A pioneering ‘redistribution supermarket’ has opened its doors in Edinburgh yesterday.
All the food sold within The Company Shop is in date and perfectly good to eat but is deemed “surplus” and may have otherwise gone to waste due to incorrect or wonky labelling, seasonal packaging or overstock – amongst other reasons.
Members of the shop members can bag bargains on products from the likes of M&S, Tesco and Waitrose and get up to a whopping 70% off the normal price.
The surplus stock would've otherwise ended up in landfills across Scotland - the company have been redistributing surplus food for five decades to prevent unnecessary food waste.
One innovative way they save food from landfill is to take large quantities of chilled stock with short shelf lives and blast freeze them ('chill to freeze'). They then resell them as frozen products.
Membership of the Company Shop is totally free, but it's only open to people who work in the food manufacturing industry, as well as current and retired NHS, Police or Fire Service workers.
The new discount store is located at Dumbryden Road, Wester Hailes and is expected to benefit over 20,000 members, helping to stretch hard-working family budgets whilst protecting the environment by reducing unnecessary waste.
