Sally* went to her local supermarket to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables for her family. Usually she would go to her local fruit and veg grocer, but on this day, she needed a quick shop where she could purchase all she needed in the one place.

As she perused the green produce section, she looked for a head of broccoli to go with the slow cooked satay chicken that was currently being cooked at home. Sally was organized – but not organized enough to remember she needed some greens to go with the meal that night.

She was shocked to find no broccoli. Just stalks instead. Surely there was a mistake? Who just bought the heads of broccoli and left the stalks behind? Wasn’t that dishonest? How could the poor supermarket sell the stalks? Kudos to the people before her who had done it and saved themselves some cash by not paying for the full head and stalk of broccoli.

As Sally headed to the freezer section to find a packet of broccoli, she thought maybe those people were onto something. She rarely cooked the stalk and always threw it in the bin. She made a mental note to remember this tip for next time….

*Sally is not a real person, and irrelevant on where you get your fresh fruit and vegetables, the story was based on a real life tip that was shared on the Simple Savings Facebook page.

A member made a comment on the popular savings Facebook Page: (member’s details have been cropped to protect their privacy)

“Props to the guy I saw in the supermarket who broke most of the stalk off his head of broccoli. If you aren’t going to eat it, why pay for it? Tip noted!”

What followed was over 160 divisive comments from members with mixed reactions.

Some members admitted they did this all the time, while others were not impressed.

“The stalks are edible. And that is vandalism and theft. They can charge you with both. Just don’t.” one member wrote.

“By doing this your just forcing grocers to INCREASE their kilo rate, because they have to account for thieving and a higher rate of unsellable produce. People don’t go into a shop, chop an apple in half and try to pay for just half an apple….” said another.

Or this classic response, “That’s wrong, utterly wrong! Do people peel oranges, mandarins or banana’s before putting them in the bag? We don’t those skins. Do we cut the skin from watermelon and just pay for the flesh, lets face it most of the cost of watermelon is the skin and that gets thrown out. I won’t go on… lol”

Many of the members pointed out the nutritious benefits of eating the broccoli stalk and even made suggestions on how to use it.

So we want to know what you think. Do you snap the stalk off your broccoli before your buy it? Or do you think it could be classed as vandalism to do so?

We’re all for saving a buck… but maybe this technique is going a little too far. What do you think? Fill in our poll to see what the general consensus is.