Great news from Maine: In her Diner’s Journal blog, Julia Moskin wrote about a local grocer that finds a way to use up most of what it stocks. Oh, those frugal Mainers!
Moskin’s reported details on Rosemont Markets, a kind of outtake from her piece on Portland’s food scene, seem so obvious in hindsight:
When the local concord grapes on the shelf are past their prime, they go into the commissary kitchen and come out as Zippy Grape Jam. Bananas turning brown? They are peeled, dipped in chocolate, and sold frozen — and local kids eat them up.
Quite a few supermarkets do some repurposing. Many places–even Costco!–turn rotisserie chicken into chicken salad. But I’ve not seen any store do it as creatively as Rosemont (and I’d love to hear about some of their other tricks).
There are many, many opportunities for supermarkets to use goods they won’t sell. For instance, stuff that’s reached its “sell-by” date. With more and more grocers making prepared foods, hopefully this trend will flourish. It would seem to be in a market’s bottom line interests to stretch their foods.
Yet, repurposing does require time from one or more of the store’s workers. The three other barriers that prevent most places from doing so (and must be overcome):
1. Lack of imagination
2. Lack of time/effort
3. The fear of anything not perfectly fresh and the subsequent banishment to the trash.
(Hat Tip: Serious Eats and Diana Foss)
4 Comments
thanks you totally helped me out with my debate case
This is great stuff. I could see someone persuading Whole Paycheck to do this. I wonder if some stores lack the facilities to execute some of these ideas. Even so, a manager or regional rep should be able to show that the profits from selling repurposed food outweigh the increased personnel costs.
The key word is *should* be able to show that they’ll save money from this. Any place with a deli counter and a bakery should have the facilities. Whether they have the knowhow and interest in doing so is another question.
That’s really great! That’s similar to stuff that I would do in my own kitchen to prevent food waste, and it’s delightful that a grocery store is being so imaginative.