Some of my best friends hijacked me from Frankfurt and took me to the scenic south of Germany, to Kempten im Allgäu to spend New Year in good company
We brought along a lot of the good organic breads, apples and other goodies from Alnatura's rich dumpsters in the Bankster City. Boy did we eat well!
And then shops again due to close for a few days, over new year, and another opportunity to check regional differences, aswell as differences between the different chains.
How do they dispose of their garbage, unsaleable food items?
In the Region around Kempten, they have a chain of food stores, FENEBERG, that sells quite a few locally branded products under the name "Von Hier" (From here). Of course like any supermarket, shelves are filled to the brim, stuff almost falling into your shopping cart, clerks constantly sorting out slightly blemished fruit and veggies, abundance suggested at every turn, to entice the shoppers to buy more than they really need, eat beyond real hunger and appetite. We've become a culture of gluttons, obesity rising even in Europe
And the dumpsters are usually totally hidden. I never found a Feneberg shop that had an accessible dumpster, where a food recycler had any meaningful access, except perhaps on the day when the trash truck comes and picks up the stuff, and the bins a re rolled out onto the sidewalk, i saw that once and there was bread and stuff, but we didn't need any, neither was it organic.
Once inside such a shop i saw a bin where they had been collecting slightly damaged organic oranges, mandarins and other fruit, ready to be carted to the back of the store and dumped. I asked a cheerful friendly attendant what they do with that stuff, she replied nonchalantly "oh, this is just written off".
I must have looked a bit perplexed, because she offered a clearer statement right away "...We just throw it away".
Well that's basically what i had expected, and so i offered to buy the net with oranges where one was obviously moldy, but all others were fine, just so they wouldn't be chucked, Most people would never even think to buy them, but they offered me a 50 % discount on the bag, and so i rescued these lovely happy juice balls.
On the 31st of December we went to check out a REWE store near the train station in Kempten, my friend went in the front door, not heeding my cautionary advice, we ought to first check out the containers in the back and buy if need be what we cannot find for free.
So I was left to my own devices and was magnetically pulled to the containers behind the parking lot, basically in the open accessible to anyone who would like to have a look.
First it was this I saw when I opened the lid:
From this bin I was able to sort out 5 or 6 kg of perfectly firm and unblemished oranges, Now i had all those in addition to the 3 kg of organic oranges i had bought earlier at a downtown natural food store! Oh well, fresh pressed OJ is one of my favorites, so I am not complaining, and happily proceeded in my mission to rescue as many as I could, and even scored a kg of bananas too.
Then I went for the large blue plastic dumpster on wheels, and lo and behold, was awarded with a real jackpot of high quality "Niederegger Marzipan" all expired within the fall, the latest expiration date on the 24th of December 2009, so just about a week prior.
fortuneately I was prepared with a bunch of empty plastic bags which i always carry an ample supply of for these occasions, and just lunged in there stuffing the bags as fast as I could with as many boxes, metal cases and heart shaped tins of this delicious and decadent and really expensive stuff. I was really elated, perhaps with a pre ingestion sugar buzz.
When my friend came out of the store i awaited him gleefully by our bikes. He was shocked and delighted at once. An elderly lady locking her bikes next to ours, was also initiated into our jolly secret, and with surprise and disbelief accepted a box of specialty marzipan Bars as a new years present.
I also tried to share some with a few kids who arrived, but they kindly declined the offer, not sure if they did so because most kids are drilled to not accept gifts, foods and rides from strangers, of if the forwarded answer, that they didn't like MARZIPAN, was indeed the truth.
One thing was certain though, at home at my friends appartment we would be heroes, for his wife loves that Niederegger Marzipan from Lübeck in the north of Germany.
Later at home I added the prices of the Marzipan, as on the price tags of all the boxes and came to an astonishing 230 EUROs Total!
Most of the Candy was actually in excellent condition, there were a few rather dried out ones, but most were still tasty, chewy and moist and as good as any good marzipan I have ever eaten!
