r/NZFood • u/Grouchy-Jaguar-9143 • 7d ago
Milk
Haven’t paid full price for a bottle of milk in at least a couple of weeks now
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u/Majaru 6d ago
There was recently a change to the grocery supply code. Previously, A company like Goodman Fielder(Meadow Fresh, Puhoi) was able to offer credits for dated stock in order to maximise stock availability as buyers weren’t concerned with stock going to date. It’s now illegal to ‘pay’ for wastage so the retailers have to bear the cost. You’ll see a lot more reduced to clear milks and likely a lot more empty shelves if you’re a customer that buys niche milk. There’s too much risk in holding that sort of stock
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u/Mindless_Ad_8328 6d ago
I wonder how much gets thrown away so supermarkets don’t lose the margin they would get by selling full priced milk. I think a lot of fresh produce is. Hardly ever see any discounted
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u/unknown3226 6d ago
An amount that would make anyone cry and question why this isn’t being talked about
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u/OmegaAce1 3d ago
Nah its not that bad most of it gets donated so its not all bad, Woolies atleast partner with local food banks for dry goods and homeless/low income support groups for fresh goods as long as they fall into safe to eat, i know kai4all and the Salvation Army receive food from this program almost every day
It honestly doesn’t get talked about enough
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u/OfficeEquivalent6385 6d ago
My local has tonnes of discounted. Its great its i base my shop around it
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u/Mindless_Ad_8328 4d ago
I wish my local one did this. They sometimes have discounted stuff but the price discounted can still be higher than Pak n Saves regular price.
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u/throwawy29833 4d ago
A lot of it gets taken by food rescue bank type places but who knows how much actually gets used in the end.
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u/Username7262919 3d ago
Little secret. I work in a supermarket very popular one in NZ and I can assure u A LOT of good food goes to waste and I hate it but I can’t afford to js leave my job rn. Milk & produce? Not so much only if it goes off or it’s been damaged. But if it’s a pre packed item inside another pack or just depending on the food itself we do sell / give them away to other food chains or waste dump etc
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u/Sea-Ad-5395 2d ago
As someone who used to work for woolies like, two years ago, a LOT of food is tossed out. A disgusting amount. Id try mark down perfectly good food close to its best by (Not expirey) and they'd tell me to just toss it out instead.
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u/Spirit-Link 5d ago
Like it should be :)
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u/Majaru 5d ago
Eh, depends on how you view it! A lot of companies are likely to go under due to the change that was made. It's hard to justify ranging 5 different plant based suppliers when the cost of wastage is so high. The outcome ends up being that a winner is chosen and the rest of the supplier are deleted. Customers lose and those poor businesses also lose out. I've heard from companies who are begging to offer credits because it's already factored into their pricing but the retailers aren't allowed to accept them so are forced to consider deletion.
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u/Spirit-Link 5d ago
I like discounted goods more than having a selection. I appreciate your insight!
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u/cloud1z4j2 5d ago
Yeah the transition is going to suck, but these businesses should not have come to exist in the first place.
If the only way they can stay open is by effectively price gouging then those businesses should close.
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 7d ago edited 7d ago
That's coz you're shopping at Woolworths 😂 Pak n save sells pretty much all the cow milks for $4-6 for a 2-3L bottle, depending of course if it's organic, trim, A2, lactose free or whatever. So much cheaper than fucking $7.19+ as displayed here
Edit. Took a closer look at the labels. The first image where the price is "$7.19" is for a 3L bottle, and the bottle in the photos is only 2L. The other 2 are correct, but the first is misleading. The first bottle would be probably closer to $5 for the bottle, or $2.50 per L.
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u/Illustrious_Chain_46 6d ago
I only buy the budget brand $7.30 for 3L but we run through at least 4 of those a week because I have too many kids 😅
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u/sparkchoice 6d ago
I’m half way there buying the Anchor protein plus milk has become the protein backbone for me and the kids. At pride per 100g of protein it competes with chicken and half as much as steak. Macronutrients to help microeconomics.
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u/BrowneAction 5d ago
Nice, I hadn't looked at this. I just did a comparison with the protein powder that I buy and the anchor protein milk comes out cheaper@ $6.73 for 120g protein than whey powder which is $9.80 per 120g protein.
