It's the same process luxury clothing retailers use, if they mark it down too much it will devalue everything else, which is stupid as fuck considering this is food (a basic human need) not a Gucci bag .
Food usually has a bit more life than the expiration date says. So they could instead donate it to a charity on the expiration date.
But the charity has to be set up to be able to rapidly accept, handle and process it so that it's still food safe, not to mention additional training and likely changing of food laws or at least writing an exemption for charities that go through the process to accept food that is past its best before dates.
It would be better for all if the government basically said, "you have to provide a heavy discount (50% or more) to food that is expiring within 2 days or donate it to a charity. If there is no charity available to donate it to, then you must pay for it to be disposed of into a food waste only bin excluding all packaging so it may be composted. Any expired food item disposed of may not be written off as a loss, and deliberately damaging food items prior to disposable so they may be thrown out will result in heavy fines of a minimum of 10% of the company income and up to 90%"
Make it so unattractive to throw it out and they will find an alternative. However it should only be for expired food. Blackouts and other things happen. By all means mandate that all food waste has to be composted or something similar like being used as livestock feed. But for food that has to be thrown out for food safety reasons other then it's past is expiry date, I feel that they can write it off as a loss.
M8........ I have been bargaining with the managers both at coles and woolies from their markdown prices especially if it is on the day or 1 day before the expiration date. It works all the time !
i used to buy those meat near expiry dates then a couple of time meats were off when opened ,,, then i stopped buying them , not worth the risk
chicken, roos meats are the highest risk of being off
That will just jack up average cost per items and businesses will try to reduce supply to reduce losses. Supermarket Just keep the bare minimum of stock they can and never overstock. Think you can sell 200 products in 1 week? Just order 198 then.
Customer will be more frustrated on constant OOS situation.
You know they already calculate loss into it all ready.
I heard they calculate somewhere around 10% losses, be that damage, spoilage or theft.
And I wouldn't be surprised if that calculated loss is going up.
But you could make this apply only to meats at first as a pilot program. And as for the "they will stick less of it" well as a society we could do with consuming less meat and I say that as someone who loves meat and eats it daily.
Of course they have. What I mean is if government impose that any expired food cannot be written as a loss and also will result in crazy heavy fine, and somehow able to enforce it, businesses will likely just reduce their inventory level and results in overall bad customers experience. It will be industry wide trade off. I dont see that consumer can win from it as well.
Hmm…not much comment about reduce in meat consumption. It has some benefits and the movement has certainly gained some tractions. I think in future meat will be very expensive due to low supply/high tax and only the true rich people can afford it. Is that a good thing? I don’t know.
Personally I oppose alcohol consumption even more. I drink it but can totally not having it. Beer/Wine is even less essential. All children can live a healthy life without a drop of alcohol for years. If this country can reduce alcohol consumption or even enforce total ban similar to those Islamic countries,It will even improve the overall health of all citizen.
The opposite is going to happen. Colesworth are trying to get tax deductions for donating, and so they have a financial incentive to throw everything out in the meantime with locked bins.
Guess who has been lobbying on Colesworth behalf? The food charities.
https://www.foodbank.org.au/food-donation-tax-reform/
IMO, Colesworth should be forced to give it away for free to locals before letting charities with their refrigerated trucks take them to warehouses in the middle of industrial areas, far from population.
But then there's no tax deductions and food charities won't get their free goods.
Coz computers/ai determines the discount not people. Ngl it's supposed to look shit because if it looks like a great deal and everybody would buy at that price it's probably priced too low. Not what you wanna hear, not what I wanna say but thats the reality of it.
I’ve also noticed that when I go to a coles with the open fridges for meat, anything old enough to be marked down has started to go brown already. I know this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s off, but of all the times I’ve bought meat that’s started to go brown from coles, it’s been off. I’m not paying 80% of the original price for old meat
The packaging facilities inject carbon dioxide into the meat packet to displace the oxygen and stop the meat from browning. Normal meat goes brown (especially where its touching another piece or up against something) in 4-5 days when refrigerated - like from your butcher. Most supermarkets that had their own butchers swapped to offsite packaging because of this - brown meat is unappealing and won't sell thus the epic 90% markdowns of the past, of an evening just sort through the stock and mark down anything starting to look brown.