How do they dispose of their garbage, unsaleable food items?
In the Region around Kempten, they have a chain of food stores, FENEBERG, that sells quite a few locally branded products under the name "Von Hier" (From here). Of course like any supermarket, shelves are filled to the brim, stuff almost falling into your shopping cart, clerks constantly sorting out slightly blemished fruit and veggies, abundance suggested at every turn, to entice the shoppers to buy more than they really need, eat beyond real hunger and appetite. We've become a culture of gluttons, obesity rising even in Europe
And the dumpsters are usually totally hidden. I never found a Feneberg shop that had an accessible dumpster, where a food recycler had any meaningful access, except perhaps on the day when the trash truck comes and picks up the stuff, and the bins a re rolled out onto the sidewalk, i saw that once and there was bread and stuff, but we didn't need any, neither was it organic.
Once inside such a shop i saw a bin where they had been collecting slightly damaged organic oranges, mandarins and other fruit, ready to be carted to the back of the store and dumped. I asked a cheerful friendly attendant what they do with that stuff, she replied nonchalantly "oh, this is just written off".
I must have looked a bit perplexed, because she offered a clearer statement right away "...We just throw it away".
Well that's basically what i had expected, and so i offered to buy the net with oranges where one was obviously moldy, but all others were fine, just so they wouldn't be chucked, Most people would never even think to buy them, but they offered me a 50 % discount on the bag, and so i rescued these lovely happy juice balls.
On the 31st of December we went to check out a REWE store near the train station in Kempten, my friend went in the front door, not heeding my cautionary advice, we ought to first check out the containers in the back and buy if need be what we cannot find for free.
So I was left to my own devices and was magnetically pulled to the containers behind the parking lot, basically in the open accessible to anyone who would like to have a look.
First it was this I saw when I opened the lid:
From this bin I was able to sort out 5 or 6 kg of perfectly firm and unblemished oranges, Now i had all those in addition to the 3 kg of organic oranges i had bought earlier at a downtown natural food store! Oh well, fresh pressed OJ is one of my favorites, so I am not complaining, and happily proceeded in my mission to rescue as many as I could, and even scored a kg of bananas too.
Then I went for the large blue plastic dumpster on wheels, and lo and behold, was awarded with a real jackpot of high quality "Niederegger Marzipan" all expired within the fall, the latest expiration date on the 24th of December 2009, so just about a week prior.
fortuneately I was prepared with a bunch of empty plastic bags which i always carry an ample supply of for these occasions, and just lunged in there stuffing the bags as fast as I could with as many boxes, metal cases and heart shaped tins of this delicious and decadent and really expensive stuff. I was really elated, perhaps with a pre ingestion sugar buzz.
When my friend came out of the store i awaited him gleefully by our bikes. He was shocked and delighted at once. An elderly lady locking her bikes next to ours, was also initiated into our jolly secret, and with surprise and disbelief accepted a box of specialty marzipan Bars as a new years present.
I also tried to share some with a few kids who arrived, but they kindly declined the offer, not sure if they did so because most kids are drilled to not accept gifts, foods and rides from strangers, of if the forwarded answer, that they didn't like MARZIPAN, was indeed the truth.
One thing was certain though, at home at my friends appartment we would be heroes, for his wife loves that Niederegger Marzipan from Lübeck in the north of Germany.
Later at home I added the prices of the Marzipan, as on the price tags of all the boxes and came to an astonishing 230 EUROs Total!
We really suffered greatly starting the great decimation program of this candy as soon as we got home.
Perhaps most surprising again, the telltale clues that employees are not allowed to take home such stuff. ONe of the packages thrown out, and I did only take 60 % of what was there, was missing a few pieces, a s if someone had eaten some in the store, but thrown out the rest, for fear of reprisals or of even loosing their jobs.Most of the Candy was actually in excellent condition, there were a few rather dried out ones, but most were still tasty, chewy and moist and as good as any good marzipan I have ever eaten!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment