I grew up going to the hostess store that was full of the older bread products - I loved it because we would be able to get bread and also one pack of two hostess cupcakes. It was a great weekly treat. Never occurred to me until now that people would judge my parents for it.

I buy day old bagels from our local bagel shop and freeze them. They are the same price as (and a MILLION TIMES better than) grocery store bagels.

I hate to say this, but I don't have much of a palate. I don't mind day old anything. I'm not picky and just eat my food. I'm pretty sure that my taste buds are off because friends often send food back that I think tastes just fine. I grew up wealthy, so I've been exposed to fancy restaurants and wonderful meals... I just don't care. I'm really not in love with food the same way other people are.

So yeah, dh and I buy the reduced items. In particular he loves the day old apple fritters and donuts.

There is an easy way to reconstitute stale bread items to make them taste fresh. For instance, I buy English muffins at half off because all I have to do is run it under the water faucet for a few seconds. Then pop it in the toaster oven to bake at 350 for like 5-7 minutes. Outside becomes crisp, and inside is pillow soft. Same thing works for baguettes or any type of crusty bread, although the time in the oven might be a few more minutes based on the size.

I did when we didn’t have much money

I'm not so into sweets. It's the rare sweet that will wow me even when fresh. If I have to get it and its not too old, I'll take it. But then the places I go, the turnover of discounted goods is really fast. I rarely see any on the shelves, so if something is there, it can't be too old.
Amazing that some people have such exquisite taste buds that they can tell the difference between sweets made that day or one day past.
Now bread is another story.

Anyone who wants to save money, which is the vast majority of people in this area.

Anonymous wrote:I just tried the “Too Good to Go” App (look it up) at my local French Patisserie. Loved the pastries (chocolate mousse! Crème brûlée!) even though they might not have been day-of- fresh. They also stuck a croissant or two in from the morning. Maybe I am a bit of a snob though since I didn’t eat those and since they don’t keep well to the next day.

Yes! I love this app and use it frequently. I'm not in the DMV anymore, but there is a local bakery that uses the app and for $5 I typically get a sandwich and 4 pastries from that day. I put the pastries in the freezer and pull one out each night for breakfast the next day.

Anonymous wrote:Life is way too short to eat old bread and pastries.

Yeah. Just stop being poor.

Life is way too short to eat old bread and pastries.

I often do - is smart to save money purchasing food. The food will be consumed and gone; it’s not an appreciating asset. Baked goods don’t somehow suddenly become toxic over the course of a day or two.

I just tried the “Too Good to Go” App (look it up) at my local French Patisserie. Loved the pastries (chocolate mousse! Crème brûlée!) even though they might not have been day-of- fresh. They also stuck a croissant or two in from the morning. Maybe I am a bit of a snob though since I didn’t eat those and since they don’t keep well to the next day.

I do. If I pick it up and it's noticeably stale I'll put it back down, but fresh bakery goods are a luxury we generally don't buy at full price.

Anonymous wrote:In a large family like mine all baked goods are gone in a day.

10?

French Toast came about as a way to use stale bread. Which makes sense, making French Toast with fresh bread is a soggy mess.

Some breads can still be good after bake day - like Japanese milk bread, Hawaiian rolls...
The US military has a big budget on food science. All the shelf stable stuff you see in the grocery store is courtesy of the military. They came up with a great product that they described as "bread like" in their science journal. It became marketed as Wonderbread. And where do you think Folger's Crystals came from? And Spam! Anyways, the US food market is obsessed with shelf-stable foods, including bread - or a simulacra of it.

Lots of people are fine with day old bread. Freeze it, make croutons, stuffing, crostini.
I guess OP doesn't know much about cooking.