Good food binned from missed Amazon orders

Adelivery driver for Amazon Prime says good food from supermarket deliveries is being binned if customers are not at home when he tries to deliver.

The driver, who did not want to be named, regularly picks up from the Morrisons store in Aberdeen and later has to bring shopping back if people are not in.

Food brought from the freezer, or in some cases items with a short sell-by date, has had to be binned.

The Press and Journal, Evening Express, Original 106 and Energy Voice are highlighting issues surrounding access to food, food wastage and food costs as part of our Big Christmas Food Appeal.

Carrying out deliveries in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, the driver said at times he was returning up to 10 bags’ worth of food a week.

As he is not employed by the supermarket, he does not have access to the refrigerated vehicles used for orders made with the store directly.

The driver says issues arise when there is no safe place to leave deliveries or products have to be ageverified and no one is in. Customers are given two delivery slots before the products are returned to the supermarket to be destroyed while a refund is arranged.

He said: “I had 10 bags of shopping that I returned

and they were pretty heavy bags and a lot of them were frozen food.

“It just sickens me because there’s so many people in a lot of trouble this year, being unable to feed themselves.”

The dad-of-three condemned the wasted food and suggested if the food was returned quickly it could instead be donated to foodbanks to help those in need.

While most supermarket delivery vehicles would have fridges and freezers installed in vehicles, selfemployed drivers usually use their personal vehicles.

Chilled or frozen foods are packed with ice packs but any chilled and frozen products returned are binned as they cannot be resold or re-delivered.

The driver suggested Prime members should be fined for the wasted food if they could not be in for their chosen two-hour slot.

He said: “If they got fined or charged, then at least the money they pay could be donated to a charity.

“Morrisons staff are disgusted by it as well.”

An Amazon spokesman said wasting food only happened in a small number of cases.

He said: “Customers can pick their own two-hour delivery slot, and – if they can’t answer the door – we will leave the groceries in a pre-agreed safe place.

“In a very small number of cases, the order will have to be returned to our delivery station, for example if it includes alcohol and we can’t check the customer’s ID.”

As part of the Big Christmas Food Appeal, The Press and Journal and Evening Express have been working to highlight the work of foodbanks like Silver City Church.

We’ve also launched some drop-off points for donations across Aberdeen, Inverness and Elgin or there’s a JustGiving page donations can be made to.

We have been reporting on the cost-of-living crisis and breaking down the stigma around foodbanks, while making sure those in our communities know where to get help when they need.

If you know of any initiatives going on in your community that we have not covered please let us know at livenews@ajl.co.uk

WASTED: Undelivered Amazon Prime food orders are being discarded because they cannot legally be re-sold.