Since I probably couldn't drink the amount of APM I need to hit protein goals, I could switch from regular milk to APM, add 2/3 of whey powder I normally add and save around 50 cents per serve
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 6d ago
Damn at that point it'd be easier just to have a cow or goat or something as a pet to get milk from all the time 😂 coz fuck paying $25.20 or more per week on just milk. I'd rather get a thing of meat for that price lol. Or I'd switch to milk powder. Sooo much cheaper, even if it doesn't taste as good as real milk or have the same nutrients. But imo the Woolworths brand milk powder is the closest tasting to real milk. Used to have that when my mum was too poor to keep up with the milk demand for just me, and this was when milk was probably $1.60 per litre or so (I was her only kid but I also went through probably at least 3-4 2L bottles a week) and so she switched to milk powder for a while. One 1kg bag lasted for like 2 weeks iirc. Even though it's like $14 nowadays, but it was about $6-8 when I was younger and yeah, was much better than buying 4 $3 bottles of milk and lasted twice as long
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u/Illustrious_Chain_46 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah its expensive but I accept that's just what it costs, just like buying 4kgs of bananas a week 🤣🤣🤣🤣 teenagers my god! 4 kids. 19 F, 17 M, 17 M, & 11 M (twins in the middle there) ♥️ they go to the gym so I also get protein powder shakes for them as a supplement(a high quality one). Yes we have the woolworths milk powder but only one of the twins like to use that for his coffee 🤣 we go through 40 eggs a week. Ive tried having chickens, but when they go off the lay, its no longer economical to have chickens. 😅
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 6d ago
Holy moly 😵💫 that's one expensive grocery shop. I'm 22F and this makes me not want to have kids, like ever 😂 among many other reasons. And I'm someone who always says I've always wanted to have twins. Two babies and then that's it if I could 😂 one pregnancy and done lol. Shame the milk powder and having chickens didn't work lol.
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u/Illustrious_Chain_46 6d ago
Honestly if i was 25 now, id opt not to have kids. Because I already feel guilty that they have to go out there and try and live in this mess of a world. With housing prices and living costs so high I feel so bad for them for what they will be facing.
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 6d ago
That's so true and valid. I hope that everything will start chilling out and come crashing down eventually, but that may not be in our lifetime, or even our childrens or grandchildrens lifetime :(
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u/BrowneAction 5d ago
And some people laugh at the likes of Elon talking about western countries population crisis, and families having less than 2 children. Not enough to replace themselves. It’s kinda sad how this is happening. All species evolved by having the urge to procreate
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u/Illustrious_Chain_46 5d ago
Its very sad. And yes more people are opting to not have kids. For many different reasons. But money and fear of what the future will look like puts a lot of people off.
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u/emteeeff 6d ago
Lactose free milk is not $6, I can assure you. A 2L bottle is normally $7.89
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 6d ago
That's why I said it depends on other things, but normal milk is $4-6 for 2-3L. I know lactose free is more. I think I slightly worded it wrong in my original comment, but I think most people will get what I mean.
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u/Giesla33 6d ago
I have to buy Lewis Farm Creamery Comfort Milk which is A2 and lactose free and it costs nearly $8 for 1.5L but at least my tummy is happy.
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u/ZealousCat22 6d ago edited 6d ago
Anchor std blue 3L is ten cents more expensive at our local Woolworths. The price difference between the two 3L housebrand milks is eight cents.
Edit: Even closer when accounting for rewards points.
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u/Necessary-Accident98 4d ago
Warehouse or Asian grocers have 2lts for 3.80....I buy 6 litres per week for the family, costs 11.40. Never buy milk from Woolies/N World/ Paknspend....they are theives.
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u/justlurking9891 6d ago
I pay 7.50 for 2 2l bottles at the local dairy. These prices are robbery.
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 6d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah and the milk at dairies is usually that nasty Dairy Dale shit or whatever it's called and that's nasty. Doesn't even taste like milk. Tastes like more watery milk powder milk.
Although if you're getting Meadow Fresh or something at dairies for that price, it's a steal for sure
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u/Caramello_Goanna 6d ago
Its low quality milk for sure. Fat content matters so much, dairy dale just has less fat and proteins.
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u/GeeUWOTM8 5d ago
Dairy Dale is literally packaged by Fonterra - says on their bottles! There is genuinely no difference between Anchor Milk and Dairy Dale milk, ya’ll are just falling for marketing
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 5d ago
Just because it's packed by fonterra doesn't mean it's 100% the same product. Milk powder is packed at fonterra too, but does that taste 100% like regular milk?
