A small detail in this Coles photo has customers fuming: 'Happens every day'
- Replies 29
What’s your biggest pet peeve while grocery shopping? For many, it’s the rising costs of essential items, and others would say it’s the long queues at the checkout or the lack of stock.
But for one shopper, it’s finding a rogue item tucked away in an unlikely aisle. According to them, this ‘laziness’ results in ‘thousands of dollars’ worth of food waste.
We can all relate to the frustration of seeing food go to waste. And it’s no secret that some shoppers can be a bit reckless when it comes to leaving items behind in our supermarkets, as a photo taken inside a Coles store in Perth recently demonstrated.
In it, boxes of washing powder can be seen piled up on several shelves, but among the products were also a loaf of bread and two bananas.
‘I don’t understand why it’s so hard to just put the items back where they were rather than dumping them in the cleaning aisle,’ the poster wrote on Reddit.
‘I get that some people are lazy or in a rush, but it’s only a 20-metre walk most of the time,’ they continued.
The statement clearly struck a nerve with exasperated customers and supermarket employees alike, who shared their experiences in the comments section.
One staff member from Woolies wrote: ‘The amount of bananas I find scattered around the store is nuts. Some people leave things around because it’s funny; some leave things because they’re lazy.’
‘I work at a supermarket, and all day, every day, this happens,’ another responded.
‘Just yesterday, I found two packets of frozen fruit sitting on a display of biscuits that was next to the frozen fruit! It breaks my heart because that’s $15 down the drain, and we can’t donate it or sell it. Straight to the bin,’ they continued.
Others agreed that leaving chilled items elsewhere is a ‘low act’.
‘The bananas don’t bother me as much as people who leave freezer/fridge items in the aisles. They’re the real jerks,’ one explained.
Another agreed and said: ‘Especially when it’s something pricey like meat, ... (and) when there is a fridge very close by.’
Someone else jokingly shared that they become ‘homicidal’ whenever someone puts a cold item on top of a fridge or a display next to it.
‘These are the same people who won’t walk the trolley the 10m to the trolley collection bay but instead dump it to roll around the car park into someone’s car,’ one stated.
‘Worse is when it's a whole chicken, which I've seen before. Like that bird lived and died so some lazy person could dump it on a shelf so it could get chucked in the bin,’ another one replied.
However, not all social media users agreed with the poster’s statement. One person insisted that it was up to the supermarket staff to return the items.
‘They have workers who will put it back. Nobody is going all the way from laundry to fruit to put back a banana,’ they wrote.
Others took the opportunity to joke around in the comments.
‘You don’t add a banana to each wash?’ One quipped.
‘How else are you supposed to know how big the packets are without a banana for scale?’ Another replied.
Food wastage in supermarkets is very common, not only because of the dumped stock (or people leaving behind items in aisles where they don’t belong) but also because produce sometimes doesn’t fit the supermarket’s ‘cosmetic standards’.
According to figures from the Department of Environment, Australians waste the equivalent of 312 kilograms of food per person annually, costing the economy an estimated $36.6 billion a year.
This comes after reports that supermarkets throw out food ‘by the tonnes’ if the shape or size is not considered ‘perfect’ by their standards.
The report into food security recommended the government impose restrictions on the major retailers that would limit the amount of produce rejected and sent to waste.
Have you ever seen items left around the supermarket? Tell us about it in the comments below!
But for one shopper, it’s finding a rogue item tucked away in an unlikely aisle. According to them, this ‘laziness’ results in ‘thousands of dollars’ worth of food waste.
We can all relate to the frustration of seeing food go to waste. And it’s no secret that some shoppers can be a bit reckless when it comes to leaving items behind in our supermarkets, as a photo taken inside a Coles store in Perth recently demonstrated.
In it, boxes of washing powder can be seen piled up on several shelves, but among the products were also a loaf of bread and two bananas.
‘I don’t understand why it’s so hard to just put the items back where they were rather than dumping them in the cleaning aisle,’ the poster wrote on Reddit.
‘I get that some people are lazy or in a rush, but it’s only a 20-metre walk most of the time,’ they continued.
The statement clearly struck a nerve with exasperated customers and supermarket employees alike, who shared their experiences in the comments section.
One staff member from Woolies wrote: ‘The amount of bananas I find scattered around the store is nuts. Some people leave things around because it’s funny; some leave things because they’re lazy.’
‘I work at a supermarket, and all day, every day, this happens,’ another responded.
‘Just yesterday, I found two packets of frozen fruit sitting on a display of biscuits that was next to the frozen fruit! It breaks my heart because that’s $15 down the drain, and we can’t donate it or sell it. Straight to the bin,’ they continued.
Others agreed that leaving chilled items elsewhere is a ‘low act’.
‘The bananas don’t bother me as much as people who leave freezer/fridge items in the aisles. They’re the real jerks,’ one explained.
Another agreed and said: ‘Especially when it’s something pricey like meat, ... (and) when there is a fridge very close by.’
Someone else jokingly shared that they become ‘homicidal’ whenever someone puts a cold item on top of a fridge or a display next to it.
‘These are the same people who won’t walk the trolley the 10m to the trolley collection bay but instead dump it to roll around the car park into someone’s car,’ one stated.
‘Worse is when it's a whole chicken, which I've seen before. Like that bird lived and died so some lazy person could dump it on a shelf so it could get chucked in the bin,’ another one replied.
However, not all social media users agreed with the poster’s statement. One person insisted that it was up to the supermarket staff to return the items.
‘They have workers who will put it back. Nobody is going all the way from laundry to fruit to put back a banana,’ they wrote.
Others took the opportunity to joke around in the comments.
‘You don’t add a banana to each wash?’ One quipped.
‘How else are you supposed to know how big the packets are without a banana for scale?’ Another replied.
Food wastage in supermarkets is very common, not only because of the dumped stock (or people leaving behind items in aisles where they don’t belong) but also because produce sometimes doesn’t fit the supermarket’s ‘cosmetic standards’.
According to figures from the Department of Environment, Australians waste the equivalent of 312 kilograms of food per person annually, costing the economy an estimated $36.6 billion a year.
This comes after reports that supermarkets throw out food ‘by the tonnes’ if the shape or size is not considered ‘perfect’ by their standards.
The report into food security recommended the government impose restrictions on the major retailers that would limit the amount of produce rejected and sent to waste.
Key Takeaways
- A photo taken inside a Perth Coles store showing misplaced food items sparked customer complaints about wasted food and laziness.
- The post received support and agreement from exasperated customers and supermarket employees.
- Many commenters specifically condemned leaving chilled or frozen items out of their proper storage areas.
- One Reddit user argued that supermarket staff should be responsible for returning misplaced items.