Supermarket 'Sell by' and 'display until' dates are wrong!

andrewmoorcroft

Have you noticed that supermarkets don't understand english?
Went into a supermarket on the 13th and a lady was reducing items labelled 'display until the 13th'. It was already the 13th so they shouldn't be displayed! If it would have said 'display until the end of the 13th' it would have been OK.
I asked the lady 'if you were able to open a child bank account until the age of 18, would someone who is already 18 be allowed to open the child account before they were 19'. She said 'of course not but that's different'. I said, 'that's the same as what you're allowing with your reduced items when it is already the 13th!'

I went in another supermarket today (15th) and there was a lady reducing items that said 'consume before the 15th'. How is this possible when it is already the 15th!

I've tried to explain this to a few assistants who either don't understand or ignorantly defend their position. I can only guess that they wouldn't be working there if they understood the literal meaning of the date label!

p.s This is not meant to offend shop assistants. i'm sure there's some clever ones out there!

MooseRich

Certain items can be sold after the date, they normally have a bit extra on the date, say it would look like:

Display Until
13 Jan (2)

The (2) bit means upto 2 days after the 13th, but must be sold at a reduced price. Thats what Trading Standards told me, so I'll believe them. It's not on all products though that (2) bit.

bcl999

M&S used to infuriate me by labelling bakery items "Use By/Best Before XX/XX". Surely it can only be one thing or the other or are they advocating using something that is past its best?

Outtathaway

Actually, the way I see it, display until 13th would be that the item could be on display until the 13th and then removed after that. In the same way that if an offer was valid untilthe 13th, you'd expect it to be available at the offer until the end of the 13th. And a lot of products have on them display until end of: (Date)

andrewmoorcroft

MooseRich wrote:

Certain items can be sold after the date, they normally have a bit extra on the date, say it would look like:

Display Until
13 Jan (2)

The (2) bit means upto 2 days after the 13th, but must be sold at a reduced price. Thats what Trading Standards told me, so I'll believe them. It's not on all products though that (2) bit.

So instead of confusing everyone that doesn't know this secret code, why don't they simply label it 'display until 15th' (in your example) and start reducing it from the 13th? On the 15th take it off the shelf! This results in the same as you've decribed but without the confusion.

andrewmoorcroft

Outtathaway wrote:

Actually, the way I see it, display until 13th would be that the item could be on display until the 13th and then removed after that. In the same way that if an offer was valid untilthe 13th, you'd expect it to be available at the offer until the end of the 13th. And a lot of products have on them display until end of: (Date)

Then you are wrong!
If you have until the 13th to do something and you haven't done it by midnight on the 12th then you are too late.

If your 'offer' example is correct then they have added an extra day grace for thick people unless the offer was until the end of the 13th or until the 13th (inclusive).

andrewmoorcroft

gizmoleeds wrote:

But if the shop was discounting them on the 13th (ie. discounting them for being out of date), then they were following this definintion.

Display until the 13th means- Do not display after midnight on the 12th. I accept that they may legally sell 'out of date items' where indicated and there reduced sticker may infer that the items could be out of date. The point is that the shop staff think that an item labelled 'consume before the 13th' is still 'in date' on the 13th and not out of date till the 14th!

carrie483

andrewmoorcroft wrote:

Have you noticed that supermarkets don't understand english?
Went into a supermarket on the 13th and a lady was reducing items labelled 'display until the 13th'. It was already the 13th so they shouldn't be displayed! If it would have said 'display until the end of the 13th' it would have been OK.
I asked the lady 'if you were able to open a child bank account until the age of 18, would someone who is already 18 be allowed to open the child account before they were 19'. She said 'of course not but that's different'. I said, 'that's the same as what you're allowing with your reduced items when it is already the 13th!'

You're wrong. Display until the 13th includes the 13th for reduced items.

andrewmoorcroft wrote:

I went in another supermarket today (15th) and there was a lady reducing items that said 'consume before the 15th'. How is this possible when it is already the 15th!

I agree she shouldn't have and you should've told management.

andrewmoorcroft wrote:

I've tried to explain this to a few assistants who either don't understand or ignorantly defend their position. I can only guess that they wouldn't be working there if they understood the literal meaning of the date label!

Ignorantly defend their position?? What makes them ignorant??

andrewmoorcroft wrote:

p.s This is not meant to offend shop assistants. i'm sure there's some clever ones out there!

I can honestly say that it does, whether it's meant to or not. I used to work in Tesco (i'm not stupid and i understand the meaning of the 'date label') and i was offended.

If it annoys you so much then why didn't you take it to the manager of the stores you visited?

RussWWFC

I thought 13th (2) indicated that it was to be reduced 2 days before the 13th, always was the case at Sainsburys with the eggs where they got reduced a week in advance

Purdy_1

RussWWFC wrote:

I thought 13th (2) indicated that it was to be reduced 2 days before the 13th, always was the case at Sainsburys with the eggs where they got reduced a week in advance

My husband is a skilled baker working in the instore bakery at Sainsburys ( he has worked for Tesco & Asda). He said that 13th (2) indicates that the bread should be reduced 2 days before the 13th. Our local Sainsburys however always reduce on the date, not 2 days before. His store (not our local 1) does it the 2 days before. I think its down to the shopfloor staff's training and what they have been told to do.

philldutton

I used to work at Safeway on the stock management team (basically checking the dates and reducing stuff as needed). This is what we were told:

All items, whether best before/use by/display until had to be removed from sale before midnight on the date shown. The only real difference was that best before items are normally ok to consume after the date, but may be past their best (i.e. soft biscuits). Display until/use by items can cause illness if consumed after the date shown (stores can be hit with big fines if trading standards find any such items on sale).

The little bracketed numbers that are used are to indicate that the number of days before the best before date when the item might start to deteriorate (e.g. bread might start to go a little stale). This is when stores normally reduce the item, although this is a store policy, and not the law as some shoppers used to think!