Morality purchase? Why Danish shoppers are snapping up expired food.
Denmark opened its first food waste supermarket last month, and it is proving to be a big success.聽
Volunteers at WeFood, a brainchild of Danish NGO Folkekirkens N酶dhj忙lp, pick up food from large supermarkets that has either passed its official expiration date or has aesthetic imperfections and bring it back to the Copenhagen-based store. All products sold at WeFood are 30 to 50 percent cheaper than their wholesale counterparts, attracting both low-income bargain hunters as well as environmental and socially-minded advocates.
And WeFood has had a hard time keeping its shelves stocked.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 fantastic. It shows that people want to buy the goods,鈥� Per Bjerregaard, the press officer at Folkekirkens N酶dhj忙lp, tells The Copenhagen Post. 鈥淚鈥檓 not quite sure that we have time to restock everything for tomorrow 鈥� .鈥澛�
The first day of sales, Feb. 23, saw between 800 and 900 transactions, says Bjerregaard. If WeFood continues to see success, Folkekirkens N酶dhj忙lp says it will open similar stores across Denmark.聽
Each year, Danes throw away over 1.5 billion pounds of food. And with , or 12 percent of the world鈥檚 population, going to bed hungry every day, even the Danish waste alone could make an impact.聽
And while WeFood is not Denmark's first food waste supermarket, but according to Bjerregaard it is the first one aimed at the general public.聽
鈥淲eFood is the first supermarket of its kind in Denmark and perhaps the world as it is not just aimed at low-income shoppers but anyone who is concerned about the ,鈥� Bjerregaard tells The Independent UK. 鈥淢any people see this as a positive and politically correct way to approach the issue.鈥澛�
The recently resigned Danish Minister for Food and Environment, Eva Kjer Hansen, tells The Independent that she supports WeFood鈥檚 solution.
鈥淚t鈥檚 ridiculous that food is just thrown out or goes to waste,鈥� says Hansen. 鈥淎 supermarket like WeFood makes so much sense and is an important step in the battle to combat food waste.鈥�
All profits from the food sold at WeFood is used to support anti-poverty efforts around the world.聽
And even before WeFood, the Danes had made a name for themselves as a leader in food waste prevention. According to last year, the Scandinavian country now wastes 25 percent less food than they did five years ago. This translates to 35 pounds of food saved per person per year.聽
Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joes, opened up an initiative similar to WeFood last year in Boston. The nonprofit grocery store Daily Table serves Dorchester鈥檚 low-to-middle income families with safe, healthy food that didn鈥檛 sell at larger food markets.聽
And last month, France introduced a new law that . If caught wasting food instead of donating it to local food banks, stores could face over a $4,000 fine.聽
But WeFood is especially exciting, because it proves Danes will shop for discounted, expired food because of moral obligations, not just financial ones.聽
鈥淚f you call it a 鈥榮ocial supermarket,鈥� it鈥檚 difficult to get customers to go there. Who wants to be poor?鈥� Bjerregaard tells NPR. 鈥淚f you want to stop [the] waste of food,聽.鈥澛�
