Aldi & Sell By dates

Irreverent_Eames

I use a couple of local Aldi stores and frequently find stuff on sale past its sell-by date, sometimes by up to a week. If it was just one store I might put it down to bad management, but the fact that both stores suffer the problem makes me wonder if Aldi are quietly trying to shift out-of-date goods through the checkout rather than binning it.

Not that I'm cynical or anything ;-)

byjimini

Sell by date? You mean use-by or best-before? If it's a use-by, then it has to eb taken off and binned. Best-before is simply a guideline. Most stores will discount to get rid of them, but I don't believe they're under any requirement to do so.

MrsBartolozzi

I'm assuming best before rather than use by, but even if it's legal to sell them after the BB date the customer should know that the item is past it's best!
It's beyond cheeky to expect a cutomer to pay full whack for something that's quality is in decline, whether or not it's legal, and it leaves the unknowing customer with a product with a much shorter shelf life at home.



Before anyone comes in saying that most stuff is still perfectly fine beyond the BB date, I agree. I use stuff when it's been in my cupboards for a while and am happy to buy reduced price items if they are past the BB, when I am well aware of the item's lack of shelf life. It's when they are on the shelf with other "in date" items and sold as though they were too that I have to disagree.

To the OP, do you complain to the manager when you find the items? What do they say? It might be that they are running with very tight staffing and so the job of checking dates gets left behind to other seemingly more pressing things like filling shelves. If the manager doesn't seem bothered by this at all or seems to know about it then I'd question whether there were other food health and safety issues he/she was disregarding.

maman

What sort of stuff do you mean? In my experience there's lots in Aldi (or Lidl for that matter) that don't have dates on them anyway. Anything that has a date for that day is generally reduced at my local store. I'd have a word with the store manager if I were you.

Irreverent_Eames

Apologies, I meant USE BY dates. It's typically deli stuff that I find is out of date.

I always take the stuff to a member of staff, but I don't get much in the way of a reaction other than "thanks".

DCFC79

Irreverent_Eames wrote: »

Apologies, I meant USE BY dates. It's typically deli stuff that I find is out of date.

I always take the stuff to a member of staff, but I don't get much in the way of a reaction other than "thanks".

What reaction do you want ? You have been thanked for taking the item to them so hardly much more they could do apart from throwing a party for the 1 who found an out of date item.

I always thank any customer who hands me an item thats out of date, ive done it myself to a member of staff elsewhere and a thanks is all I get and I dont expect no more.

cnd54321

Its poor date checking by staff at your local stores. as aldi reduce items the day before the use by date eg. reduce stock dated 22/07 on 21/07.

Middy

Regarding produce - you will see a 4 digit number like 3005. That means the 30th week of the year and the 5th day of the week. I think based on the Super 6 changing on Sundays, the week starts on Sunday. So 05 means Thursday.