Surplus to Purpose CIC Reviews 165

You must visit this place!

The volunteers are doing amazing work here and the range and quality of the fresh and dried products is fantastic.

Great value!!

Great volunteers & worth while product's. Massive thanks.

I was disappointed. I love going in to the warehouse and choosing, but I would not recommend the delivery boxes. Too many things we don't want and duplicates.

Surplus to Purpose is a great ethical organisation seeking to reduce waste! The service was great. I went to get food when there was an offer and although it was very busy Nasreen remained calm and was very helpful and friendly. Great place to get groceries and to help the environment. Well done Nasreen and Surplus to Purpose. Thank you for your hard work!

My first experience was amazing. Pleasantly surprised at the service and availability. Filled a £12 box with really good quality fruit and veg. A lady called Naz gave a wonderful service. Practically on her own dealing with a queue of customers taking payment and helpful advice. She gave all a free gift at payment which was a lovely gesture. Keep up the great friendly service. 👍

ago

My 1st visit on Good Friday. Was pleasantly surprised. Big, fat and juicy apples - delicious. In fact they were golden delicious variety... lol. Good variety of fruits and veg. Such lovely volunteers, especially Nasreen - such a gem. Its a good job Nasreen had the hind sight to pull out the mangos and melons and share out, one each, otherwise they'd have gone in seconds. I bought two £12 crates. Shared with my My Mum, Sons, Sisters in laws, cousins and some neighbours. Plus got a couple of freebies at the end. What's not to like.....

My fruit and veg box was amazing. Very good value for money and delivered to my work place at time stated. Thank you so much will be a regular customer.

Excellent products delivered and on time.

Overall place is amazing, so happy that there is a place that save all the food that would go to waste, but I was there last Friday bank holiday and the staff where absolutely amazing. Didn't get the names but next time I will. There was a lady who took the payments, also plenty of her family and friends who she gave all the good stuff also from under the counter. When delivery arrived there where watermelons and mangoes which we have been told by the lovely staff to take one per person which some of people managed until the lady from the counter took it away belive saying that won't be enough for later until 6pm. The place is always well managed and when there is stuff like only 1 per person everyone understands and taking only one, but it rhis situation I belive she was taking all the good stuff for her friends and family which is absolutely not fair because we all paying for it and should there ahould be rules.

That situation put me off really. Never seen anything like this before. Is not fair for people who waited there for one hour even a lady with a baby have been waiting so long for delivery to only see that family of the lady who charges us was favouritised. And got all the fresh and best stuff.

Have just read a one star review for this place and couldn’t disagree with it more. I’ve bought from here on several occasions and have been served by most of the staff that work for the organisation - I’ve found them all to be helpful and courteous on every occasion. The food is great quality and always works out to be amazing value. The people that work here are volunteers who give up their free time to do an amazing job at reducing food wastage. They do not deserve to be called racist, thieves, liars and scammers by an individual who feels disgruntled about having to put back a few chillies. I’m confused as to how being told that you’ve overfilled your crate counts as a racist slur, I’ve actually witnessed Nasreen inform a customer she had underfilled her crate and encouraged her to add more items (the customer was white for those who are interested). The one star review is a complete over-reaction and it undermines the brilliant work this company and their volunteers are doing to support the community and environment.

I had an amazing experience. I managed to get lots of bargains. The staff are kind and generous. Nasreen was very helpful and enthusiastic. It was awesome.

I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the quality and variety of the fruit and veg that has been delivered to me the last two weeks. It's great to feel part of something that is reducing food waste whilst also inspiring me to cook more healthily, and definitely saving me money. I have found the communication from Adam and the delivery drivers to be excellent! I would highly recommend :)

Massive variety, carefully packed. Prompt and delicious!