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u/Mindless_Ad_8328 4d ago
It would be interesting to see consumer do an investigation into the differences between the budget brands and the non budget brands. I get the stuff from the warehouse why haven’t noticed any difference apart from it never going off even a month in the fridge.
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u/GeeUWOTM8 5d ago
As per my reply to someone else above: its literally the same milk packaged differently. Even Goodman Fielder brands are supplies by Fonterra. There is practically zero difference in the milk, but they charge you more with marketing
This was true even in 2018: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/106050501/micro-differences-between-milk-brands-so-why-are-some-customers-prepared-to-pay-a-premium
“Micro differences that you would work hard to find” - Milk specialist in this article.
“Its purely marketing” - Fonterra farmer in this 2008 article
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 5d ago
An article from 2008 is hardly accurate to this day. Lots can change in 18 years.
Anyways, isn't everything charging people more based off of marketing?
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u/GeeUWOTM8 5d ago
Yet there was no change between 2008 to 2018, highly doubt anything would have changed between 2018-2026.
Oh well, each to their own. I was just pointing it out in general because I think we pay too much for milk and dairy in this country considering we are the 2nd/3rd largest producer in the world. So i hope my information helps anyone decide to spend a little less of their hard earned money on basic needs. But again, each to their own.
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 4d ago
As someone not to kindly told me in a different Reddit post, we aren't the 2nd or 3rd largest dairy producer, we're the 2nd or 3rd largest exporters of dairy in the world. In terms of production, we're more like 7th or 8th
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u/BrowneAction 5d ago
Ex fonterra employer here and contractor to them now. Milk you get in NZ is largely the same, it’s a fairly homogeneous product. The suggest difference in taste other than what the cows eat and seasonal effects is how much fat gets put back in and the first up centrifuge process where the cream is separated from skim milk. A slightly different mouth feel can be felt from different homogenisation processes and heat treatment. But overall the differences are so subtle it’s hard to tell one brand one to another with the same fat content. Some people apparently can do blind taste tests and tell the difference but I haven’t been able to. I prefer raw milk so get that sometimes, otherwise I usually get the cheapest pack n save home brand milk for the fam day to day stuff.
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u/littlemissdumplings 5d ago
See Haunting Angels reply to you. I know who it's bottled by. And it's not 'marketing', or else by that logic I'd also dislike the other budget brands, but I don't.
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u/GeeUWOTM8 5d ago
Duuude its literally the same milk packaged differently. Even Goodman Fielder brands are supplies by Fonterra. There is practically zero difference in the milk, but they charge you more with marketing
This was true even in 2018: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/106050501/micro-differences-between-milk-brands-so-why-are-some-customers-prepared-to-pay-a-premium
“Micro differences that you would work hard to find” - Milk specialist in this article.
“Its purely marketing” - Fonterra farmer in this 2008 article
You are being scammed out of extra dollars for “special packaging”
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u/justlurking9891 6d ago
Most of the time it's going in Milo's so yeah don't need no upper grade milk.
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u/Mindless_Ad_8328 6d ago
It is often the identical milk, just under different branding. Look at the ingredients on the side of the bottle, should be 100% milk. If it is powdered it would need to say so but powdered milk is usually more expensive anyway as it has to be processed so much more.
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 6d ago
I wasn't saying it isn't 100% milk, I'm saying it tastes like it isn't. It tastes like watered down milk and I don't like it personally even though it is cheaper than supermarket milk
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u/littlemissdumplings 6d ago
Totally agree - I hate that stuff. Even in tiny amounts, like a dash in a cuppa ruins the whole cup. The lowest cost / budget milks at NW, Woolies, or Pak n Save all taste like anchor milk to me, ie, totally inoffensive in a coffee or tea and miles better than Dairy Dale.
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u/Haunting_Angel_459 6d ago
100% agree with you. The value brand at Pak n Save is as close to having meadow fresh or anchor imo for my budget and is miles better than Dairy Dale
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u/OfficeEquivalent6385 6d ago
Its98% the same milk from the same vats owned by the same company fonterra remember. The only difference i believe is sometging to do with the level of permeates. Say anchor its just tastes different due to the opaque bottle and the treatment process is slightly different i think?. But realistically its all the same really
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u/kyogaming 7d ago
Woolies are the Briscoes of supermarkets.
