FAQs

There are 3 different couriers you can choose from on our site; DPD, Yodel and Evri. The cost and delivery time frame do depend on where you are.

All prices are listed under the Delivery Information page here.

If you are located in Mainland UK and select the "DPD Next Working Day" option, you will need to place your order before 14:00 (Mon-Fri) to receive your order the next working day.

Orders placed over the weekend (after 2pm on Fridays) will be dispatched on Monday (except Bank Holidays).

Delivery timescales and costs may vary for Channel Islands and offshore/remote parts of the UK (Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands & Islands, Isles of Scilly, Isle of Wight and Isle of Man). If you live in any of these areas, delivery lead times may be longer than what is stated at check out. If you need to know when your order will arrive, contact us and we will inform you of the likely timescales. 

You will receive email notifications from us once your order is placed to notify you of the status of your order. Once the goods are with our courier, certain services will also offer a delivery window, text/email notifications, and information on how to track your parcel.

For full delivery cost details, visit our Delivery Information page by clicking here.

You should have received a confirmation email when your order was dispatched. This contains a link titled "View your order & tracking details". If you click on this link you should see a tracking number, which you can enter into the relevant courier's tracking website to receive your tracking details.

Alternatively, you can use our Live Chat feature to see your order progress by clicking the "Track My Order" option under "instant answers". This will send you a link and you'll be able to find all order details and tracking information from that page.

We hope that this helps you to find out when your order will arrive.

For orders placed on a weekday before 2pm, we will endeavour to dispatch your order the same day. Orders placed after 2pm on a Friday will most likely be dispatched on the next working day (Monday). Delivery options and lead times are stated at checkout, and are all stated in working days, so please allow extra time if your order is with our couriers over the weekend.

Please read the Delivery Information page in our main menu at the top of the page for full information.

As much as we try to get everything right all of the time, we are human, so sometimes mistakes are made or things go wrong. We may dispatch the wrong variety of a product, or something may be missing.

If there is a problem with your order, please get in touch with us as soon as you can with the details of what has gone wrong, and we will look into it and try to correct it as quickly as possible. Photo's are always helpful, especially if something has been damaged in transit.

If we have sent you the wrong product or something is faulty, please DO NOT consume or dispose of the products, as we may require the product to be returned in order to process a refund or replacement.

Please send our team a polite message either via email on hello@foodcirclesupermarket.com, use our Contact Us form, send us a message on Facebook or Instagram, or Tweet us @foodcircleuk.

All product listings contain the Best Before Date. Just open up a product page and the Best Before Date will be there, right above the product description.

No. We do not have any mass discount codes available online. As a surplus food retailer, the unique (and great!) thing about our business model is that the vast majority of our products are already discounted by at least 50% off the RRP (recommended retail price).

We believe that all of our products are already fantastically and competitively priced, and offer fantastic value for money at the listed retail price. As a growing business with plans to expand our product range and continuously improve our shopper experience, we really appreciate the support of our customers in paying the listed price of our goods. It really helps us to grow our product offering and make it a better place to shop for everyone!

We only issue discount codes at our own discretion. All discount codes are one use per household unless otherwise stated and are subject to our Terms and Conditions (to view, visit www.foodcirclesupermarket.co.uk/pages/terms-privacy and go to section 10)

If you place an order with us, we hope you will be more than satisfied with the value for money you receive, and you never know - you may even receive a free gift as a thank you for your order :)

We do make sure that we have very close relationships with the brands and manufacturers we are working with, and always try to stock repeat supply of your favourite products.

However, manufacturers do not intentionally create surplus products, so we cannot ask them to make more specifically for us because that could create extra waste, and we don't want that!

Feel free to let us know what brands/products you would like us to try and feature - we will always try our best to stock products that our shoppers will like!

We sell food and drink that is deemed to be healthy or is part of a specialised diet, for example: high protein, free-from, or healthy alternatives to mainstream products.

We only sell products that are stored at ambient temperature (e.g. your cupboards). At the moment we don't sell any chilled or frozen products.

Yes.

We made this decision in order to prevent unnecessary food waste. In reality, there is nothing wrong with the types of product we sell being consumed slightly past their Best Before Date, and we felt that it would be out of line with our values to allow products to potentially be wasted just because the Best Before Date has expired by a few days or weeks.

Best Before Dates are an indicator that the quality of a product may begin to deteriorate gradually after this date has passed, and in reality, you would be unlikely to notice a difference in quality until months later. This differs from a "Use By" date of course (generally found on chilled foods such as meat and dairy) which absolutely is an indicator of safety and requires a lot more caution.

For more information on Best Before Dates, and the difference between "Best Before" and "Use By", here are some links to NHS and Food Standards Agency guidance:

NHS

FSA


We also have a page dedicated to this where we go into a bit more detail: https://foodcirclesupermarket.co.uk/pages/best-before-dates

It is food that is wholesome and fit for consumption by people, but has not made it on to the shelves of the retailers, either because it has been overproduced, the remaining shelf-life is too close to expiry, or a slight defect has occurred with the product or packaging during the manufacturing process.

It could also be a seasonal product (e.g. Christmas themed) or be in packaging that is now redundant because the branding or design has since been updated after the product has been made.

This food is still perfectly wholesome and fit to eat, so our job at Food Circle Supermarket is to ensure that it is eaten, rather than being disposed of.

There are two main reasons for this.

Firstly, we would not be able to sustain our positive environmental work by selling all of our products at rock-bottom prices, due to the costs involved in collecting the products from the manufacturer, storing them, and delivering them to your door. We also need to maintain our website and put a roof over the heads of our team who make it all happen!

Secondly, we work with some amazing brands whose products sell at a fair price in mainstream retail. While we are committed to offering a discount to our shoppers, we are also committed to protecting the brands that we work with. Our partners are doing amazing work by sending their surplus products to us rather than to waste, but their brands are equally very valuable so we do our utmost to uphold this when we stock their products.

Yeah, we really do! Our passion for the environment and tackling food waste is what prompted us to set up Food Circle Supermarket.

The products that we sell would potentially go to waste due to numerous reasons, which is not the manufacturer's fault, it is just how the supply chain and mass production works.

All food products are manufactured with the intention that they are consumed by people. When these products are then disposed of, not only is the product itself wasted, but so is all of the energy and materials that went into making it (and its packaging)!

We ensure that these products stay away from disposal and are consumed... as we believe they should be!

We are able to offer a discount because the products we source are surplus to the requirements of the manufacturer or brand owner. (Read more in our "What is surplus food?" FAQ)

While these products are still food and still have significant value, they are at risk of going to waste. So we offer the manufacturer the opportunity to recover some of their cost by working with us.

We may not always have a consistent range, and our products may be getting close to their Best Before Date, so we have to be clearly different to mainstream retailers to prevent as much food waste as possible. One of these differences is the price of our products.

This does not mean that supermarkets or high-street retailers are charging too much, simply that manufacturers are doing something good for the environment by ensuring the small amount of surplus product they have reaches people, rather than being at risk of going to waste.

The idea behind the word "circle" in our name is a symbol of how we are dedicated to the principle of the circular economy.

So what's the circular economy? Basically, we are closing the circle by diverting food and drink away from disposal and back to people, completing the "circle" of any food product's journey!