The big supermarkets are all the same - even the weekly open-air market in my town has a crusher into which perfectly edible stuff disappears - if 6 peaches in a tray of 24 are damaged, they chuck the whole tray, unless you happen to be standing by and can talk them into letting you take it away.

Little supermarkets - usually the co-op, Budgens, and the others who still have small to medium high street and corner stores - often just leave their stuff in big wheelie bins at the back of the shop, usually reachable by an access road, or a simple gate, best doen an hour or more after closing time when the staff have gone home. If you have one or more of these small supermarkets near you it can supply a large proportion of your diet (mainly baked goods, fresh produce and dairy), as long as you don't mind the diet getting a bit monotonous at times (three 2kg boxes of tomatoes at once between a small household can be a bit much...) In the past we have had an informal distribution network where anyone skipping would distribute their surplus to others. Skipped meat is probably a bad idea, but I know plenty of nostalgic vegans who consider dairy produce to be karma-free once it's passed through the jaws of a wheelie bin...Another odd side effect of skipping, I have found, is how it disinclines you to use the shops in question during daylight hours.

No, it's not sustainable, and we should be building a society without this waste, but in the meantime we might as well make use of the resource.

The Tescos on Stroud Green rd, N4 is wicked for skippin. we had a monster score there just before that little cunt jesus' birthday.
If the dumpster's empty, go in and turn the freezers off!!
Or just arm rob the fuckin place!!!
fuck it, dude...lets go bowlin'

I have for years been astounded at the waste created by supermarkets - and other chain retail outlets
At the M11 Campaign in East London we regularly filled two bike trailers or a small van with the contents of the skips of the Somerfield, Bakers Oven & greengrocers (the greengrocers being independent & run by the owner they used to leave all the stuff they couldn't sell in boxes to one side for us to collect)
This used to feed 20+ people every night
(and this was just one row of shops in an East London suburb)
Some of the other non-food shops are just as bad - in the local Woolies skip a coffee maker was found - after inspection a minute crack was found - worked perfectly - so back to another nearby woolies it went for a refund!

Many supermarkets are accessible, except Tescoes - I have never found one where you can access the skips - every thing goes into a crusher - or skips surrounded by a locked cage
However many of the really large stores will have shelf fillers working all night, so the risk of being caught is greater.

Some even resort to throwing bleach or washing up liquid over the food in their skips to stop people taking it - I have found this on numerous occaisions - one wonders what is actually going through the heads of the people that do this
- presumably the manager orders the shelf stacker or warehouse person to do it.
They try to justify their actions in making the food unuseable as well - the most common line is " we have to do it - head office say so", followed by " we have to stop people taking food, it might give them food poisoning and then they'd sue us"!!
No this is not a joke, I have heard this from several staff, at different places and times!

when trying to enter a reasonable debate on the subject, and pointing out that if a had a few grand kicking round ready to sue them do they think I'd be digging around in their skips, not to mention the fact I'm actually saving them money by reducing the cost of their waste disposal, the usual line is " well you can't, head office... etc etc"

So the bottom line is - the waste is there because they can afford to write it off against tax, because they keep the impression to the masses that they only sell 'quality' produce,( a few token items are kept for the 'reduced to clear section' to make people think the're getting a bargin) and if they gave it to the staff - well they'd just go and help themselves, wouldn't they? - And isn't giving things away against the ethos of capitalism?

Checkout Corporate Watch - they have a big section on supermarkets:

 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/profiles/food_supermarkets/supermarkets.html

How about just placing any excess skipped food in front of the shop during opening hours the next day.
Several times I've seen prospective customers take food and then abort planned trips into the store.
When staff suss it out tho, back to the skip it goes!

Good way to get back at the Supermarkets, if just temporarily.

Gnome M11, where you at Cambridge Park? no 10b here.