My Lidl bargain!

They put them near the tills to make sure people don’t add or swap better stuff in from the fruit and veg aisle. They are good value and if our Lidl has them I would buy one - it lessens food waste.

Primrose53

How do you know that a person is poor? My neighbour is loaded and owns 2.5 houses but dresses in old washed out clothes, has wild hair and looks like a bag lady. She is an absolute skinflint though and buys the cheapest of everything in tiny quantities. If anybody saw her in Lidl rooting through the cheap boxes you might wrongly assume she is poor.

Exactly. And so what if she's 'comfortably off' anyway? She could be cooking for a soup kitchen, or might simply like a bargain, and attracting the better off, who are likely to spend more (or maybe not in your neighbour's case) will be in the interests of the store.

If the boxes were intended as charitable donations they could be made as such, but as it is, they are just 'end of line' type offers, and are available to any customer who wants them.

The idea of people wandering round supermarkets judging how well-off other customers might be has really irritated me for some reason, and I very rarely go in them - I shop online 😀

I’ve never seen them in our local Lidl either. Will have a closer look next time.

sassenach512

Our Lidl put them on the shelves where you pack your shopping ViceVersa a bit daft I think because you're on your way out by then and not inclined to go back around the shop with a box

Yes, I know that's where they put them (which I also find a bit odd), but I've still never seen one in my local Lidl. Maybe it depends when different stores put them out?

I have always thought that a bit strange too but I believe people have been known to add to them on the way round. There are always a few who cheat and spoil it for the rest. I think one per customer is fair.

Our Lidl put them on the shelves where you pack your shopping ViceVersa a bit daft I think because you're on your way out by then and not inclined to go back around the shop with a box

I've never seen the boxes in our most local Lidl - and I'm just back from there this morning, although I have seen the odd one or two when I've been in branches in the Edinburgh area.

I said that judging by appearances was irrelevant and, frankly, I find it abhorrent.
You replied
It’s relevant because somebody implied that people should not pick up more than one box of reduced fruit/veg and they should be left for poor people. Short of questioning them there is no way of knowing and none of us would presumably do that
Well obviously nobody is going to means test a bargain box! even thinking about it!
Are you proposing policing this?
My suggestion was one box per customer. Simples. Non judgemental, self regulating. If people choose to come moe than once it might indicate their need.

MawsRosie

Primrose53

How do you know that a person is poor? My neighbour is loaded and owns 2.5 houses but dresses in old washed out clothes, has wild hair and looks like a bag lady. She is an absolute skinflint though and buys the cheapest of everything in tiny quantities. If anybody saw her in Lidl rooting through the cheap boxes you might wrongly assume she is poor.

I really don’t see the relevance of this at all.
Of course we should not judge on appearances and I would not in any case presume to judge or otherwise, anybody rootling through the bargain boxes.
What a thought

It’s relevant because somebody implied that people should not pick up more than one box of reduced fruit/veg and they should be left for poor people. Short of questioning them there is no way of knowing and none of us would presumably do that.

Sago

Wow!

So our local garden centre is huge and has a wonderful free play area and a soft play for a nominal charge.

It is very much a family destination and free to get in.

It is walkable from our nearest market town and in a bus route.

These places are not the preserve of the wealthy.

My apologies Sago it was Monica who made the comment, suggesting that Garden Centres attracted the better off.
The quote facility can be misleading and perhaps I am easily confused

Primrose53

How do you know that a person is poor? My neighbour is loaded and owns 2.5 houses but dresses in old washed out clothes, has wild hair and looks like a bag lady. She is an absolute skinflint though and buys the cheapest of everything in tiny quantities. If anybody saw her in Lidl rooting through the cheap boxes you might wrongly assume she is poor.

I really don’t see the relevance of this at all.
Of course we should not judge on appearances and I would not in any case presume to judge or otherwise, anybody rootling through the bargain boxes.
What a thought

Wow!

So our local garden centre is huge and has a wonderful free play area and a soft play for a nominal charge.

It is very much a family destination and free to get in.

It is walkable from our nearest market town and in a bus route.

These places are not the preserve of the wealthy.

How do you know that a person is poor? My neighbour is loaded and owns 2.5 houses but dresses in old washed out clothes, has wild hair and looks like a bag lady. She is an absolute skinflint though and buys the cheapest of everything in tiny quantities. If anybody saw her in Lidl rooting through the cheap boxes you might wrongly assume she is poor.

Surely with the likes of bargain boxes a limit of one per customer would not be unreasonable? That way everybody gets a chance not only those with large car boots.

