CNBC: Amazon Is Shipping Expired Food (cnbc.com) 140
Counterfeits aren't the only problem when shopping on Amazon, reports CNBC. The grocery section is "littered" with expired foods.
From baby formula and coffee creamer to beef jerky and granola bars, items are arriving spoiled and well past their sell-by date, Amazon customers say. Interviews with brands, consumers, third-party sellers and consultants all point to loopholes in Amazon's technology and logistics system that allow for expired items to proliferate with little to no accountability.
Consumer safety advocates worry that as the marketplace grows, the problem will only get worse...
CNBC scanned the site's Grocery & Gourmet category, finding customer complaints about expired hot sauce, beef jerky, granola bars, baby formula and baby food, as well as six-month-old Goldfish crackers and a 360-pack of coffee creamer that arrived with a "rancid smell." A data analytics firm that specializes in the Amazon Marketplace recently analyzed the site's 100 best-selling food products for CNBC and found that at least 40% of sellers had more than five customer complaints about expired goods....
Amazon's spokesperson said the company uses a combination of humans and artificial intelligence to monitor the 22 million-plus pieces of customer feedback received weekly for product quality and safety concerns... Sarah Sorscher of the Center for Science in the Public Interest says Amazon's technology is clearly coming up short. "Expiration dates are a red flag for what else is harder to see," she said. "If you can't do something as basic as check an expiration date, then what else are you missing...? They've chosen to set up a business model where they don't take responsibility for the food that they sell," said Sorscher. "Traditional grocery stores have a lot of products, but they don't put it on the shelf if it's not safe."
Consumer safety advocates worry that as the marketplace grows, the problem will only get worse...
CNBC scanned the site's Grocery & Gourmet category, finding customer complaints about expired hot sauce, beef jerky, granola bars, baby formula and baby food, as well as six-month-old Goldfish crackers and a 360-pack of coffee creamer that arrived with a "rancid smell." A data analytics firm that specializes in the Amazon Marketplace recently analyzed the site's 100 best-selling food products for CNBC and found that at least 40% of sellers had more than five customer complaints about expired goods....
Amazon's spokesperson said the company uses a combination of humans and artificial intelligence to monitor the 22 million-plus pieces of customer feedback received weekly for product quality and safety concerns... Sarah Sorscher of the Center for Science in the Public Interest says Amazon's technology is clearly coming up short. "Expiration dates are a red flag for what else is harder to see," she said. "If you can't do something as basic as check an expiration date, then what else are you missing...? They've chosen to set up a business model where they don't take responsibility for the food that they sell," said Sorscher. "Traditional grocery stores have a lot of products, but they don't put it on the shelf if it's not safe."
Not uncommon (Score:5, Interesting)
Target has a big problem with this, too (probably due lazy stockers loading newer goods at the front of the shelf). At least when you're buying in a brick and mortar store, you can dig through the shelf for something fresher or buy something else.
Yet another unforeseen consequence of the retail apocalypse.
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Local grocery stores now outsource the stocking duties for many items. I constantly see expired yogurt at the local stores because the store itself doesn't manage the stock.
Re:Not uncommon (Score:5, Insightful)
What happens is the store contracts the company to bring in their own product through distributors. The distributors are often also responsible for reimbursing the store for out of date product. The store wants the distributor to keep the shelves full. I don't mean "items available", I mean full to the brim. The distributor wants to get as many items sold as possible, but doesn't want to be reimbursing for a bunch of out of date product. Aside from this often resulting in a yoyo effect where items are either completely empty or there are way to many, it also gets you distributors that literally complain if a store employee pulls their product for being out of date instead of leaving it for the distributor's next delivery.
Not all of them are like that, but some are. It's normally the ones dealing with tighter dates. Fuck those guys. They'd rather the store sell bad product than have to buy the merchandise back. If you see out of dates, point them out to an employee on the sales floor. Chances are they'll be just as disgusted as you and pull it.
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Or your statement is just more PR=B$, ohh look at the other company, yeah sure.
Amazon real responce, yeah our complaints system is broken cheap arse rubbish because it costs money, so customers shut the fuck up or complain to the Amazon black hole complaints system, we don't care and now a message from our PR=B$ system, we do the best we can with complaints, leaders in retail in complaints handling, any delays are entirely all our suppliers fault but look at the others, we say they are all much worse.
You
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"Yet another unforeseen consequence of the retail apocalypse."
