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M&S Use by dates
Comments
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I hope you pointed it out to the staff. I once found some potato salad in Iceland that was more than 6 months past it's sell by date - now that I wouldn't have eaten!
wow that's totally unacceptable, poor facing up/date checking/date alert on the chilled section there. I work for Iceland, not on the chilled section at all but if I have a minute spare I often quickly browse the fresh meat section and top shelves at the back as their the worse for it, some folks just don't do their job properly.
Say you have 2 left on the shelf going out of date in 2 days, you bring down a new box with a sell-by in two weeks time. A sensible person puts the new stuff at the back and brings the ones closer to going out of date to the front, but some folks are too plain lazy to bother, so that stuff gets shoved to the very back, new stuff always takes it's place, so no one notices the very last packet at the back, actually went out of date two weeks ago.
Ridicolous, and it isn't just us, I see it when I shop at Sainsburys sometimes too, it'll be the member of staff who does that particular area, or whose job it is to do date checking/alert forms.0 -
Indeed, sadly the staff in our store don't seem to have figured that one out - I ALWAYS check dates because they're so bad. In a way I wish I had reported them to environmental health, but I couldn't have just left the out of date products on the shelf as someone could have come along and purchased them.Say you have 2 left on the shelf going out of date in 2 days, you bring down a new box with a sell-by in two weeks time. A sensible person puts the new stuff at the back and brings the ones closer to going out of date to the front, but some folks are too plain lazy to bother, so that stuff gets shoved to the very back, new stuff always takes it's place, so no one notices the very last packet at the back, actually went out of date two weeks ago.Stompa0 -
Say you have 2 left on the shelf going out of date in 2 days, you bring down a new box with a sell-by in two weeks time. A sensible person puts the new stuff at the back and brings the ones closer to going out of date to the front,
And a sensible shopper always looks further back to find the ones with the longest date and leaves the short date ones on the shelf.0 -
geordie_joe wrote: »And a sensible shopper always looks further back to find the ones with the longest date and leaves the short date ones on the shelf.
no, a wasteful shopper does that, I see it all the time "John make sure u get da one with da long date k!", ugh, when I hear them discussing their eating it that night! Plan your meals, if you KNOW you're going to eat that product within 3 days, you DO NOT need to avoid the one with a best before date 3-4 days away and grab the one at the back with 2 weeks left, you can take the one with the shorter date. Or...hell freeze it, I buy tons of stuff on the day of sell-by as we half price it, just freeze it and use within the month. People complain supermarkets throw away hundreds of pounds of product every day, but it's that "sensible shopper" reasoning you've stated that we have too.0 -
Conversely, you could equally well argue that, if the consumer takes the short date product, then it's more likely that the consumer will end up throwing it away.People complain supermarkets throw away hundreds of pounds of product every day, but it's that "sensible shopper" reasoning you've stated that we have too.Stompa0 -
no, a wasteful shopper does that, I see it all the time "John make sure u get da one with da long date k!", ugh, when I hear them discussing their eating it that night! Plan your meals, if you KNOW you're going to eat that product within 3 days, you DO NOT need to avoid the one with a best before date 3-4 days away and grab the one at the back with 2 weeks left, you can take the one with the shorter date. Or...hell freeze it, I buy tons of stuff on the day of sell-by as we half price it, just freeze it and use within the month.
There's a difference between buying something that has been reduced because it is at it's best before date and choosing to buy a loaf with 4 days left instead of a loaf with 2 days left when both are the same price.
The simple fact is, you give a customer a choice and they will go for the better option. And the longer a product has left, the fresher it is.
You can't go giving a customer a choice then complaining when they make a choice. If you don't want them to choose the longer date product then don't put it on the shelf until the shorter date ones have been sold.People complain supermarkets throw away hundreds of pounds of product every day, but it's that "sensible shopper" reasoning you've stated that we have too.
I won't bother answering this as Stompa has already done it better than I could have.0 -
geordie_joe wrote: »There's a difference between buying something that has been reduced because it is at it's best before date and choosing to buy a loaf with 4 days left instead of a loaf with 2 days left when both are the same price.
The simple fact is, you give a customer a choice and they will go for the better option. And the longer a product has left, the fresher it is.
You can't go giving a customer a choice then complaining when they make a choice. If you don't want them to choose the longer date product then don't put it on the shelf until the shorter date ones have been sold.
Well I consider that another problem in our wasteful society. Obviously with something like bread, you're going to avoid one which has todays date as it's best before, however like I said, folks reach to get to the one at the back, even if they are going to consume well before that use by date, and before the use by date of the products with a shorter shelf life left. I suppose you're right most customers will do it no matter what, but it's just a tad frustrating, for example if you're going to use some mince the next day, then the one going best it's use by in 2 days, is just as fine as one with 4 left.
It would be ideal if we could wait until all of a product was sold, but then you get the problem of off-sales, low fill level, shops have targets and inspections and stuff, fuller shelves are also more attractive to customers you'll find.0 -
Well I consider that another problem in our wasteful society. Obviously with something like bread, you're going to avoid one which has todays date as it's best before, however like I said, folks reach to get to the one at the back, even if they are going to consume well before that use by date, and before the use by date of the products with a shorter shelf life left. QUOTE]
I always look for the longest shelf life on bread. I live on my own and if I didn't a lot of it would be wasted. I want it to last as long as possible - and don't get me wrong, I wont throw something out if it has passed its date either, but I want it to be fresh for as long as possible. If I had a big family I wouldn't care about dates so much as things would be demolished quite quickly.Looking forward to the future.0 -
t it's just a tad frustrating, for example if you're going to use some mince the next day, then the one going best it's use by in 2 days, is just as fine as one with 4 left.
It may be frustrating, it may even be wrong of the customer to do it, but why give them the option to do it then blame them for doing it?It would be ideal if we could wait until all of a product was sold, but then you get the problem of off-sales, low fill level, shops have targets and inspections and stuff, fuller shelves are also more attractive to customers you'll find.
I think you'll find customers are happy as ;long as you have enough of a product for them.
If they go into a store for 1 pack of mince and there is only 1 pack of mince on the shelf they'll take it and be happy about it. They won't be any happier if there are 30 packs of mince on the shelf.0 -
I'm not sure that's always the case. I have on many occasions simply opted not to buy something because the only ones available had short dates.geordie_joe wrote: »If they go into a store for 1 pack of mince and there is only 1 pack of mince on the shelf they'll take it and be happy about it.Stompa0
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