I think Sago may be on shaky ground with generalisations like poor people are less likely to go to garden centres however.

Sago

M0nica

I see those boxes in Lidl, but I have never bought one because we are comfortablly off and I feel I ought to leave them for families for whom these cut prices boxes are a godsend when they are struggling to manage on a small income.

However, if I saw them at a Garden Centre I would probably snap one up.

Presumably then poor people don’t go to garden centres.

I feel like I have had a ticking off.

No, why should anyone be ticking you of?

I think poor people are less likely to go to garden centres because they are usually in out of town locations that require customers to have a car to access them. They are generally expensive for everything including plants, so why visit if you have no spare money to spend?

petra

One problem for customers who really might need the boxes is that they don’t have transport. Catch 22 😥

Agreed. We've seen advice on here for those who are hard up to get boxes of fruit and veg from local markets in late afternoon, based on the fact that the advisor lived near one when her children were young, was available at that time of day and could, presumably, drive home with them in the boot, then convert them into 'nourishing soup'. Now the poor are supposed to buy bargain baskets that the 'comfortably off' generously leave for them in Lidl.

It's so short-sighted, and ignores the fact that many people in need of benefits are now working full-time, not everyone has a car, many HA or council estates are not in town centres where supermarkets are situated, and the attitude that they should be marked out by being the ones buying reduced items would further stigmatise them. In a food bank everyone there is struggling so nobody stands out, but at least in theory everyone in a supermarket is equal - if reduced items are supposedly for 'the poor', anyone buying them will be marked out as not 'comfortably off'.

One problem for customers who really might need the boxes is that they don’t have transport. Catch 22 😥

I always look at the reduced section to see if there's something I would use. It's for customers and I'm a customer.

Yes, why a Garden Centre but not Lidl?

Are GC’s full of affluent people?

M0nica

I see those boxes in Lidl, but I have never bought one because we are comfortablly off and I feel I ought to leave them for families for whom these cut prices boxes are a godsend when they are struggling to manage on a small income.

However, if I saw them at a Garden Centre I would probably snap one up.

Presumably then poor people don’t go to garden centres.

I feel like I have had a ticking off.

I've made 7 jars of raspberry jam today. My DH bought 12 packs last night as Co-op were almost giving them away. That will keep us going for a while.

There are people shopping in M&S who are on tight incomes, too.

There are a lot of assumptions on this thread, I think. I have no idea whether my fellow shoppers (in whatever store) are comfortably off or otherwise, and I wouldn't presume to wonder whether other shoppers were worse off than I am.

I wouldn't buy food I couldn't use, but if I could use or freeze it and the price was low I would be happy to get two of whatever it was, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy a lot of something like knitting yarn if it were on offer. If I had two bargains it may be that I would pass one on to a friend or neighbour, or I may not - much would depend on what it was.

Grandmadinosaur

Primrose53

Grandmadinosaur

It’s not often I see them when we’ve been to Lidl. I wouldn’t dream of buying more than one.

Why not?

Because I’d only buy what I could use and one would be sufficient for our needs. I also think it’s a little bit greedy ie last week in Asda there were 4 tins of soup reduced to 11p. I bought 2 and left the rest for someone else.

Some people buy one for themselves and buy another for a neighbour.

Doodledog

They are for sale because they will go off soon, not donations to a foodbank!

I know they are not donations to a food bank, but there are people shopping in Lidl who are on very tight incomes. I have seen people handing items back because they do not have enough money.

This comfortably off person shops in Lidl because it is the supermarket nearest to my house, only a couple of hundred metres away and the other supermarkets in the town centre are not as big and do not have the same range of goods.

I do mop-up shopping at Waitrose, M&S, Iceland and Pound Stretcher, depending on what item it was I could not get at Lidl.

In the area of the country we lived in previously I shopped almost exclusively in Waitrose, the local market and farm shops. Waitrose was in the town centre while other foods shops were scattered all around the place in remote locations. Where we are now the town centre is well supplied with food shops, but the market is poor and expensive and there are a lack of farm shops in the immediate vicinity.

My only consideration when doing the weekly shop is convenience.

Our Lidl is excellent for fruit and veg. I haven't seen the boxes for a long time. Maybe they've stopped doing them.

We have a 'community fridge' in our town where for £1.50 you can fill a supermarket basket with whatever goods are about to go out of date. It's not just for those on low incomes. It's also so prevent food waste.

I sometimes pick up an M&S sourdough loaf or some exotic food stuff. There were dozens of tubes of truffle pate once.
I don't feel guilty at all. We are saving it from landfill.