No, it was fairly obvious to anyone that's worked retail for a while. Most workers that deal with the product aren't paid enough to give a shit. A good number of products use obfuscated date codes. There's whole pages of different variations. I can't imagine an Amazon warehouse employee having time to look for them on every individual item. From my experience the bar is even lower for those loading the warehouse, because if anything comes ba
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Amazon and Walmart are already colluding on squeezing the pricing on less purchased household goods -- heavily leveraged on the fact that consumers lack the understanding, intellect, and effort to correctly price semi-durable goods. In the consumables category, Amazon is way off retail with paper and cleaning product
Re:Not uncommon (Score:5, Insightful)
lazy stockers loading newer goods at the front of the shelf ...
Or in nerd terms, they use FIFO instead of LIFO.
You have that exactly backwards.
It SHOULD be FIFO (First In, First Out), but lazily loading new stock in front of old stock gives you LIFO (Last In, First Out).
If you use "Nerd Terms", be sure you understand them yourself, first, ok?
Re: Not uncommon (Score:3)
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You know you can correct people without being a dick about it, right?
Ironically, dicks are also LIFO.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My solution (Score:4, Insightful)
I never buy perishable food from Amazon or any other online vendor. It just makes sense to buy such items in person at a local store.
Heck, even groceries have expired items on the shelves - that’s why I always check the date. But at least you can easily avoid ending up with those items, and can actually warn the grocer right then and there!
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Sometimes the expiration dates don't mean much. Does it really matter if salt is expired? Or laundry detergent?
My spouse found an expired bottle of fungicide in the garage, and wanted to throw it out. It took me a while to convince her that it was unlikely that the fungicide was rotten.
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Herbicides can degrade in effectiveness over time.
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Salt and laundry powder both tend to absorb atmospheric moisture over time. Laundry detergent that's absorbed moisture may not dissolve nicely in the washing machine, so you might need to dissolve it in hot water and get the lumps out by hand before adding it to the machine. Enzymes in laundry detergents tend to decay over time, as does "oxygen bleach". Surfactants are fairly stable though.
Depending on what exactly the fungicide is, it might have lost effectiveness.
That said, I have various stuff that's
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Depending on what exactly the fungicide is, it might have lost effectiveness.
It is copper sulfate, used to treat leaf curl disease on fruit trees, especially peaches.
It expired over ten years ago. Still works fine.
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The expiry date in the UK is set to a point where you can be sure that eating the food is safe even if you have health issues like a weak immune system. That means they have tested it.
Beyond that date it's probably fine for 90% of people. You can use your own judgement if you are eating it yourself.
For some things like bottled water or perhaps your fungicide the sell by date is based on how long it takes the liquid to escape the bottle. Plastic bottles are not waterproof, it just takes a very very long time
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Really what is this "expiry date" in the UK. I have never ever seen a product with an "expiry date" for sale in the UK, and I have only lived here my whole life.
There is basically two dates "best before" and "use by". They are both highly descriptive. So some table salt will come with a "best before", which means after that you might find it is caked together in a large lump etc, but is still likely fine to use. On the other hand a yought will come with a "use by" date which is don't use it after that date
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Salt you can bang on a bit to make it break apart again.
A lot of things (like granola bars) just have inferior taste. They aren't necessarily unsafe. Some things notably are unsafe. Yogurt...is fermented milk, so I don't know what to tell you about that. Same with expired cheese.
Re: My solution (Score:2)
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But at least you can easily avoid ending up with those items, and can actually warn the grocer right then and there!
If only they cared. At my local grocer when the bulk items spoil they just mark them down. They will take returns, though, so that's something.
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Around here, they pay a steep fine for selling expired items. And food categories have a maximum allowed expiration period set by law. This got rid of grocers doing this crap nicely. Today, if you pick an expired item, it will beep at the cash register, and the cashier won't let you take it even if you really wanted it.
Re:My solution (Score:4, Insightful)
I never buy perishable food from Amazon or any other online vendor. It just makes sense to buy such items in person at a local store.
Agreed. Also, Amazon gets enough business. If you need food delivered then I suspect that for everyone reading this there is a business more local to you offering this service. At a minimum this gives someone nearby to complain to if there is a problem. It's real hard to ignore you if they are close enough to smell your breath. They have to know that you could go to Amazon instead, so they will do what they can to keep you happy.
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And IME, grocery items from Amazon are substantially more expensive than from a B&M store.
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Cutting back variety and inventory is what kills shops. I realized years ago that often when I go out to buy something they don't have it or have to order it anyway. Might as well save on electricity and parking costs and just order online.
Re: My solution (Score:2)
Isn't slim variety of inventory exactly how Trader Joe's has the most profitable super market while paying its employees well?
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We don't have Trader Joe's but they are apparently an Aldi sub-brand which we do have, and they have plenty of variety.
