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

Sigur_2

I think you're just being overly pedantic to try and somehow prove you are more intellectual than a retail worker.

You've only proven to be of an ill mind.

andrewmoorcroft

QUOTE carrie483- Ignorantly defend their position?? What makes them ignorant??

They were ignorant in their lack of understanding of the meaning of words. Quote from english dictionary. Ignorant- "lacking knowledge in a given subject".

Also i have looked up the meaning of 'UNTIL'. It means 'up to a point time' or date. OR 'throughout the period before'.
BEFORE means an earlier date or point in time OR in front of OR preceeding.
ie. before the 13th does not include the 13th. Last point in time before the 13th is midnight on the 12th.

See, i am right, but i didn't originally post to prove myself right. I wanted to show how the shop policies do not follow the literal meaning of the label words. The fact that there are so many contradictions on this thread indicates that there are many interpretations. I believe that there are literal meanings for these words are not always understood, and there are many incorrect interpretations. Just because a supermarket follows a policy and you have accepted it for years, doesn't mean it's right.

This is a consumer health and saftey issue that should have no ambiguity or interpretation and it should be clear for everyone to understand the one and only meaning of these words.

Those who are good at english will know that the sign that says '9 items or less' is totally wrong and should read '9 items or fewer', but most have better things to do than tell the manager he's got it wrong!

I know my englisch is far from perfick (especillay on the webb) but i wouldn't get 4 words wrong on thousands of signs! Some people working at supermarkets are obviously IGNORANT of the english language.

andrewmoorcroft

Sigur wrote:

I think you're just being overly pedantic to try and somehow prove you are more intellectual than a retail worker.

You've only proven to be of an ill mind.

You think, I know.
I wanted to create a debate to see if there are different understandings of these labels and how supermarket policy does not follow the literal definition of the words.

My plot worked and triggered the debate and indeed shows that there are many different interpretations.

Thanks to everyone that's contributed. I will now take this to the manager of the last supermarket i went to today and show him how he was wrong to tell me that the labels are perfectly clear to anyone who understands english!

DilbertJones

andrewmoorcroft wrote:

You think, I know.
I wanted to create a debate to see if there are different understandings of these labels and how supermarket policy does not follow the literal definition of the words.

My plot worked and triggered the debate and indeed shows that there are many different interpretations.

Thanks to everyone that's contributed. I will now take this to the manager of the last supermarket i went to today and show him how he was wrong to tell me that the labels are perfectly clear to anyone who understand english!

Andrew you sound like a barrel of laughs, I bet you get bad service everywhere? If so, doesn't i tmake you think why me?

Hmmm, I could give a reason.

donnalou

Ok then if an item says best before Jan 06. I would say it means end of Jan 06 do you then think it means something else?

andrewmoorcroft

donnalou wrote:

Ok then if an item says best before Jan 06. I would say it means end of Jan 06 do you then think it means something else?

Technically it means that it was at it's best before Jan 06 (not during Jan 06). So it was at it's best prior to midnight 31st Dec 05.
Many people share your interpretation but technically it is wrong. However we all know that items with best by date in increments of months are unlikey to deteriate overnight.
In summary if you have some chocolates that are best before Jan 06, i'll eat them if you don't want them!! lol!!

andrewmoorcroft

robodan wrote:

Andrew you sound like a barrel of laughs, I bet you get bad service everywhere? If so, doesn't i tmake you think why me?

Hmmm, I could give a reason.

My supermarket is self service so i get the same service as everyone else! The date label confusion appears to be universal, even in supermarkets i've never been too.
How did you know i am like a barrel?

pwebb1985

urgh how sad is this - its a date for heavens sake! There r worse things happening in the world.

quoia

I've decided to sit on the fence for the moment UNTIL I've decided if UNTIL can be considered in some circumstances to have an "inclusive" element in its evaluation.

I suppose the essence of the argument is ...

Does ?

Display until 16th Jan

mean the same as ?

Do not display AFTER 15th Jan

and/or ?

Remove from display on 16th Jan

IF it is the same as the latter, then it can remain on display until (UNTIL? - there's that word again) 23:59:59 ON the 16th !!!!



Personally, on a similar subject, my favourite is the page sometimes found in a book/manual that proudly states

"THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK"

EXCEPT OF COURSE, IT ISN'T, BECAUSE THERE ARE WORDS SAYING IT IS!

carrie483

andrewmoorcroft wrote:

Technically it means that it was at it's best before Jan 06 (not during Jan 06). So it was at it's best prior to midnight 31st Dec 05.
Many people share your interpretation but technically it is wrong. However we all know that items with best by date in increments of months are unlikey to deteriate overnight.
In summary if you have some chocolates that are best before Jan 06, i'll eat them if you don't want them!! lol!!

Thats wrong, the best before could be prior to Dec - it could be Nov. But saying that it's at it's best before midnight is just silly. So you're basically saying that if the best before is 31/12/05 then it's going to not taste as good at 0.01am 1/1/06??

Surely you can see how silly that is.