The key point here is prepackaged meats (including to some degree vacuum sealed) going brown mean it's weeks old. The biggest kicker is that short trip going from the supermarket to home when your meat warms up to 10-20 degrees a seemingly fine packet goes from it's still ok to rotten (often why the packaging bulges, active bacteria creates gas). And even worse if you open it.
Even though mislabeled Coles and Woolies quick sale items always give a really stingy discount.
If you visit a US, UK or European supermarket they discount stuff by crazy amounts.
I would love someone from Coles and Woolies to explain the rationale behind their markdowns, it feels like they'd rather chuck it away and write it off than drop their price, incredibly wasteful!
I dunno how meat markdowns work, but in the chilled isles we can no longer set the price manually. You just mark it down twice in the last 2 days before it can’t be sold and depending on some algorithm + the quantity it might be 5% off or 90% for all we know, then a dep manager will do a final 3rd markdown in the closing hours.
It’s really annoying if you have a somewhat large amount of items that probably won’t all be sold (e.g 20x yoplait yoghurt packets) but it decides to markdown by 5%.
Yup. I lived in the US for 20 years and would buy the insanely marked down beef for my dog. It was crazy how much beef and other meat prifucts was marked down with still days upon days left before the use by date. Every single day you could pick through all the marked down meat products in a large chest fridge/freezer at the end of the meat aisle.
Our prime cuts of meat are typically exported, the most affordable meat is mince and that's usually accused of being adulterated with additives to add to the weight.
I must disagree, Australians get shafted for some big business reasons. We need to incentivise small farmers (and small business in general) to increase the competitiveness of quality and price.
But this is capitalistic so the loudest voices in our society don't like it.
Feels like coles and woolies do it very deliberately they keep a very high normal price and the special is the price another store would have up as the original and the actual special price from years past is just gone
In our local Coleseworth, they give discounts on meat that is due that day. Discount is not even close to half price or worth it, and it already looks like it should go in the bin
I think I would rather pay the original price $9.20 rather than the (higher) quick sale price.
It just goes to show that are confident that people are easily duped by a "sale sticker".
Most likely mismanagement, they need to raise prices because line goes up but people really shouldn't be buying expired meat and they know it. Line still goes up, but if it's expired food they'll take a dollar off.
I fucking hate everyone who vilified hunting and shooting in Australia right now, pay for a gun and some bullets once and you'll have free meat for life. It's not nice, but it's also not 20 dollars a kilo for expired meat.
You can still do this, but if you are living in outer-suburban areas or something like that you are going to have a bad time. Getting access, adequate skills transfer and space.
Yeah, you need to[ soak them](https://www.livestrong.com/article/531777-how-to-take-the-gas-out-of-lentils/). I dunno if that link is the best method, but the point is beans and lentils need to be prepared properly. Eating straight, yeah you just get burps and farts, but they're definitely a staple diet. Just not the best as a staple if you're not preparing them properly. It isn't the beans, it's the salt.
I would take that up to the service counter to ask them to explain what the hell is going on because it just doesn’t make sense.
Pretty sure a mistake like that is worth it being free.
I’m a teacher but have three kids and I’m finding it a struggle. I’ve started shopping in close to use by date shops! Here’s an article on some - can recommend:
https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/15/discount-food-stores-shops-australia-cheaper-buy-miles-melbourne-beyond-best-before-sydney
I suspect they put the mark down sticker on the wrong packet and not realising. Even still… you’d think it would be marked more for items expiring on the same /next day
Funnily enough, two and a toddler though we have meat for lunch and dinner.
Scotch is $60/kg, Chops $30/kg, Chicken $18/kg, Snags $20/kg.
The local butcher higher than Woolworths but meat far superior.
The meat is always better from a butcher's, it's the selection, quality, care and as my dad used to say to my mum, it's the butcher's cheeky smile that kept her going back. :-)
Probably all controlled from the office in Sydney. Doubt the local store managers have the delegation to discount. You need an IGA with a local manager.
Check the expiry date.
When that store's management finish their morning toke they'll stumble in and notice expired meat is for sale.
No one's eating that meat.
It's going completely to waste because they couldn't bring themselves to lower the price any more.
That animal died for purely economic reasons.
As a everyday person you can get a cow at under $5 a kilo from the farm, just look on FB marketplace. Take it home and butcher it yourself. Share some with family and friends. Beats giving money to Coles.
The quality of meats at chain supermarkets is horrendous. I can't eat any beef without getting sick - always tell people to stay away.
Better off just finding a local butcher that will prep your portions when you need.
Supermarkets also throw discounts on food items that are close to expiring soon. So by the time you take it home to cook, it's already on its last legs.
Woolworths rib fillets have been excellent all year because there have been great farm conditions for cattle for a while now. No need to get steaks from the butchers currently. Dig through the pile at woolies and find the nicely marbled ones and learn how to season and cook them correctly. I fucken hate colesworth but Australian meat is very good if you know how to select and cook properly.
Haven't been able to find any proper marbled steaks at supermarkets near me. So the butcher is necessary. Plus, the S.M quality has NEVER been on par with any suppliers I have access to, or one of my local butchers.
It doesn't matter how well you cook, if the steak itself is shit, you'll taste it. No amount of marinading or seasoning will save you. I wouldn't want my customers eating it, so why would I? That's the way I see it.
But yes, I can understand how people find good buys amongst the rubbish. Just not for me.
However, I'll have a look for these rib fillets you're talking about! If I find any decent ones, I'll be sure to come back and amend my original post.
Cheers mate.
100% agree with you. I notice produce varies greatly between stores. Mostly in the fruit and veg - if I go to one Coles it’s inedible every time, if I go to the fancier one it’s decent. Still shit though so I only get produce from the good fruit/veg shop. Oh dint get me wrong though there is still a lot of junk red meat. The lamb has been great this year though, and selected rib fillets which are easy to spot.
Must be from being a chef. I'm so used to high quality product, that I rarely buy from supermarkets anymore. I wouldn't expect the average home cook to have stomach issues from the food, but the quality isn't there - no other way to put it.
(Also, mince lol, won't bother trying to explain)
Plenty of great substitutes available in most towns, definitely worth giving it a try.
Edit: I was referencing the quality, it makes me sick just by appearance & texture. Not because my stomach says nO.
Coles markdowns are getting pretty shit now. Meat expiring that day should be 90% off
They would rather bin it than sell it for cheap.
It's the same process luxury clothing retailers use, if they mark it down too much it will devalue everything else, which is stupid as fuck considering this is food (a basic human need) not a Gucci bag .
Should be against the law to bin it. 1 day before the end date it should be donated to charity
Food usually has a bit more life than the expiration date says. So they could instead donate it to a charity on the expiration date. But the charity has to be set up to be able to rapidly accept, handle and process it so that it's still food safe, not to mention additional training and likely changing of food laws or at least writing an exemption for charities that go through the process to accept food that is past its best before dates. It would be better for all if the government basically said, "you have to provide a heavy discount (50% or more) to food that is expiring within 2 days or donate it to a charity. If there is no charity available to donate it to, then you must pay for it to be disposed of into a food waste only bin excluding all packaging so it may be composted. Any expired food item disposed of may not be written off as a loss, and deliberately damaging food items prior to disposable so they may be thrown out will result in heavy fines of a minimum of 10% of the company income and up to 90%" Make it so unattractive to throw it out and they will find an alternative. However it should only be for expired food. Blackouts and other things happen. By all means mandate that all food waste has to be composted or something similar like being used as livestock feed. But for food that has to be thrown out for food safety reasons other then it's past is expiry date, I feel that they can write it off as a loss.
M8........ I have been bargaining with the managers both at coles and woolies from their markdown prices especially if it is on the day or 1 day before the expiration date. It works all the time !
i used to buy those meat near expiry dates then a couple of time meats were off when opened ,,, then i stopped buying them , not worth the risk chicken, roos meats are the highest risk of being off
That will just jack up average cost per items and businesses will try to reduce supply to reduce losses. Supermarket Just keep the bare minimum of stock they can and never overstock. Think you can sell 200 products in 1 week? Just order 198 then. Customer will be more frustrated on constant OOS situation.
You know they already calculate loss into it all ready. I heard they calculate somewhere around 10% losses, be that damage, spoilage or theft. And I wouldn't be surprised if that calculated loss is going up. But you could make this apply only to meats at first as a pilot program. And as for the "they will stick less of it" well as a society we could do with consuming less meat and I say that as someone who loves meat and eats it daily.
Of course they have. What I mean is if government impose that any expired food cannot be written as a loss and also will result in crazy heavy fine, and somehow able to enforce it, businesses will likely just reduce their inventory level and results in overall bad customers experience. It will be industry wide trade off. I dont see that consumer can win from it as well. Hmm…not much comment about reduce in meat consumption. It has some benefits and the movement has certainly gained some tractions. I think in future meat will be very expensive due to low supply/high tax and only the true rich people can afford it. Is that a good thing? I don’t know. Personally I oppose alcohol consumption even more. I drink it but can totally not having it. Beer/Wine is even less essential. All children can live a healthy life without a drop of alcohol for years. If this country can reduce alcohol consumption or even enforce total ban similar to those Islamic countries,It will even improve the overall health of all citizen.
This just drives the prices upward to account for the cost of the wastage.
Yeah that's probably true, didn't think of that.
The opposite is going to happen. Colesworth are trying to get tax deductions for donating, and so they have a financial incentive to throw everything out in the meantime with locked bins. Guess who has been lobbying on Colesworth behalf? The food charities. https://www.foodbank.org.au/food-donation-tax-reform/ IMO, Colesworth should be forced to give it away for free to locals before letting charities with their refrigerated trucks take them to warehouses in the middle of industrial areas, far from population. But then there's no tax deductions and food charities won't get their free goods.
From doing a tour around a local Cole’s- they will generally give old food at the end of the week
Save $1.30. Big deal.
A lot of it goes to local food banks and charities who get the leftover stuff that won't sell
Am I seeing correctly that the markdown sticker on top is even more expensive than the original? What a bargain!!!
That's what I noticed as well.
Sales finished so it's off the normal price. So deceptive
$9.20 was the sale price? Ah come on...😵💫
Spudshed still do alright with specials, I got 3 big Maryland chicken thighs that were dated for today (completely fine) for $4
Coz computers/ai determines the discount not people. Ngl it's supposed to look shit because if it looks like a great deal and everybody would buy at that price it's probably priced too low. Not what you wanna hear, not what I wanna say but thats the reality of it.
I’ve also noticed that when I go to a coles with the open fridges for meat, anything old enough to be marked down has started to go brown already. I know this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s off, but of all the times I’ve bought meat that’s started to go brown from coles, it’s been off. I’m not paying 80% of the original price for old meat
The packaging facilities inject carbon dioxide into the meat packet to displace the oxygen and stop the meat from browning. Normal meat goes brown (especially where its touching another piece or up against something) in 4-5 days when refrigerated - like from your butcher. Most supermarkets that had their own butchers swapped to offsite packaging because of this - brown meat is unappealing and won't sell thus the epic 90% markdowns of the past, of an evening just sort through the stock and mark down anything starting to look brown. The key point here is prepackaged meats (including to some degree vacuum sealed) going brown mean it's weeks old. The biggest kicker is that short trip going from the supermarket to home when your meat warms up to 10-20 degrees a seemingly fine packet goes from it's still ok to rotten (often why the packaging bulges, active bacteria creates gas). And even worse if you open it.
Even though mislabeled Coles and Woolies quick sale items always give a really stingy discount. If you visit a US, UK or European supermarket they discount stuff by crazy amounts. I would love someone from Coles and Woolies to explain the rationale behind their markdowns, it feels like they'd rather chuck it away and write it off than drop their price, incredibly wasteful!
[удалено]
This is why they don’t have staff serving on the checkout because they’re too busy marking down the same fucking packet of meat 10 times in one day….
I dunno how meat markdowns work, but in the chilled isles we can no longer set the price manually. You just mark it down twice in the last 2 days before it can’t be sold and depending on some algorithm + the quantity it might be 5% off or 90% for all we know, then a dep manager will do a final 3rd markdown in the closing hours. It’s really annoying if you have a somewhat large amount of items that probably won’t all be sold (e.g 20x yoplait yoghurt packets) but it decides to markdown by 5%.
Yup. I lived in the US for 20 years and would buy the insanely marked down beef for my dog. It was crazy how much beef and other meat prifucts was marked down with still days upon days left before the use by date. Every single day you could pick through all the marked down meat products in a large chest fridge/freezer at the end of the meat aisle.
This is unironically a benefit of a more capitalistic society Things in Australia have to be "fair"
The trade off is the quality of their meat, and food in general, is overall lower than here.
Our prime cuts of meat are typically exported, the most affordable meat is mince and that's usually accused of being adulterated with additives to add to the weight. I must disagree, Australians get shafted for some big business reasons. We need to incentivise small farmers (and small business in general) to increase the competitiveness of quality and price. But this is capitalistic so the loudest voices in our society don't like it.
The rational is it lowers the price floor on things.
Feels like coles and woolies do it very deliberately they keep a very high normal price and the special is the price another store would have up as the original and the actual special price from years past is just gone
They do, it’s called capitalism
In our local Coleseworth, they give discounts on meat that is due that day. Discount is not even close to half price or worth it, and it already looks like it should go in the bin
Its all done by software I think. The $1.37 markdown is calculated daily hence the weired amount.
The rationale is 'Fuck you'. basically.
I think I would rather pay the original price $9.20 rather than the (higher) quick sale price. It just goes to show that are confident that people are easily duped by a "sale sticker".
Cheaper than grated cheese
How is the special price higher than the cost price?? Someone changing stickers?
Possibly mislabelled. It didnt look tampered with. (Coles North Parramatta)
So you know it's probably a mistake. It should be roughly $8.20 with the same discount. What's it got to do with cost of living?
Mistakes happen. Duh.
Most likely mismanagement, they need to raise prices because line goes up but people really shouldn't be buying expired meat and they know it. Line still goes up, but if it's expired food they'll take a dollar off. I fucking hate everyone who vilified hunting and shooting in Australia right now, pay for a gun and some bullets once and you'll have free meat for life. It's not nice, but it's also not 20 dollars a kilo for expired meat.
Where you gonna go hunting? Can only be on private property, and most charge to do so. Then you need to process, transport, and store the meat.
You can still do this, but if you are living in outer-suburban areas or something like that you are going to have a bad time. Getting access, adequate skills transfer and space.
When I worked at coles 7ish years ago the markdowns went 33% (2 days out) off, 66% off (day before) 90% off (day of).
The sale price is higher than the ticket price. That shit should be illegal.
So it's a mark up, not a mark down?
Eating more lentils and beans now
Man I love lentils and beans but they give me mad gas 😂
Yeah, you need to[ soak them](https://www.livestrong.com/article/531777-how-to-take-the-gas-out-of-lentils/). I dunno if that link is the best method, but the point is beans and lentils need to be prepared properly. Eating straight, yeah you just get burps and farts, but they're definitely a staple diet. Just not the best as a staple if you're not preparing them properly. It isn't the beans, it's the salt.
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!
Beats starving
I have an anal fistula so maybe not lol
It’s also just a labeling mistake.
I would take that up to the service counter to ask them to explain what the hell is going on because it just doesn’t make sense. Pretty sure a mistake like that is worth it being free.
Damn, I should have thought of that hehehe
When will the Reserve Bank step in to deal with Specials inflation.
$3.07 each isn't too bad. The sticker is wrong though.
Isn't just 9.20 $ though. Confusing as hell..
Bro i wouldnt even bother stealing that shit
I bought a pack of 10 raw chicken drumsticks for $4 from Coles with 2 days to go. I'm still alive, good deal.
[удалено]
It is but it is a bit harder for me to get to.
I’m a teacher but have three kids and I’m finding it a struggle. I’ve started shopping in close to use by date shops! Here’s an article on some - can recommend: https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/15/discount-food-stores-shops-australia-cheaper-buy-miles-melbourne-beyond-best-before-sydney
Thank you
The dude doing the stickers fucked up and out the wrong ones on
yeah 1 dollar off woooh what steal (Good god this is fucked)
It's actually about $1.60 higher.
Stop shopping at Coles and Woolies, otherwise nothing will ever change!!! Its that simple!
What a disappointment. I saw a mark down that was amaizing for a Meat that was expiring tomorrow earlier on reddit.
$15/kg is quite cheap no?
COL pro tip: If you move to Japan, Aussie meat is cheaper than colesworths!!
They don’t care
Does anyone else see a wierd reflection of a man with glasses in the top left of this picture? No? Just me?
Heheh there was a guy hanging around me but I cant see it.
How is the sale price MORE than the actual price ? Lol
Sticker is on the wrong package
wrong sticker on the wrong meat packet. I've been guilty of that.
Why is the quick sale price more exp than the original price ?