Aldi's trick is to reduce costs on things like packaging and staff labour. Goods are shipped to the store in a box that goes straight on the shelf, with the front opened so that customers can get individual items out. No need to remove every item and stack it on a shelf.
They make you wait too, there are never enough checkout staff. People put up with it because it's cheap. I'm surprised the
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Trader Joe's generally has 10% the variety of a traditional super market (4,000 SKUs vs 50,000).
They use this strategy to have massively more sell through per a linear foot of shelf space.
2 feet vs 30 feet of peanut butter for example. You go for peanut butter, there's crunchy, smooth, organic, get the one you want. None of this feet and feet of brand on brand.
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Okay, even the biggest supermarkets have 2 feet of peanut butter here.
Re: My solution (Score:2)
Isn't slim variety of inventory exactly how Trader Joe's has the most profitable super market while paying its employees well?
Re: My solution (Score:2)
Isn't slim variety of inventory exactly how Trader Joe's has the most profitable super market while paying its employees well?
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You sure love clicking that Submit button.
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No idea how that happened.
It used to warn you when their were these issues.
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Amazon is sometimes significantly cheaper, like 50% the price I can buy the same thing in the supermarket. It tends to be with items you can buy in bulk, like say a pack of 16 protein bars.
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I never buy perishable food from Amazon or any other online vendor. It just makes sense to buy such items in person at a local store.
Especially liquid foods and drinks. I've tried several times to buy drinks from Amazon and have had several soggy packages laid on my door step.
Don't buy anything liquid from Amazon.
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Groceries is maybe one of the last things we will still require from brick and mortar stores.... along with repair parts, prescription drugs, and nonprescription drugs (like alcohol and tobacco products).
Even with drugs, the insurance companies are pushing Express Scripts and other online services. I refuse to deal with them because they're slow, and they're quite content to mail medications without concern that they might be sitting in a mailbox for hours when it's 95 degrees outside (35 degrees for the
Standard Amazon response: (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Deny any link to the product in question, say something like "Amazon is a marketplace with many sellers"
2. If specific example is pointed out, delete that listing.
3. Make no effort to actually monitor problematic categories like, say, 2TB USB drives for $20.
4. Wait until next story comes out and GOTO 1
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2. If a specific seller is abusing the system or not verifying product, yes target the listing or the seller.
3. There is a LOT of grey area here. Some of it they can control, some of it not. You can only gauge this case by case, or seller by seller. It goes back to #2 either way.
This is a problem when you're operating a storefront for other sellers. It's not unique to A
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I clicked the links in TFA. All but the hot sauce were shipped and sold by Amazon. The hot sauce was fulfilled by Amazon, so they were fully in control of all of it and very much the responsible party.
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OK. I disagree. They're the vendor, so they're responsible. Yes, a 3rd party was involved, but *I* don't deal with that 3rd party, I deal with Amazon, so it's Amazon's responsibility.
And I really don't care if Amazon wants to pretend that because it goes through someone else as well as them it's not their responsibility. I don't have any connection with that someone else. I didn't buy from them, I bought from Amazon. So it's Amazon's responsibility.
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Re:Standard Amazon response: (Score:5, Insightful)
Except, the mall's cashier rung it up, the receipt has the mall's name on it, the bags have the mall's logo on them. When you asked a mall employee for a widget, he pointed you to the item, etc.
You can't blame buyers for a perception that Amazon actively promotes.
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If your argument is that it's Amazon billing you, they're just the payment processor. Paypal processes payments for all sorts of websites. It doesn't mean they're the company you're buying from. The same is true of Walmart, Newegg, or any other company that has third party sellers. Also, the receipt may have Amazon's name on it, but it al
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Also imagine that you stayed there overnight...
Imagine that when you wake up you find that your back and shoulders are completely raw from severe chemical burns...
You are arguing that its not the Hotels owners fault, that it is a
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Re:Standard Amazon response: (Score:5, Interesting)
Buyers need to actually pay attention to what/where they're buying from. You can't just say "I bought it on Amazon" and assume Amazon is the one that sold it to you.
It used to be true that "Ships and sold from Amazon.com" meant you were shipped a product that Amazon purchased from the vendor or a wholesaler. But in recent years there have been reports that they started co-mingling their inventory with Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA, i.e. third-party) inventory, meaning that even if it's "sold" by Amazon there's no guarantee they'll actually ship what Amazon procured, vs. FBA inventory. For instance, I bought a Dyson vacuum tool through the Dyson page on Amazon and specifically ordered the "Ships and sold from Amazon.com" item. I received a third-party compatible tool that clearly wasn't the Dyson product and sent it back marked as a fake; ordered the exact same SKU from BB&B and got the genuine item matching the Amazon product page.
