Feeling the crunch with the rising cost of living and interest rates or do you just abhor waste? Beyond Best Before is a discount grocery store that sells food that is near or past its best before date for a fraction of the retail price. Located on King Street in Newtown there's a range of gourmet foods and vegan foods, many with big brand names. So what is shopping there like?
Beyond Best Before is the brainchild of sisters Katie and Maggie Quach. The discount grocery store first opened in July 2023 and in that time they have saved 81,032 units from landfill and served over 1,000 customers. It was intended to be a pop up but proved so popular that it now has a permanent home in Newtown on King Street.
Katie worked in finance behind the scenes in the retail space although this is the first retail business of her own. "There was always a line in the financial statements allotted to waste and dollars figures assigned to reflect the cost or loss associated with the produce or food to be discarded. This drew my attention to and got me thinking about the amount of food waste in the industry. I started to think about the ways in which this could be salvaged and that’s how BBB (Beyond Best Before) came about," explains Katie.
So what is the difference between Best Before and Use By? "Best Before dates are a guide only and displayed on items that are still safe to eat once the date has lapsed. It is there to encourage consumers to consume the product while it’s still in its prime. Use By dates are on items that should not be consumed once the date has lapsed as it can be unsafe. However if the item is frozen before the ‘use by’ date then it is still quite safe to consume despite the date having elapsed," says Katie. "We hope to challenge, inform and shift perceptions surrounding "best before" labels. We hope to redefine shopping habits and reshape consumer consciousness...Customers have compared us to thrift shopping but for groceries," says Katie.
I first heard of Beyond Best Before from Mr NQN's sister Araulen. She had cheese board at Christmas including a huge 2kg wheel of Westminster Jubilee cheddar cheese. "Try this cheese," she said excitedly before telling me that she paid $30 for it (it's normally $60). She then reeled off a list of items that she thought that I'd like from Fevertree yuzu soda to truffle salts. BBB's most popular products are the Green & Blacks dark chocolate, Loving Earth Blueberry Dark chocolate, Raw C Cans, organic coconut oil and Takis Hot Chilli Pepper Lime chips.
I pop by the store one Wednesday afternoon and find that the store is consistently busy with people either popping in to buy snack or to buy a bag full of items. The shelves are full of a range of items; the stock changes often and is dependent on what is on offer but at the moment there are a lot of drinks and mixers which are perfect for the holiday season.
Many of the items have the recommended retail price or RRP next to the actual price so you can see how much you're saving. Generally the further they are out of date the cheaper they are - an example is a 4 litre catering size sauce for $1.80 that is 6 months out of date. Other massive bargains are the Gnaw chocolate that is normally $8 but on sale for 80c.
There are also a lot of items still in date either by a couple of weeks or with months to go and these are roughly 50% off. "Our purchasing power allows us to price quite competitively, this means customers can expect discounts of anywhere between 40-90% off the RRP. We also offer 100% money back on purchases when products fall short of expectations- we want shopping with us to be exciting and risk-free," explains Katie.
The fridge holds Italian butter, Jamón ibérico de Bellota, cheese fondue packs for $3 and French cheeses as well as vegan cheeses. There is also a good range of chilled drinks for $1.70 each or 4 packs of Capi soft drinks for $4. There are plenty of truffle salts and truffle flavoured products, Whisk & Pin rocky road, cookies, Twinings tea, Old Bay seasoning, De Lucca cookie butter, Cherry Coke and Loving Earth chocolates.
There are also basics like tea, salt, sauces, refried beans, stock concentrates, sparkling water and milk alternatives. There's also a range of household toiletries from deodorant, shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste.
I end up buying all of this (below) for $36 and tried items I wouldn't normally pick up. 95% of this haul was all in date too. I bought chips and sodas and non alcoholic drinks to take to a party and Jamón ibérico de Bellota and fondue for NYE. All of the food is perfectly good, even the two items that were a couple of weeks out of date and I can't remember the last time I came away from a grocery shop with a bag that was too full to carry for $36. Mr NQN loves gin and tonics so I promise to take him there in the following days to buy some tonic water. I warn him that if we wait too long the items might be gone. The standouts are the fondue, jamon Iberico de Bellota, yuzu tonic water and plantain chips.
Katie says, "We encourage customers to come in whenever they can as goodies arrive daily. There could be any number of reasons why the lines come to us which include over forecasting, order cancellations, damaged cartons, inefficiencies in the supply change, packaging changes or unique events e.g. covid which disrupt market dynamics. It is for these reasons that we can never predict when products come through our revolving doors."
So tell me Dear Reader, what do you think of this concept? Do you always check best before labels? Would you shop here?
All purchases in this post were independently paid for.
Beyond Best Before
397 King St, Newtown NSW 2042
Phone: 0468 369 032
Open 7 days 11am-7pm (Tuesday 2pm-7pm)
Reader Comments
Loading comments...Add Comment