Is Motatos Closing Down in the UK?

Since I first wrote this post, Motatos has closed down in the UK after just one year of operating. Motatos closed down in September 2023 – it still operates in other countries.

Motatos is a discount food shop selling food that’s past its sell by date, or short dated food – and it’s just launched in the UK, providing an alternative to Approved Foods, which more people are familiar with. They have been running in other countries for a few years now, so they’re not an entirely new company, just new to us.

Motatos take perfectly safe and edible food and save it from going to waste – and it’s your chance to have a bit of a bargain on your favourites!

What Do Motatos Sell?

The range offers discounted food for sale from a variety of sources:

• Close to best before dates
• Ex-seasonally packaged products, where the season has passed, e.g. Xmas branding in January, or Easter bunnies in mid summer
• Faulty packaging, or broken packaging
• Excess and surplus orders, where other shops have bought too much and didn’t sell it fast enough.

It’s worth a look if you want to try to save money on your more expensive brands and preferences.

Quite often, the prices are up to half the price they’d have cost in the regular shops.

Can You Make Savings When you Buy From Motatos?

There’s no disputing the fact that you can make savings – and very large savings. BUT: I should point out that some of their claims about how much you might be saving are cherry picking.

Sometimes their “Savings Made” calculations are based on a limited range of RRP prices – the product might be sourced in a different shop cheaper. It’s always worth double-checking in case the product’s on sale, locally, at a good price too. Generally though, the savings they suggest you’re making will be a saving of some sort.

Just check your prices. See the product, check your usual shops to see their current selling price, then decide if you’re getting a real bargain or whether they’re just “the cheapest”. Being “the cheapest” isn’t always the goal as it’s a combination of price, location, delivery time and any minimum order values you have to meet.

I love the idea of discounted food warehouses and past best by date shops – but often prefer to just shop at my usual shops as I want just 1-2 items when I want them, not a whole box of food another day 🙂

Delivery is free if you order over £40 (price last checked in May 2023). Else it’ll cost about £3. Delivery is by courier, so takes 3-4 days usually.

Not Just Food!

It’s not just food that Motatos sell, they’ve a whole range of household homewares, toiletries, alcohol, soft drinks and more. The only food they don’t sell is fresh and perishable. So there’s plenty more that you can buy from them that’ll save you money on everyday essentials. There’s even a section for Baby/Kids and for Pets. Health Supplement as well as special dietary foods, such as Gluten Free and Vegan, are also sold by Motatos.

Is Eating Out of Date Food Safe?

Many out of date food is safe. Just last week I bought some cakes from my local Rogers Warehouse – fab cakes, a fraction of the retail price (RRP about £1.50 each), with a “best before” date of four months ago!

I’ve done this before – in fact I have to STOP myself going in there each time they say they have new stock!

Here’s one review of some out of date cakes I bought: Can I Eat Out of Date Cakes?

Website: You can find the Motatos UK Website at: https://www.motatos.co.uk/