This is why I've mostly stopped buying physical things from Amazon and urge others to do the same -- they've completely lost control of their inventory, but nothing will change until something truly threatens their finances. So far bad PR over maggot-filled cans of Starbucks Doubleshot (read the product reviews) and stories like the OP link haven't done that yet, so I'm skeptical that any amount of bad PR will tip their hand.
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They can use automation as a way to kick off further investigation.
As with police departments, don't have the AI send out the SWAT team.
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They monitor feedback, not product. (Score:2)
They monitor feedback, not product. That's USUALLY a problem if you're selling food items.
Amazon doesn't care though because they've never really had to care about such pesky things as regulations and the basis of the company was built on avoiding sales taxes anyhow.
Amazon should be forced to brand the things as not coming from amazon and if it's from amazon warehouse they should be considered as the seller for it. Otherwise it's only a matter of time before walmart becomes a "marketplace" and they take no
Send it back, on their dime (Score:2)
They can’t exactly argue it’s not their problem. And if that happens often enough, they’ll be motivated to fix it.
Me, I’ll keep buying groceries in person at the local Winco.
Expired doesn't mean bad (Score:4, Interesting)
A sell by date or best by date only means the product is at its best up to that date. The product is still edible beyond that date, but the manufacturer can't guarantee the quality.
Six month old Goldfish crackers are perfectly edible. Maybe not as crisp had they been eaten by the sell by date, but nothing which will harm you. Yes, expired baby food might be an issue depending on how far out of date it is (one day won't kill the kid), and certainly anything with a rancid smell/taste should be returned, but people need to get over their phobia about expired food.
It's the same thing with people's insatiable desire to rid their kids of every germ they come in contact with. If they would let the kid eat a pound of dirt, their immune system would be much more strong and resilient. The same with slightly expired food. It's not a big deal to eat something out of date (within reason). I would say let common sense prevail, but in this day and age, that's asking an awful lot of people.
Re:Expired doesn't mean bad (Score:5, Insightful)
A sell by date or best by date only means the product is at its best up to that date. The product is still edible beyond that date, but the manufacturer can't guarantee the quality.
True, but irrelevant. If the seller is selling expired food, they damn well ought to be telling the customer it's expired. If they are selling it for the same price as non-expired food, they are engaging in fraud.
If they tell the customer, and the customer wants it anyway... well, ok, that's between them.
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Check the dates on Jacks Links garbage next time you're at the store. It's not very long compared to actual dried jerky.
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well depends on the jerky and storage conditions.
you leave them in the sun or a hot attic and they'll be fked in no time at all.
besides - what makes you think that they wouldn't have beef jerky that was produced before amazon opened? same thing with the goldfish implies that it was 6 months beyond the sell by date which means they were already stored for quite a while.
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The product is still edible beyond that date, but the manufacturer can't guarantee the quality.
The issue isn't whether or not the food is still edible, it's the questionable integrity of Amazon passing off old food on unsuspecting buyers.
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Yogurt is a good example - a few days out (or maybe even more) will still be fine.
Anything with any mould or puffiness you should trash.
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Yogurt is a good example - a few days out (or maybe even more) will still be fine.
Anything with any mould or puffiness you should trash.
Anything but Bleu Cheese (and probably a few other things) should be discarded if you see even the tiniest bit of mold (or mould). What you see as "mold" (or "mould") is actually the "blooming" phase of the mold (or mould) infestation. Notice how bread gets kind of "soggy" before mold (or mould) actually appears? That's the mold growing and consuming the bread, but it hasn't bloomed yet.
But it is still likely some-kind of "not so good" for you, depending on the particular mold species and variety.
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A sell by date or best by date only means the product is at its best up to that date. The product is still edible beyond that date, but the manufacturer can't guarantee the quality.
So what you're saying is we should be getting heavy discounts as well as up front information about what we're buying since it will not meet our expectations of the product.
It's the same thing with people's insatiable desire to rid their kids of every germ they come in contact with. If they would let the kid eat a pound of dirt, their immune system would be much more strong and resilient. The same with slightly expired food.
Holy shit do not ever go out and give medical advice again.
I've wondered that (Score:2)
Fulfilled by Amazon (Score:3)
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It's worse than that. They commingle their own products and the same SKUs sold by other sellers and "fulfilled by Amazon", so if any seller is selling counterfeit or expired product, you could get it no matter which seller (including Amazon) you order from.
