Grocery Store Food Vent

2007-10-27T10:36:00.000-05:00

Grocery Store: Farm Fresh
Location: Western Branch Blvd, Portsmouth, VA
Date: October 17, 2007

I was looking for crab meat in the seafood department and happened to see some Cajun Crab dip; I decided that I might try some, but what I found was some dip with a packaging date of about a month prior and an expiration date of about 7 days prior. If it were a day or two out of date, I might be understanding, but a week?!!! Surely they should have stocked and restocked at least once in 7 days! That could have made someone very sick. Be sure to always check the dates on your food products, things like this are often overlooked.

And While I'm Venting about Bad Food...

2006-03-18T21:36:00.000-05:00

FYI, I have had equally frustrating experiences with fast food restaurants. Have you ever been to fast food restaurant and maybe the food isn’t technically “expired” but it’s sloppy, cold, over-salted or dissatisfying? Well, if you have and want to vent about it, I created the blog Fast Food Dish to do just that. Tell me what you got, where you got it and when. I will post my fast food experiences and encourage you to do the same. I will try to get something at a fast food restaurant each day and report back on the quality of that item. I will even try to include a picture every now and then.

I know it seems like it’s not a big deal, but you know, when you want some hot, delicious McDonalds French fries, you pay your money and get some cold, hard french fries that are unsalted, it’s a big deal! And let’s not even talk about the times you order your food and then take it home and it’s the wrong thing or something’s missing! Call me the “fast food police” but I hate to pay my money for something and then have to throw it away. I mean, I don’t have money to throw away, do you?

Sheetz Gas Station

2006-03-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

Gas Station: Sheetz Gas Station
Location: Capital Blvd., Raleigh, NC
Date: March 11, 2006

I went into the Sheetz to buy some soft drinks and milk for myself and various members of my family. I saw that Nestle Quik has out new caramel and smores flavored milk and decided that I would try out the caramel mil since I love their strawberry and chocolate milk. I am so glad that I checked the expiration date before I bought it because it expired February 16! Now I was thinking to myself that maybe I misread the year and it actually expired in February 2007 and not 2006, but then I thought about it -- milk doesn't last for a year! Oh well, at any rate, needless to say, please check your milk before you buy it.

Target Stores

2006-03-18T21:27:00.001-05:00

Grocery Store: Target
Location: Independence Blvd. and Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, VA
Date: March 9, 2006

Once again, found expired milk in the refrigerator case for sale. I found one bottle of Marva Maid Moomentum milk that expired on 03/08/2006, and several half gallons of Marva Maid Red Label Vitamin D milk that expired today (03/09/2006). Milk is one of those things that should not be, in my opinion, on the shelf within two days of the expiration date. However, I do not know what the actual regulation is on this. When I went to checkout, I decided to stop at the Coca-Cola soda cases they had at the front of the store and get some water and soda. There was an Aquafina water that expired 01/31/2006 in the case. I checked several other waters and they seem to be within a reasonable expiration period. The Sierra Mist Free I picked up was also within a reasonable expiration period.

Target Stores

2006-03-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

Sam's Club

2006-03-18T21:24:00.000-05:00

Grocery Store: Sam's Club
Location: Rosemont Road and Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach, VA
Date: March 1, 2006

By this time I am really careful about buying stuff without checking expiration dates, but I apparently bought some Aquafina water ([32] 16.9 oz bottles) from this Sam's Club without checking the date. I was drinking some of this water recently and noticed it expired, December 22, 2005! Once again, I’m not saying that expired water can make you sick, but it was still frustrating to find out that once again, I had been had.

Wal-Mart SuperCenter

2006-03-18T21:13:00.000-05:00

Grocery Food: Wal-Mart SuperCenter
Location: College Drive, Suffolk, Virginia
Date: March 5, 2006

Found a Pizza Kit expiring February 8, 2006 still in the case for selling! This is not the first time I have seen food at this Wal-Mart in the display case that was expired. I also went to buy some Imitation Crab Meat last summer and saw that it was expired. I told the people at the seafood counter about this and they had someone come out and replace it. When I went to check what they had put out, it was expired too! I went back to the counter and told them, and of course they were annoyed, but then the manager came out and said that that was a fresh shipment and that was how they got it. I told her ok, but they might want to remove the old ones off of the shelf. I believe when I left they were still out there.

Another experience from this Wal-Mart, I bought some Sam’s choice bottle water and took it home. I didn’t even realize that water had an expiration date on it, but guess what – it does. Well, I bought this water about three weeks ago which would have put it around February 14. Well, I was drinking some this week and found that it expired on 01/01/2006. Ok, so it maybe it won’t give me food poisoning, but it’s still frustrating.

Grocery Store Food Vent Intro

2006-03-18T20:12:00.000-05:00

Have you ever gone to the grocery store, bought your favorite item and when you got home and ready to eat it, found out that it was expired? Well, this has unfortunately happened to me on more than one occasion. Actually, this has happened to me quite a bit, and I’m sick of it. I’m normally pretty good about checking dates, but sometimes I’m in a hurry or am distracted by my son doing his various activities to fight the boredom of grocery shopping that I forget to check a date, and wouldn’t you know it, I get it home and it’s rotten.

Well, I’m sick and tired of going to the store and spending my money on food, only to have to throw it away. I have gone to the store and returned bad food before, but after a while, this becomes old, not to mention the fact that the people behind the counter look at you like you are trying to poison other people or just “getting over” by returning some food that YOU let go bad.

I’ve created this blog as a way to fight back by documenting each time, place and food item that I have bought or even seen that is expired. I guess you can call me a random “mystery shopper” for every place I buy food and yes, that includes gas stations too. Let me tell you, I buy food a lot. I’m going to mention up front that I frequent Wal-Mart SuperCenters, Target and Sam’s Club most often, so you will probably see more posting for them than any other place. This is not because I am picking on them, but because it is where I shop most often. I would say that most of my paychecks are spent in those three stores, with Wal-Mart getting most of my money. I frequent WaWa gas stations quite often as well, so you may see more posting about them than other gas stations, but I’ll try to get around to other stores and stations just to be fair.