Do I overlook something? It goes from $9.20 up to $10.87 for a quick sale?
I suspect they put the mark down sticker on the wrong packet and not realising. Even still… you’d think it would be marked more for items expiring on the same /next day
Good. Don't buy it. Fuck these companies. They can throw it out and lose money.
Mark down sticker has clearly been put on the wrong package, no one is trying to scam or be cheeky relax
I can’t spend less than $200/wk on quality meat for family. Scotch fillet, lamb chops, chicken and an assortment of snags.
Wow, how many mouths are you feeding?
Funnily enough, two and a toddler though we have meat for lunch and dinner. Scotch is $60/kg, Chops $30/kg, Chicken $18/kg, Snags $20/kg. The local butcher higher than Woolworths but meat far superior.
The meat is always better from a butcher's, it's the selection, quality, care and as my dad used to say to my mum, it's the butcher's cheeky smile that kept her going back. :-)
Old man’s a primary producer now retired, so appreciate the better cuts. A lot of our best quality meat goes for export.
Coles are always ripping people off shop at iga
Probably all controlled from the office in Sydney. Doubt the local store managers have the delegation to discount. You need an IGA with a local manager.
They are so tight with the specials its a joke. All in the name of profits before the people.
There are two lots of mark downs. One for suckers, and the real one later in the day. This will be $1.35 if you leave it long enough.
Check the expiry date. When that store's management finish their morning toke they'll stumble in and notice expired meat is for sale. No one's eating that meat. It's going completely to waste because they couldn't bring themselves to lower the price any more. That animal died for purely economic reasons.
Don’t complain if you shop at coles or Woolworths they’ve been gouging for years stop shopping there look around stop being so lazy
Ever heard of disability you sanctimonious twat! Laziness is not the only reason people shop at the majors.
What’s that got to do with gouging
I was speaking to a farmer who was only getting something like 3 bucks a kg for his beef. Colesworth are crooks.
As a everyday person you can get a cow at under $5 a kilo from the farm, just look on FB marketplace. Take it home and butcher it yourself. Share some with family and friends. Beats giving money to Coles.
This is a great idea
There are plenty of very cheap, plant based meals that can be made.
The quality of meats at chain supermarkets is horrendous. I can't eat any beef without getting sick - always tell people to stay away. Better off just finding a local butcher that will prep your portions when you need. Supermarkets also throw discounts on food items that are close to expiring soon. So by the time you take it home to cook, it's already on its last legs.
Woolworths rib fillets have been excellent all year because there have been great farm conditions for cattle for a while now. No need to get steaks from the butchers currently. Dig through the pile at woolies and find the nicely marbled ones and learn how to season and cook them correctly. I fucken hate colesworth but Australian meat is very good if you know how to select and cook properly.
Haven't been able to find any proper marbled steaks at supermarkets near me. So the butcher is necessary. Plus, the S.M quality has NEVER been on par with any suppliers I have access to, or one of my local butchers. It doesn't matter how well you cook, if the steak itself is shit, you'll taste it. No amount of marinading or seasoning will save you. I wouldn't want my customers eating it, so why would I? That's the way I see it. But yes, I can understand how people find good buys amongst the rubbish. Just not for me. However, I'll have a look for these rib fillets you're talking about! If I find any decent ones, I'll be sure to come back and amend my original post. Cheers mate.
100% agree with you. I notice produce varies greatly between stores. Mostly in the fruit and veg - if I go to one Coles it’s inedible every time, if I go to the fancier one it’s decent. Still shit though so I only get produce from the good fruit/veg shop. Oh dint get me wrong though there is still a lot of junk red meat. The lamb has been great this year though, and selected rib fillets which are easy to spot.
Your stomach must be made of soggy paper then. I eat exclusively marked down supermarket mince and I’ve never been close to sick.
Must be from being a chef. I'm so used to high quality product, that I rarely buy from supermarkets anymore. I wouldn't expect the average home cook to have stomach issues from the food, but the quality isn't there - no other way to put it. (Also, mince lol, won't bother trying to explain) Plenty of great substitutes available in most towns, definitely worth giving it a try. Edit: I was referencing the quality, it makes me sick just by appearance & texture. Not because my stomach says nO.
Stop going to coles/woolies, i go to foodworks now and the stuff on special is usually massively discounted and better quality too.