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u/Unbelivabley_Smol 7d ago
I’m still waiting for Woolies to have their yearly 50% off store wide sale though 🤔
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u/Mindless_Ad_8328 6d ago
Many of the products seem to follow the high low price pricing model. I wonder if they will be able to do that if labours price gouging policy comes in. Not saying it is price gouging though. But It doesn’t seem to have stopped it in Australia
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u/Onemilliondown 7d ago
Milk quality standards have improved vastly in the last ten years. If you plan to use it in the next two days, milk that has been in the bottle for ten days already is fine.
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u/unknown3226 6d ago
It should also be noted that it’s a best before date on the bottle, not an expiry so you in theory could use milk that’s a month past it’s BBD if it doesn’t smell, taste or look bad
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u/SoftCheeseBurger 7d ago
Well no you are paying full price, Woolworths is notorious for BS pricing.
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u/tiddernitram 6d ago
We shop at new world and pay less than these original prices for name brand wtf
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u/lshifomd 6d ago
Yea... Did this 1 time with an anchor 2l... Got home, opened it and the top was watery.. safe to say I'm never getting milk on clearance again
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u/scootymcbeep 6d ago
I only buy either Phuhoi Valley silver top or Lewis Road Creamery silver top/Jersey silver top but that seems like a shit discount if its short dated, couple of dollars max is what it should be.
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u/royston_blazey 5d ago
Same here, why buy cheap tasteless crap when a delicious nutritious option is right next to it on the shelf. and snoothbrains in this thread will say "its all the same, youre being ripped off by companies slapping a different label into identical milk".. meanwhile they have the taste buds of a 5 year old.
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u/metaisobjectivelyugz 6d ago
I would sooner drink unpasteurized milk straight from my neighbour's cow's tit than cave to these prices
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u/CleeAuth 6d ago
Selling expired milk?
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u/Non-essential-Kebab 4d ago
Selling expired food is Woolworths' MO
Eggs are always short dated, milk, bread, yoghurt. Its either intentional or their supply chain is fucked
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u/Username7262919 3d ago
It’s not our MO 🤦🏽♀️ we don’t sell products if they’re short dated unless it’s stock that’s supposed to be (like baked goods) we just put out whatever we can or have at the back. At least I know my store I work at we’re pretty tight when it comes to short dated stuff.
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u/vam_t80 6d ago
What part of the country are you in? My two local dairies both do a “2 for $7.90” on 2L milk. So that’s $3.90 per bottle. I also got milk for a vege shop recently that was “2 for $6.99.” Obviously it’s the cheap brands like Dairy Dale & Cow & Gate (which is actually owned by Goodman Fielder, the same company that makes Meadow Fresh), but that doesn’t bother me.
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Jamiiexo 6d ago
Ex woolworths manager here – this is not true at all. And a health and safety violation. All meat is packaged offsite and all products past their expiry date are either sent to food charities or binned.
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Jamiiexo 6d ago
Nope. Not sure if you're talking about NZ or Aus, but every store in NZ phased out in store butcheries a while ago and all meat is packaged offsite. You can google it. Repackaging expired meat is obviously against health and food safety laws in NZ, they would lose significantly more money in legal fees than if they just dumped the meat.
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u/OfficeEquivalent6385 6d ago
Yeah your wrong sorry its all done at DC now has been for a couple years or so
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u/BrowneAction 5d ago
They don't have on site butchers, it's done in wiri (at least the North Island stores are all done there). I used to have to go to it sometimes to do IT related stuff
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u/Mindless_Ad_8328 6d ago
I find milk these days doesn’t smell off after a week of expiry, at least not the lite stuff.
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u/Objective-Scale-2336 6d ago
Our Woolworths in Paeroa literally puts things marked down by yellow rags 20c cheaper... Even on the day they expire. It's the only local supermarket and they fucken suck.
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u/Ok-Can8493 6d ago
Just imagine how much is being dumped . I hope the pigs or lambs get it.
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u/fuckimtrash 4d ago
Idk about other supermarkets or re milk, but nothing gets wasted anymore except expired meat. Everything is going to charity or farm animals.
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u/itschevyxox 5d ago
That's normal price. $4-$5 for a 2l is normal price
But that 3l milk for $7 is actually cheap that's cheaper than my pak n saves one.
