Takeaway: Traditionally, grocers ascribed one of two categories to their food – fresh or stale – and any inventory in the latter category was discarded.
However, some retailers have recently discovered that their customers see residual value in older food and online grocers are selling these items to consumers with a lower willingness to pay than the average shopper.
As marketers maximize profits by finding new markets for these perishables, one must wonder who’s hanging out at the far end of the demand curve.
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Excerpt from FastCompany, “Questionable Trend of the Week: Expired Grocery Food Trading” by Ariel Schwartz, January 22, 2010.
Fresh groceries are just so expensive. Perhaps that’s why sites that sell out-of-date items have become so popular. One British site reported a whopping 500% increase in sales from December 2008 to the same time in 2009. Most of the goods sold on these discount sites are past their “best-before dates” but not the “use-by” dates, and have been bought at knocked-down prices from wholesalers, suppliers and supermarkets.
Once consumers get past the “ick” factor, they’ll discover that expired Hershey’s chocolate or canned tuna tastes the same as the fresh stuff. Expired food is cheap, too — some analysts estimate that customers save 75% compared to average retail prices.
So far, it seems like the trend is limited to the U.K., but the U.S. has the same problem with expired-but-good food being tossed into the trash on a daily basis. Would you turn down a slightly expired cart of groceries if it would save much-needed cash?
Edit by BHC
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Full Article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/questionable-trend-week-out-date-grocery-food-trading
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The Homa Files 
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