I work in a supermarket and I can tell you, the amount of food we waste now has increased incredibly over the past 10 years, and it’s only going to get worse. When I was a manager my target was £500 waste and markdowns. That same dept now at £3000.
Why? The company has staff to the absolute minimum and so staff that are left cut corners to get the food on the shelf. Deliveries aren’t fully worked. Stock isn’t rotated any more. There is next to no stock management to control volumes. It’s left out of chill for too long. It gets damaged at the depot and then thrown into deliveries.
There is no literally direct management to achieve waste targets or to maintain any sort of standards and the managers that come and go aren’t trained in even the most basic of company policies and are focused entirely on their own career progression which for some reason isn’t tied to how well they operate their depts.
The result is not hitting targets and a cut to the payroll which makes things worse.
Appreciate you providing some more insight! Even if it serves to confirm the insidious nature of food waste. I wonder honestly if more governmental restrictions and penalties surrounding this kind of thing would be enough to push these, let’s face it, massive corporations to do something about the waste.
Millions of tonnes of wasted food against the backdrop of millions going hungry both on and off the streets. How can we call ourselves a developed country?
I work in a supermarket and I can tell you, the amount of food we waste now has increased incredibly over the past 10 years, and it’s only going to get worse. When I was a manager my target was £500 waste and markdowns. That same dept now at £3000.
Why? The company has staff to the absolute minimum and so staff that are left cut corners to get the food on the shelf. Deliveries aren’t fully worked. Stock isn’t rotated any more. There is next to no stock management to control volumes. It’s left out of chill for too long. It gets damaged at the depot and then thrown into deliveries.
There is no literally direct management to achieve waste targets or to maintain any sort of standards and the managers that come and go aren’t trained in even the most basic of company policies and are focused entirely on their own career progression which for some reason isn’t tied to how well they operate their depts.
The result is not hitting targets and a cut to the payroll which makes things worse.
Appreciate you providing some more insight! Even if it serves to confirm the insidious nature of food waste. I wonder honestly if more governmental restrictions and penalties surrounding this kind of thing would be enough to push these, let’s face it, massive corporations to do something about the waste.
Millions of tonnes of wasted food against the backdrop of millions going hungry both on and off the streets. How can we call ourselves a developed country?