Shortly before Christmas, I popped in to the Company Shop in Bradford, and picked up a basket of groceries for only £8.
Company Shop is a surplus supermarket, and sells discounted groceries sourced from excess stock from other supermarkets. Inside, you’ll see some branded products, and also own-label products from the likes of Ocado, Lidl, Tesco and Asda. Stock ends up at the Company Shop either because mainstream supermarkets have over-ordered, or because they have large quantities of stock which is very close to its use by date.
Consequently, what’s on offer can vary widely from day to day. Most fresh produce tends to be short-dated, so ideally things that need to be cooked and/or eaten the same day. So it’s handy to pop in on a day when you can be open-minded about what to cook for dinner that day. However, it’s not a supermarket where you can rely on a fixed shopping list. For example, there was plenty of cheese on sale when I went, but it was small blocks of fancy cheese with added fruit and not plain cheddar for cooking with.
Other reasons why stock makes it to the Company Shop include:
- The packaging is slightly damaged, so expect to see plenty of dented cans of things. If that doesn’t bother you, then you can pick up some real bargains.
- Products from failed, missed or returned deliveries.
Some food is sold frozen, and there are also homewares on offer as well as food.
Locations
There are currently 13 Company Shop outlets across England and Scotland. The majority of these are across the north of England and the midlands, as, like Greggs Outlets, they’re concentrated in areas with low incomes. There isn’t a Company Shop in London, for example, and the only store in the south is in Southampton. Back in November, a Metro reporter went to the Southampton store and wrote about her experience.
Company Shop membership
As with Mordor and Costco, one does not simply walk into the Company Shop. You need to be a member, and, like Costco, there are eligibility requirements. I was able to join through my employer, and many public sector and charity workers should be eligible. You can also join if you are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits, such as Universal Credit. The whole ethos of Company Shop is about widening access to groceries to those from low incomes, so unlike Costco, membership is free.
Members can bring a limited number of family and friends along with them, and can share their membership with up to two other people who do not necessarily need to meet the eligibility criteria.
On my visit, I picked up two boxes of my usual breakfast cereal, two litres of long-life lactose free milk (good until April), some onions, oranges and potatoes, some short-dated crisps and some dishwasher rinse aid. Like I said, all that came to around £8 – indeed, the crisps were 10p for a bag of six.
Whilst we’re a fairly high income household, I’m sure we’ll drop in to the Company Shop every now and again when we’re in the area with the car. We picked up some genuine bargains there, and, most importantly, all the food got used. And that’s better than it all going to waste.