A community grocery in Crewe is tackling food waste and rising costs by selling surplus supermarket stock for a flat fee of £7 per visit. John O'Reilly, head of retail and grocery at Changing Lives Together, which runs The Very Green Grocery inside its ReUse Warehouse, explained: "We are not a foodbank, everybody is welcome, everybody wants to save money and everybody wants to save good food from going to waste."
The grocery sells over-supplies, short-dated items, and products with damaged packaging that would otherwise end up in landfill. "If we don't pick this stuff up it goes in a big skip, in landfill. It's good food. We are the outlet to make sure it gets passed on," said O'Reilly.
Customers pay £7 per shop and typically leave with bags of goods worth £30–£35. Each shopper can select a set number of items from sections including fresh fruit and vegetables, tinned and baked goods, and frozen foods.
O'Reilly said he loves offering affordable food and "detests" waste. Companies contact him about unwanted stock, and his team of staff and volunteer drivers collect it within hours. "They know how reactive we can be, so literally I can get a phone call, email, WhatsApp message in the morning, and we can be there within hours."
Because the inventory depends on donations, the selection varies. "It might be the time you come down, it's 'wow, this is everything I want'. The next time you come down, it might be half of what you need and the next time it might be full again," he said.
Shopper Tamyra Milne visits every Friday and described £7 as "ridiculously good". The store, located in the Victoria Centre, currently opens Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings, with hopes to expand. "The ideal scenario would be that we were open 5, 6 days a week, the logistics issue we have is obviously getting the stock from suppliers to do that," O'Reilly added.
The charity, which also runs similar groceries in Northwich and Winsford, is seeking more retailers and distributors to donate surplus food.