For some reason unknown to me, there is a supermarket near to our house that when a line is discontinued or whatever, they reduce the price of their products to a matter of pennies, remove all the labelling from them and leave them there. If you go with the hand scanners that you can use in supermarkets, and you scan the products you see without labels on them, you can legitimately put products into your trolley that have had a 99.999% reduction. According to my friend, this is perfectly legal and legitimate - but she says you have to be careful not to be caught with the products because they can say "Oh that wasn't for sale" and take it back. The fact that you have to be covert about it makes me think it's not as legal and legitimate as she says it is. Nonetheless, every couple of months she shows me her latest haul, and sometimes it can be really valuable things like home products and expensive chocolates, and she paid only a few pence for loads. To me it feels like this might be classed as stealing, but then I don't know why the store leaves these products there. I wonder whether maybe they remove the labelling and then wait until the store closes before taking them off the shelves. Or whether there's some law which means they have to leave them to sell for a miniscule amount before disposing of them. Does anyone know?
It doesn't sound like a fun way to shop. From what you say it looks like the store was preparing if for wastage and staff usually do this and then go back to collect the items to dispose of them. Most stores do this, but the staff member usually takes them with them on a trolley, but if they have lots to do, they may leave them and go back for them.
Pretty crafty but in the same way dishonest. You're buying something that may not be for sale, but your friend takes advantage from that legal matter and buy it without asking first. Claiming ignorance is the perfect alibi when caught.
Honestly, I've never encountered such items in our local grocery. It seems a bit illegal though per your story. What bothers me though is that the store itself removed the labels and left it in the aisles. That's a bit weird, if it isn't for sale, then they should have removed the items from the aisles. They could get sued as well if the items are past the expiration date. Why would they dispose of these items if they're still perfectly good? Like you said, there's a fine line between bargaining and stealing especially on this case. Your friend might not be openly breaking the rules but she is doing something that isn't allowed by the law as well. It's like, it isn't explicitly said that she cannot buy it but it also isn't explicitly said that she can buy it. Lol. Now I'm confused as well, haha! As for me, I cannot answer your question as I don't really know what these products are for and whether we can really buy them for these huge discounts. The only way to know is to ask the store manager himself.
I think the problem is I would be risking my friendship with my friend if I was to go and sabotage one of her favourite pastimes! She actually plans set days and times to go to the supermarket and walk around with the scanners, looking for things which don't have labels. I've known her to go into a supermarket for a few hours at a time with nothing else planned but scanning for penny bargains. If I went and highlighted the issue to the manager and he put a procedure in place to remove things from shelves faster, my friend would be devastated!
I have a feeling that they are trying to dispose of those items instead of letting them expire and go to waste? That's why they have removed the labels? For all you know, your friend is getting expired products at the risk of her health.
Possibly but often they are either seasonal products which are being taken off the shelves like Easter Eggs, or actually home products like one time she found two huge boxes of high quality A4 printer paper for 1p each. Also she uses a trick where if a product scans at a different price than the label, she pays for it and then takes it to customer service to say she was overcharged. They have to refund her the difference, doubled. So if she finds a product that scans for twice as much as the label says it should be, they actually pay her to buy it.
