Discounts 'devastating for diet'
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A new discount store selling junk food will feed our growing obesity epidemic by encouraging bad eating habits, dieticians say.
Reduced To Clear has arrived in Wellington, selling products - some past their best-before date - at half the price or less when compared with supermarkets and dairies.
Rongotai's store, which opened yesterday, is the second in New Zealand.
Directors Sean Hills and Andy Vermeulen say they are helping reduce waste and offer cheap alternatives in a tough economic climate. "We see it as helping the manufacturers as well, because it's stuff they'd dump otherwise," Mr Vermeulen said.
Mr Hills said a lot of customers at their South Auckland store were from communities where treats were rarely afforded, and were happy to be able to buy novelties for children's birthday parties.
One of their major stockists is Cadbury. Cadbury spokesman Daniel Ellis said the company did not recommend selling products after its best-before date, but had an arrangement with Reduced To Clear its only such deal to sell excess stock. "Generally the supermarkets won't take it because they can't sell it in time."
Nutritionists and health activists have criticised the deal and the shop, saying it is irresponsible to offer cut-price junk food to an increasingly overweight nation.
Fight the Obesity Epidemic's Robyn Toomath, a Wellington Hospital endocrinologist, said the new store was sending the wrong message to consumers.
"It's an encouragement to buy food they wouldn't normally buy, because it's 'value for money'," Dr Toomath said. The Government should not allow market forces to make junk food a more attractive option than it already was, and should subsidise healthy foods like fruit and vegetables.
"It fills me with dismay."
Nutritionist Sarah Burkhart said the lolly shop atmosphere of Reduced To Clear would be devastating for dieters.
"It's a matter of, if you don't think you can be sensible when you go there, you should stay away," she said.
Mr Vermeulen said the store was trying to expand its market to include more health foods.
"We are starting to get more groceries in. In Auckland, people used to go to the supermarket then come to our shop, now they're coming to ours and then going to the supermarket."
Mr Vermeulen said dairy owners often turned up at the Auckland store looking to on-sell their products at a mark-up, but Reduced to Clear had a policy against re-selling.
"We catch out a dairy owner about once a week, they usually give themselves away. One said he was buying 12 boxes of V for his daughter."
SHELF LIFE
Reduced to Clear stocks products that display a "best-before" date not a "use-by" date and can still be sold at a later time, but that supermarkets will not take. Some of its stock is sold weeks after the best-before date, but Andy Vermeulen says there are no health concerns and products are regularly checked for quality.
A date mark indicates the end of a food product's shelf life. Shelf life is the time that food can be kept before it starts to deteriorate. Manufacturers are responsible for determining the shelf life of their food products.
Foods should be consumed before the date mark expires to ensure the food's safety and quality.
Most packaged food products with a shelf life of less than two years require a date mark.
Food can be sold beyond its best-before date provided it is still fit for consumption, but food with a use-by date must not be sold after that time.
The label on a package of food must state any storage conditions needed to keep the food at its best.
- By STACEY WOOD, Dominion Post
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Stop whining, the boys at the college near by love the place, sure our deputy principal and principal disapprove of it, but we go as a cheap alternative to the expensive lunches they sell at school
Dear Pam, clearly not the sharpest tool in the vege garden. Please leave serious debate to others who are actually passionate about the future of New Zealand. A bit of a contradiction saying you don't care about my opinion, but feeling the need to leave a immature comment unrelated to the story. I give up. Good luck living in your little bubble of denial.
Hazel I am unsure why you are taking my comments so personally? You have consistently missed the point and therefore we cannot debate the actual issue. I am not sure where you read that I said "they represent their whole community"? You cant make up things just to argue your point. If you cannot see there is a problem in this country with obesity related health problems, you need to read some reports. I mean did you actually read this story and Robyn Toomath and Sarah Burkhart's comments? These people know the real effect of shops like this. Also when I said "look beyond your own backyard", this saying means taking a look at the wider community - so not sure why you when off on your rant about what you were taught as a child? Obviously your children are not the ones my husband sees on a daily basis with weight related health issues. I guess your view reflects that of many New Zealanders who don't want to be part of the solution.
i have been reading through the comments, especially the comments between Hazel & Julie. TO JULIE...you need to get a life and in regards to the reply you said about Cutie Pie using 'F.Y.I.' please look at your own comments where you seem to favour "You Have Failed"... this must be the only way you get excitement in your life by critising the lower-class eating habits....and before you have a fat cry and go all keyboard warrior on me i dont care about your opinion so save the strength for your veggie garden.
julie you talk about me making generalisations about you yet in your first comment you put "People dont take care of themselves esp people from lowerclass areas,Who have no idea of whats good for them. They spend all of there money on junk food make their kids fat then want to be looked after by the health system".In that sentance you have just said ,more or less, if you come from a lower class area this is how they feed there kids. Who do you think you are saying that in the first place. It is people like you who lump a few people together, stick a label on them and then say they represent their whole cummunity. Dont tell me to look beyond my back yard I was brought up on a farm my mum taught me how to bake, grow veges, and which plants are good for all types of useful things and she comes from a lower class area. She and my family know what is good for them as do others in their lower class area of which they have a great influence.I have visited this shop they also sell things other then sweets maybe even you may get a surprise. I wish you well
marshmallows and buzz bars yummy, have to go this weekend.
I cannot believe the audacity of Mr Hills to comment that the community from South Auckland rarely bought "treats", my god what planet is he on. It is an out right lie that he thinks people on low incomes aren't buying large amounts of junk food. I wonder how the owners sleep at night?
DavidC, #29. I'm in Italy on 3 months work at the moment and you don't see any fat Italians. Additionally, there are a lot of perfectly healthy old italians walking around who would be in homes if they had lived in New Zealand. Stop making up rubbish.
I love chocolate! At the moment, I am pregnant, and although haven't had many cravings, Kitkats have been one of the ones I am getting (along with flavoured milk). So yeah, I eat alot more chocolate than what is good for me.
So far, I am completely healthy, as is my baby, and what's more, I am almost 7 months pregnant, and have not had any significant weight gain. How do I do it you ask? I have an active job, and like to ice skate lots, (also known as exercising!)
I love veges too, and when I visit the supermarket, I try to get what I can, but $4 for a head of brocolli, when its a dollar for a bag of chips is ridiculous! We need to do something about the high price of veges, so more low income families can afford them.
I wish there was one of these stores in Chch, so I could stock up on Kitkats!!
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Hey Meh ever heard of making your kids lunch at home? Actually cheaper than even buying stuff at Reduced to Clear. Not surprising that the Principal and Deputy disapprove ...... obviously intelligent people who are employed in an important position.