What can PTAs do with old and expired stock?
Image: Woman serving cake at a stall on a summery day.
Tombolas and raffles
Everyone loves a tombola or a raffle. If you have a lot of stock to get through, you could put together prize bundles or have super cheap tickets to encourage more people to have a go. If you have your tombola or raffle as part of another event you won’t need a special licence, but if you run one as a standalone event you’ll need a small society lottery licence – you can find out more information on Your PTA Expert.
‘Use by’ and ‘best before’ dates are very different. It’s an offence to sell food or drink if it has passed its ‘use by’ date, but you can sell things that have passed their ‘best before’ date – just make sure it’s still good quality, the packaging isn’t damaged and the ‘best before’ date is clearly visible.
£1 sale
Bargains are hard to resist, especially when there’s a blanket price on everything. Set up a pop-up shop, either at an event or on a chosen day at the school, and let everyone know that everything is just £1 each – or 50p, if you have an abundance of smaller items you no longer need.
Pay by weight
Much like the £1 sale, selling stock by weight can be an enticing offer for bargain lovers. On the day you’ll need a set of scales and some bags, or you could ask parents to bring their own bags when they shop. The weight you choose (such as selling items by the kilo) and the amount you sell it for is completely up to you – maybe ask around and see what parents would be willing to pay.
Mystery bags
Mystery bags are a very popular way of reducing surplus stock. Put together a selection of items into bags and add a label to either hint at the kinds of things that could be inside, or the age range it’s most suited for. You could even make up a few bags with extra special prizes inside, such as luxury goods or vouchers for local businesses, which will encourage people to buy more than one bag!
Supermarket sweep
Why not turn a bargain shopping experience into a fun game? Your school community can pay to be a ‘contestant’ and answer a trivia question. When they’ve given you the correct answer, they have to find the prize that corresponds with that answer, either on pretend supermarket shelves or from a prize table if space is tight. If you want to get rid of more stock, let contestants go wild in the aisles! Give them a basket or trolley so they can grab as much as they can within a certain time limit.
Swapsies
If you have ample storage for stock but a lot of it is close to the ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ dates, you could ask your school community to swap them for items with a longer shelf life. For example, if someone were to give you one chocolate bar with a long best before date, you would exchange it for two chocolate bars that will expire soon. The exchange rate would depend on the type of stock you have, but it will reduce waste and refresh your stores all at the same time!
Food banks and shelters will happily take good-quality food items that are close to their use by or best before dates, which is much better than throwing it away!
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