This afternoon I took a quick trip to our local grocery store. We live in a small town so the grocery store isn’t huge but I really can’t complain too much about their inventory. It’s a bit more expensive than a big chain store and they don’t have everything known to man, but they have enough.
Now I admit when I shop I am a bit of a freak.
Ok, I admit in general, I am a bit of a freak, but I am especially freaky about expiration dates on my food. I will dig through an entire section to find the item with the expiration date farthest in the future.
So anyhow, I had a coupon for a FREE package of Oscar Meyer Beef Hot Dogs. Who doesn’t want FREE hot dogs? So I head over to that aisle first and as usual it is like 20 degrees there. Abby and I both shiver as we walk down it. I find the Oscar Meyer Hot Dog, grab a pack and then check the expiration date. June 200S. Seriously, I could not make out that last number. In any case, even if it was June 2009, that bugged me so I hunted around for a different package. I finally found one dated August 2009. That I could live with. I know hot dogs are like Twinkies and could probably withstand a nuclear blast, but still I like the expiration date to be IN THE FUTURE.
We did some other shopping, checked for the cool red sale tags they sometimes have with great deals and then we came across the Mexican food aisle. Abby loved her quesedilla from Taco Bell the other day so I thought I would make them for dinner, but before I bought fresh fixins’ I checked out the frozen ones.
As an aside, a woman who had apparently forgotten her glasses asked me if I could locate the expiration date on a package of tortillas. Ah yes, people recognize a professional when they see one. No luck though. It didn’t have one.
I found a product in the freezer that was a Tyson Chicken Enchilada Kit with a sour cream sauce that just looked and sounded wonderful so I grabbed it and handed it to Abby. Oops, forgot to check the date, so I took it back from her, turned it around, and almost fell over.
The date read July 26, 2006. I looked again thinking I must have misread the 9 as a 6. Nope. I checked the others. ALL OF THEM HAD THE SAME FREAKING 3 YEAR OLD EXPIRATION DATE!
By now I’m ready to abandon my cart altogether, run shrieking from the store and go bathe both Abby and I in antibacterial soap. And brush my teeth.
But I don’t.
I put the Tyson bag kit in my cart (far, far away from my other food – yes I moved some) and work my way to the register. I had totally forgotten about the tortilla lady but in hindsight I should have told her to RUN FOR YOUR LIFE LADY! ABANDON THE TORTILLAS AND RUN! I didn’t see her again though.
At the register I gave the bag to the kid behind the counter, CLEARLY told him I didn’t want it and that it was a little bit expired. He looked at it and said “2006, no way!” He then turned and showed it to another cashier (weird that they had so many young male cashiers) and one of them told someone to pull the rest of them off the shelf.
I’m still creeped out about it.
I wonder if I should have done more to alert them. What if those teenagers didn’t follow through and take them off the shelf? What’s to say it won’t happen again? Should I shop there anymore?
Why does it feel like things are crawling on me?
About Kim
We had a discount store near our old house that you really had to watch the expiration dates on stuff. They’d still sell outdated boxes of stuff for $1 or whatever they thought people would pay. It’s a shame too because with the economy in the tank people rely on that store.
That’s so gross. It’s like trying to make food at my parents’ house (habitual restaurant-goers/meal forgoers in favor of a soda). Their stuff is usually 2-3 years old!
Small town store here too and though I normally don’t check expiration dates here I do. Last week I sent one of the kids to the store next door for a bottle of French dressing. Of course I didn’t tell him to check the expiration date and When I went to open it I stopped and checked the date and it was Feb 2008. Over a year out of date. Needless to say I didn’t open it and I wasn’t in the mood for a Salad anymore.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!
That is just not right! When I was in high school I worked at a local small grocery like that and we had TONS of expired things on the shelf. And most of the fresh foods and meats looked really nasty. I was shocked that anyone would shop there. They ended up cheating me out of pay and needless to say I quit. They went out of business shortly afterwards…big shock hey? All I can say is YUCK!
wow ok first of all that was hilarious to read, glad I stopped by. second, I never..never..NEVER read expiration dates. I must be putting to much trust those store empoyee’s. Actually the only thing I check is pancake mixes, b/c I’m sure you’ve heard of those stories. well thanks for this eye opener and I will surely be the next expiration date top checker.
Oh yes, we frequently run into the same problem. The last grocery store we had, there’s only one in this tiny town, was lucky to have the shelves half filled, if you were looking for something that wasn’t expired you were asking too much.
Since it is a small town grocery that people from the town depend upon I would call and talk to the manager just to make sure he is aware. This could have happened at the factory and the package could have been dated with the wrong year. I have found expired stuff at every store. This will happen more now since most places have cut down on help. I have been in that store with you and have felt it is really a nice store with a good selection.
What Karen said. They may have gotten it that way. I use to work for a grocery warehouse and we would have companies send us product like that all the time. We were suppose to check before it went out to stores, but that does mean it’s happening anymore.
UGH! So glad you checked and didn’t bring it home and get sick from eating it.
My guess is they need a new person who knows how to check and rotate stock.
I always check too. Never found anything more than a month or two expired before. (Usually just by a few days but it still freaks me out!)
I too am a HUGE stickler about this Hubby. laughs at me. Expirations are my top priority on all food when I shop.
My guess is that that product has to be a TYPO I’d call the company on my cell and let them know maybe you could of gotten some free Product…or coupons or something. ;)