Out of Date

[Jules001]

I do my weekly shopping in a reasonably sized branch of a well known national supermarket (they have recently announced huge profits). Nearly every week when I am there, I find food on the shelves which is past its best before date, yesterday it was bacon which was admittedly only 1 day over its use by date, but even so it should not legally be sold. Each time I go I take the food to the Customer Services desk or take a member of staff to the shelf and report it. On one occasion, I actually bought something which was nearly a year out of date and when I took it back I was so incensed by their lack of concern that I wrote to their Head Office and got the usual apology letter back. I am fed up with doing their job for them and wondered what advice people would give as to the next step I can take. I take my elderly Mother in Law shopping with me and she likes this chain of supermarkets so just swapping supermarkets isn't really an option.

[acw]

You could go to Watchdog on the BBC and get Nicky Campbell on the case.  Is it possible for you to shop at another branch of said supermarket?  If you experience the same problems then they make take you more seriously.  Good luck though. 

 

PS - I worked at a Premiership Football Clulb ground a few weeks ago and was told by the supervisor to whom we reported out of date stock "Oh, well make sure you sell that first then".  She was sacked the next day.  I can't be certain it was for that offence in particular mind you.  Needless to say the club's caterers have changed their policy and now do NOT sell out of date stock (not knowingly anyway!)

[Fitzer]

Don't tell the supermarket, tell Trading Standards and they'll get fined, Waitrose got fairly heavily fined the other week.

[oxeyedaisy]

i would write to the trading standards..i shopped at that supermarket for 6 months i had a home delivery and had to stop ordering anything fresh as it was allways dreadfull they didnt pick the best of anything they sent whatever..so i have gone back to sainsburys as i have shopped with them for 26 years..i just thought i would give them a try but was never very impressed..on a lighter note i worked for the supermarket you mentioned when i was 16 and had to do the butter and cheese fridges and i was their one day picking out all the cheese that had gone mouldy on the edges as thats where it goes mouldy first..and the manager just happend to be walking by and he asked me what i was doing so i said i was removing all the cheese that had gone mouldy so he said thats just waste get scissors and just snip the edges off ..well i said i wasnt doing that as it wasnt right so we argued and i pushed him in the fridge and walked out.and didnt return and my mum phoned them up and complained as she thought it wasnt the done thing either..they arnt as cheap as they make out i did a shop on their site and an identicle one at sainsbury and sainsbury was cheaper..they just cater for familys and the stuff i buy doesnt fall in that catergory..they shouldnt sell out of date food..i allways take everything from the back or bottom as they put all the fresh their and the old at the front..supermarkets get wrecked when i visit..

[callisto]

hi guys read postings with interest , i thinkits terrible in this day and age that supermarkets making such big profits fromtheir customers can get away with selling out of date stock....... think we all need to get on the case espeically us regular shoppers and complain lets start a revolution The "out of stock " brigade !!!!!!

[flaming]

Nearly a year out of date!!  I think they deserve a visit from Trading Standards. Especially as they are so laid back about it. The supermarkets are a retail sector doing so well out of us that they ought to do better than you are experiencing. It's very kind of you to be indulgent with your ma-in-law but maybe it's a time for gentle insistance that you go somewhere else once in a while. You should have a bit of choice, too!

[Jules001]

well I rang Trading Standards and they said I should ring Environmental Health, which I did. They said as there have been quite a few incidents, they will contact the store and say that there has been a complaint and they will monitor the store for a while. While we were shopping in there today, Mother in Law found two tubs of margarine on the shelves which were best before April, so somebody isn't doing their job properly.

[GMH]

Earlier on this year I purchased a box of bramley apple pies from Spar that was still on the shelf a day after the best before date.

Only found out after I purchased them. Still they didn't do me any harm when consumed...