we never back it up through action.
Aldi is terrible for it too, pretty much no loose fruit or veg at all.
before I take my argument to the store manager and leave the excess plastic at their customer services desk
you don't need a fully-referenced handout for them. Just say you don't want the packaging and leave it there (literally and figuratively)
Morrisons tend to be pretty good on packaging.
You can now even take your own tupperware/ice cream tub du choix for collecting your fresh meat or fish without any packaging from the store. They just put a weighed price sticker on the lid for scanning.
Waitrose are lousy not just at packaging but "over preparing" grub. They're one notch below M&S. Tricky buying unmolested ingredients.
No one gives a shit, that’s why. From time to time we like to pretend we do but reality is we never back it up through action.
Sad but true. I give a shit but not enough to do anything other than wait for the supermarkets to sort it out.
It is quite simple to remove plastics, we would just lose some of the options for a while. Think back to 1960's and nothing was in plastic so however it was handled then (loose food, paper bags, glass bottles with deposit etc,.) Just need to do that again which won't work for everything hence the loss of some foods (mostly pre made meals I imagine)
Aside from products such as pasta which are in a bag to contain them, does food/other products arrive, unwrapped, at the packaging facilities?
No. Generally fresh produce is cut/picked and wrapped at the same time. I was on a field in the fens the other week and the time from cutting to packing was seconds. Not hours or days. Farmers use kit that they can drive onto a field and pack in the wilds. Other foods are made and packed in one unit; because it's efficient, and gives better life on the shelves
Presumably there’s a cost to packaging so, from a commercial perspective, the food store could save money by not packaging in plastic?
No, the cost of packaging is far outweighed by the increase in shelf-life meaning less food waste. Silly things like Easter eggs are far, far worse, but because they don't get all the Oh Dearists frothing, no-one notices. There's more pack than chocolate, but it's a treat, innit?
It's possible to make a pack that is sustainable, or compostable, or recyclable, but it costs more (comsumers won't pay extra for that) and because most can't be arsed reading the small print on the back of pack it gets slung in landfill anyway. All the fuss on Sky tv and in the papers about plastic in the seas is due to poor disposal of waste. If plastic sunk, no one would notice, like all the other crap that ends up in the ocean. But it's obvious, so it's easy to make a campaign on the back of it. If it was captured and recycled effectively it could be so much better.
before I take my argument to the store manager and leave the excess plastic at their customer services desk, I need to get my facts straight:
You've demonstrated that you don't know a lot, but are still prepared to make a scene in store without knowing the full picture. It's every customers right to make a tit of themselves at Customer Services;(you might get a voucher!), but it might be a better idea to get clued up on the full facts of food production and distribution.
Marks and Spencer’s is even worse than Waitrose
Absolutely this. So much for ‘Plan A’.
So a question, some packaging means that fruit and veg can be preserved better and thus last longer. So which is better packaged food with a greater shelf life or unpackaged food with a shorter shelf life and more likely to end up in landfill?
Not much packaging in my local greengrocers.
Not much packaging in my local greengrocers.
Is he making money? We haven't had one for years, then one opened and lasted about 9 months. They never got the balance right between having enough stock and having more stuff than they could sell. They cited huge wastage as one of the reasons for closing (I never understood why they didn't get creative with pickling/preserving etc the excess rather than discounting it). The other stupid thing was their opening hours - if you want to compete with tesco, sainsbury, aldi then don't open 9-5 in a predominantly commuter town.
Clearly though the answer is to stop buying stuff in stupid packaging - their data analytics would soon sort out their eco credentials if their customers voted with their debit cards.
Is he making money? We haven’t had one for years, then one opened and lasted about 9 months.
Dunno but he's been there years. Cheaper than supermarkets too. We have a great butcher too, a brilliant bakery not far up the road and several small independent taps nearby selling brilliant beers. The conglomerates can **** right off.
But that only compares how much packaging is recyclable. It doesn't compare how much packaging they are using in the first place.
We have a great butcher too, a brilliant bakery not far up the road
Is there a candlestick maker nearby too?
Morrison’s have done away with the disposable plastic bags you buy your fruit and veg in and replaced them with paper bags. But I was watching the lady making the pizzas and noticed that the cheese for the base came in individual blue plastic bags!
What is the ‘biodegradable’ packaging made out of? And if you chuck it in the bin, how long will it take to actually biodegrade? It still wastes resources manufacturing it etc.
There’s this wonderful material called Cellophane ™ © ®, naturally sourced, biodegradable, perfect for wrapping foodstuffs. I’m sure it’ll be a big hit once the public find out about it...
Biodegrable stuff doesn't always mean it's great for the environment, just that it breaks down easier but now we're finding out the little plastic pieces are ending up inside fish etc who find it easier to eat in small pieces.
Anyway, getting frustrated by supermarkets and loose veg, especially the smaller "convenience" ones. Onions in string wrap (which is plastic) vs the loose ones next to them. Twice or more the price for the wrapping, but the majority will pick that. So much so that the supermarkets drop the loose stuff.
Now finding it impossible to buy loose carrots unless I make a trip to a big supermarket or a local veg place (no such shops around me, just the market in town, which means a costly journey to drive and park). I just want one or two for a meal, carrots in a bag are dozens of the things, with wasteful packaging and carrots I'll chuck if unused. Or pay vast amount more for the bag of "I'm too lazy to peel and cut my own carrots" (not that I have to peel them as they're pre-washed now).
I was quite pleasantly surprised to find rawlplugs seem to be wrapped or boxed in minimal amounts of paper or cardboard.
I'm hilding out for wooden fibre plugs to make it back on the shelves now!