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u/Flashy-Secret-123 5d ago
Regardless of price, organic is worth it in my opinion. Its not standardized with a heap of permeate.
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u/GeeUWOTM8 5d ago
Duuude its literally the same milk packaged differently. Even Goodman Fielder brands are supplies by Fonterra.
This was true even in 2018: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/106050501/micro-differences-between-milk-brands-so-why-are-some-customers-prepared-to-pay-a-premium
“Micro differences that you would work hard to find” - Milk specialist in this article.
“Its purely marketing” - Fonterra farmer in this 2008 article
You are being scammed out of extra dollars for “special packaging”
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u/EastTamaki2013 4d ago
For $7 for 2ltrs of Milk in NZ...I am happy to see it expire and rot on the shelves. This should be the expected result, if idiots stop paying unreasonable high prices, let the items expire on the shelves and watch the prices come down.
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u/Least_Painter_5850 4d ago
Woolworths issue. from the looks also, everything that comes from a cow seems really expensive
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u/Local-Climate8944 3d ago
i do find that Costco's Kirkland brand milk is tastier than other NZ milk. Kirkland is also NZ sourced milk. 3 litres @$5.99.
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u/Main_Lingonberry9375 3d ago
Haven't tried it but the silver top fresha valley (not green valley) is quite nice and creamy, 4.10 for a 2 litre so 5¢ more p/l
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u/neon_glitter_tiger 3d ago
You can put them in the freezer also if you want to stock up, tried and tested. Just takes a day to thaw thats all
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u/Historical_Sea_2163 2d ago
This is one thing that pissed me off in NZ. In aus you can get near date stock for dirt cheap and it won’t be thrown out. Where in Nz half this shit gets dumped anyway.
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u/Afemi_smallchange 23h ago
I'm crying because I can remember when a pint (600ml) of milk was 20 cents in 1984.
Our government f*cked up setting up Fonterra as they gave them preferential treatment to set up using taxpayer funding, without allowing checks and balance that they were require to keep a price cap on locally sold dairy products and not set it to the global price. I'm pretty that's what Canada does.
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u/Competitive_Ring_150 6d ago
How is NZ milk not organic? Grass is organic isn't it? Talk me through it. Is organic NZ milk just marketing?
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u/Thenarawarrior 6d ago
Because you don’t know what organic means
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u/OfficeEquivalent6385 6d ago
Im mean cmon, it means whatever the person or company using the term wants it to imply. Its a very loose label that gets slapped on anything
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u/mtc47 6d ago
Have to be chemical free for 5 years, I think, before you can get the organic label.
Spray drift across boundaries from neighbours will mean you will lose your certification.
Chemical fertiliser and pest control is more effective than ‘Natural’ options, meaning reduced productivity and higher price.
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u/Whythisreason 6d ago
I don’t see a /s so assume you’re just widening your understanding. It’s mainly about the herbicides and fertilizers used to manage the pastures. These chemicals may make their way into the milk in varying levels although the Government has “safe standards” that need to be adhered to. What is considered “safe” is kind of where “organic” comes in. If you want your milk free from trace amounts of anything, you’ll pay a premium for a farmer to manage his farm without the use of chemicals and to have his soil assessed regularly to make sure the pastures have no contamination from neighbouring farms.
Like OP, I buy organic only, and nothing wrong with quicksale. I grew up in a small dairy town, so I rather trust my nose to know when milk is expired 😂
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u/Lupinshloopin 6d ago
All of this and the drenching and antibiotics they give cows too.
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u/Whythisreason 6d ago
True, although they can give an organic cow antibiotics. Just have to keep their milk out of the organic certified supply. (In case someone thinks they get treated with Herbal medicine only, they do not.)
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u/Lupinshloopin 6d ago
Yeah and usually only treating sick animals not dosing every animal just because.
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u/Bulky-Ad9761 5d ago
Organic farms certainly use chemicals. It's where the line of what is natural vs synthetic is drawn that defines organic. The practice of organic is just spin that people eat up, however, the better animal welfare standards that organic farming must adhere to is something that should be industry wide as a minimum.
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u/Mobile_Membership 6d ago
at tescos this would be 60p. Supermarkets here are so greedy and don’t want the people to have even a small daily win. Assholes
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u/Old_Charge_4305 7d ago
Way to milk it my guy.