Minor Annoyances (Vol 2)

[air_raid]

There’s a few quirks about my new (ish) office I find slightly irritating, but there’s one I’m really struggling with. I’ve had many jobs where there’s communal milk/milk bought by the company for hot drinks, and of course there’s often been choices of two or all of full fat, skimmed and semi-skimmed. HOWEVER, this is the first time in my career I’ve been surrounded by a whole office of human beings, aged from mid-20s to early-60s, where they only ever refer to “blue milk,” “green milk” or “red milk.”

Sorry but… is it just me? Or is this common? I can’t help whenever I hear “No, there wasn’t any green milk” thinking “Green milk? Are we children? Just say semi-skimmed, you loon.”

[FLips]

Uh oh. Yeah we call it red, green and blue (and oat in our house). Can’t remember the last time I called it full fat, semi skimmed or skimmed.

[LaGoosh]

On 1/28/2026 at 7:49 PM, wordsfromlee said:

I worked in a supermarket for ten years (because I was a real go-getting with high ambitions and a vigor for life) and I’m pretty sure more stuff was stolen by the staff than anyone else. 

I had a pretty good scheme when I worked in Waitrose on the Meat & Fish counter when I was 17. The rule was that if something was on its last sell by date (something I learned in working in super markets is that sell by date doesn't mean expiry date - the food will be good for a couple more days after) if it hadn't sold by 30 minutes before closing we were free to buy it ourselves.

However being on the counter also meant that I had the ability to reduce the prices to get rid of stuff on the sell by date. So if there was anything I wanted I waited til the shop was about to close, reduced it to the point that it was basically free, then take it my mate at the tills who would run it through. I once bought myself about 10 sirloin steaks for 17p.

Edited January 30 by LaGoosh

[DazzM]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

Uh oh. Yeah we call it red, green and blue (and oat in our house). Can’t remember the last time I called it full fat, semi skimmed or skimmed.

Same. I can't fathom people calling it by anything else other than colour.

[LaGoosh]

In my house it's normal milk (semi skimmed) and blue milk (full fat). No one drinks that red shit.

[Bruce85]

23 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I had a pretty good scheme when I worked in Waitrose on the Meat & Fish counter when I was 17. The rule was that if something was on its last sell by date (something I learned in working in super markets is that sell by date doesn't mean expiry date - the food will be good for a couple more days after) if it hadn't sold by 30 minutes before closing we were free to buy it ourselves.

However being on the counter also meant that I had the ability to reduce the prices to get rid of stuff on the sell by date. So if there was anything I wanted I waited til the shop was about to close, reduced it to the point that it was basically free, then take it my mate at the tills who would run it through. I once bought myself about 10 sirloin steaks for 17p.

I used to the same thing when I worked at co—op, I’d hide the meat at the back of the fridge so people couldn’t see it then stick it down to 20p just the shop was about to close. 

 

 

[Carbomb]

We still have a milkman, so for us it's whole, semi-skimmed, or skimmed. My grandma used to live in an area that got green-top back in the day, but that meant raw, fresh, unpasteurised milk straight from the farm. And gold-top, Jersey milk, seems to have survived into supermarkets as well.

[gmoney]

When I was working at the co-op as a team leader, one of my colleagues found a very nice cut of steak out the back that was a day past it's sell by date. She wanted to buy it reduced, I said she could just have it, it would have been wasted anyway, but she insisted on paying something for it because she didn't want to feel like she stole it. Fair enough, I put it through the till reduced to a penny. This transaction was then flagged to head office as suspicious and her and I had to be investigated in case I was in cahoots with a 60 year old woman, intent on ripping off one steak, once.

After being interviewed like a criminal, at least twice, we escaped with our jobs thankfully. I found it funny once I'd established I wouldn't be fired, but the poor woman was distraught. 

[deathrey]

We are a green milk and blue milk household. 

[King Coconut]

Do all the supermarkets stick with the colour scheme? 

[gmoney]

Yeah, pretty sure there's no deviators.

[deathrey]

I think everyone sticks to the colour code though some now put white lids on all milk, that confused me for a little bit.

[Harry Wiseau]

Recently they've started going with clear or white lids on semi haven't they? You do get a mix of both but they seem to be pushing forwards with the clear lids as I think you can recycle them

[DavidB6937]

Wish there was an official colour scheme for crisp flavours.

[Wretch]

4 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Wish there was an official colour scheme for crisp flavours.

I always get stung abroad. Excitedly opening a big blue bag of a brand I'm unfamiliar with, but look delicious on the picture, to then taste something shite like ready salted.

I can't remember which country it was, but I bought a red bag of Doritos thinking they were chilli (and thinking Doritos colours would be universal), only to have the cool flavour poisoning my senses. Absolute lunacy.