Document 72 Hours

Season 12 Episode 21: Salvaging Bargains at a Tokyo Grocery Store

A store in a Tokyo suburb selling short-dated, surplus or imperfect yet edible food items cheaply is a magnet for thrifty shoppers. They can find vegetables costing just 27 US cents, a bottle of beer for 30 cents, and a pack of meat costing less than 1 dollar. The customers included a young woman trying to stretch the food budget for her family of 9; a woman and daughter who drive for an hour to buy meat; and a man thrilled by finding an unexpected bargain. Why do people come to this store that also reflects the huge volume of food discarded in Japan? For 3 days, we talked to customers hunting a bargain while filling their shopping baskets.

Genre:

Documentary

Seasons:

17

Episodes:

502

Cast:

Quality:

HD

Duration:

30 min

First Air:

2006

Rating:

8.5