InFacebook they advertised red delicious, rose syrup, garlic, mangoes, courgettes, coriander mint spinach spices and watermelons for free with every £12 box.we opted for a £5 box but a staff member called nasreen told us £5 box not worth it and gave us a green £12 crate. It was our first time. She she had cakes, watermelon spices, spinach coriander etc behind counter which she’ll “sort us out with”
She said in these exact words “fill the crates best you can and take for family to share out there’s no limit on fruit/veg it’s unlimited so full fir family.” Halfway, she came over & saw we’d filled crate half full & said is this yours? I said yes. naz said “sorry sorry” & walked off. She didn’t say anything else or stop us. We queued which was a while as it was busy. We watched as nasreen spoke in Punjabi with her cousins. Pakistani female cousins were discussing in Punjabi about stealing overtaking free items. They paid £12 for 4 (yes 4 green crates) jammed pack full and sky high filled. These were more than £18 sized crates. Nas gave them free spices, a lot of garlic , coriander, watermelons spinach’s, chickpeas tins. Her cousins paid £12 for 4 large overfilled crates. This was not only theft but they were discussing on taking more free items. 1 cousin had over 12 fruit shoot bottles which were restricted to 6 per box. Anyway, after watching the theft/food heist of nas & her cousins doing their food heist & watching nas abuse her role and position we were ready to be served. Nas began yelling & shouting at us in front of everyone. We had apparently taken too many chillies and ginger. The real thieves were nasreen cousins who she allowed to wipe out or steal the chillies & over take. Nas started humiliating us in the queue. Removing items from our box . She made us stand aside and went to call manager. Manager came and checked. They said it was an £18 box. We &white customers behind confronted nasreen by telling her that she had let her Pakistani cousins go with 4 overfilled crates of free food and chillies fruit and drinks etc for £12. White customers backed us up. That was obviously a theft transaction. After putting basic things like bread crisps & afew chillies ginger out, we asked her if the box was ok level. She completely ignored us. She could well and truly hear but was yelling at the white customers who were saying to her that she had let a lot food go for her Pakistani cousins for £12. Nasreen was arguing saying “I’m not being funny but I can’t they’re taking for themselves” we told her this is for family to share. She replied “crates are not sold for families it’s per customer” we then confronted her saying “nas you said fill it up best you can and take for families. Share it out/no limits. Now you’re saying it’s not for us. And it’s not to be shared with family then why are you selling food?” All she could say was “no I’m not being funny but I can’t”
We waited for several minutes quietly. We asked her to serve us but we realised she’s refusing to serve us even though we did not argue with her just told her what she instructed us to do in the first place. She did not like that she was caught out giving free food away to her Pakistani cousins and that really she had allowed 4 crates of over packed food go for £12! She continued to serve customers who were qeued well after us and after we realised she was being racist prejudiced and unprofessional my husband had to go into the warehouse to call the manager who checked the items and served us. White folk had back us up after seeing nasreen allow a crime of theft and injustice. Her cousins had taken more food than they should and underpaid. Her attitude, behaviour misconduct is a concern. Charity commission needs to be investigating this charity. Staff abuse their roles to benefit their own families and mistreat and turn vulnerable customers away. This was our first time and we will not return as the staff are liars. Nas humiliated embarrassed and lied to us. 1 customer asked fir strawberries and was told by nasreen & another Asian boy that there are no strawberries left yet whilst in queue they bought out more strawberries.
Staff are stealing food & holding back food for themselves and their families who abuse the system. They are in it to benefit themselves. They are thieves, scammers. Nas displayed racist behaviour towards us. When advertising they advertised red delicious , mangoes mint etc none of these were there. They rope people in by false advertising and then hide the food. They’ll take it out for themselves or their families. When it was our turn they said it’s only 1 item . So only 2 garlics rationed whilst her cousin took a bag load and bunches. Vulnerable families are kicked humiliated lied to and mistreated pushed into mental health by this so called charity. They hold food back and allow it to rot which then thrown outside

Excellent place and excellent people Nasreen is an absolute delight and always is so happy to help.
Saving items from landfill and helping families in need. Absolutely worth a trip and you will continue to return.

Brilliant not only saving landfill but also supplementing the weekly shop and getting kiddo eat veg and fruit!!a win which ever way you view things

Brilliant, fab food and delivery on the day we requested