Re:Fulfilled by Amazon (Score:5, Insightful)
Only things sold by Amazon themselves can be really trusted to be what they claim.
No, not even those.
"Fulfilled by Amazon" sellers can claim to be selling product X. To (drastically) reduce warehousing overhead, Amazon store all of the product X in the same location - ones they buy, as well as ones bought by suppliers using the "Fulfill by Amazon service".
Thus, if a dodgy seller sends counterfeit stock of product X to the Amazon Warehouse, it all gets bundled together. Anyone who buys product X, including from Amazon themselves, has a chance of getting one of the counterfeit products.
Re:Fulfilled by Amazon (Score:4, Interesting)
It's even more confusing than that. When using Fulfillment By Amazon, you can comingle your inventory, or you can put barcode stickers on every item which identify it as YOUR inventory. That's why some items have their UPC codes covered with a new barcode.
As a seller the latter is great - you don't get the negative feedback from someone else's expired, fake, or damaged items.
I can't figure out why Amazon doesn't display to the buyer whether an item will be from comingled or separate inventory. I'd always choose the latter. Even though it might be more expensive and have to ship from a more distant warehouse, I'd prefer to buy from a FBA seller who stakes their reputation on the quality of the item delivered. As near as I can tell, that information is not available to buyers.
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Because if they said that, a lot of people buying high-risk items like food products and technology would avoid comingled items, which means Amazon would have to stop comingling, which means spending more on warehouse space and management. From Amazon's perspective, better to keep the customer in ignorance.
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I think you trust Amazon more than it deserves.
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I followed the product links in TFA. Most were sold by Amazon.
Who's paying /. to post these hit pieces? (Score:3, Insightful)
A data analytics firm that specializes in the Amazon Marketplace recently analyzed the site's 100 best-selling food products for CNBC and found that at least 40% of sellers had more than five customer complaints about expired goods....
So 40 goods that each sold a few hundreds of thousands of times had 6 or more bad reviews (for a rate of some 1 in 50,000)? My return rate on grocery store yoghurt is a couple orders of magnitude higher than that. What's more impressive is that the other 60 of the top 100 best selling goods didn't have 6+ spoiled reviews.
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This is the only intelligent response here.
That article is extremely weak sauce, and in fact points in quite the opposite direction of the click bait headlines and pile-on responses.
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While there is a point there, you oversell it. Very few people who get bad goods bother to write bad reviews. Most, I suspect, don't even bother to get a refund or replacement.
Also, if they were a brick & mortar store, they'd get inspected by their state's equivalent of Weight & Measures for things like expired product, and the percentage error allowed for things like "past expiration date" is pretty low.
Amazon can control this. They can hire people, and train them, to monitor complaints, returns an
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While there is a point there, you oversell it. Very few people who get bad goods bother to write bad reviews. Most, I suspect, don't even bother to get a refund or replacement.
There is a great point there, and you missed it.
The point is that the quoted numbers provide evidence that Amazon is 100 to 1000 times better at not selling expired/bad food than brick and mortar grocery stores. You pointed out an obvious flaw in taking the review counts as evidence, but as long as 0.1% to 1% of people who get bad goods to bother to write reviews, then Amazon is still doing as well as brick and mortar grocery stores.
The bottom line is that there's no evidence that Amazon is doing a wor
Why I get delivery from the grocery store (Score:2)
Things like this are why, when I need groceries delivered, I order from the local grocery stores that do delivery. I know the store is their warehouse, and anything in my order will be suitable for putting on the shelves. They're in the business of selling groceries, so they're going to take a certain care with their reputation.
Amazon is in the business of taking orders. They don't sell much anymore, and they're trying to shed as much responsibility for what's sold through their site as they can. That makes
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That does not match my experience with Amazon. They have always stood behind their sale with me - even when I've had issues with 3rd party vendors. I had a crappy and probably counterfeit set of earbuds show up - they refunded my money without complaint. The same goes for a battery that wasn't as described.
I've never ordered food, so I can't speak directly to the topic at hand, but I'd bet they are as good as anyone else, if not better. Their supply chain and fulfillment is their differentiating factor
Re:Why I get delivery from the grocery store (Score:4, Interesting)
Their supply chain is so screwed up they're regularly buying counterfeit No Starch Press books printed through their CreateSpace subsidiary. Walmart has a world class supply chain, cares about packing items correctly, and provides usually 2 day service with a modest minimum order. Walmart's customer service is also very good, and if you can visit one of the retail locations, you can speak face to face with a real human who has the power to fix your problem.
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Half true. I've had problems recently with their packaging, especially mixed weight items (heavy and light)*. As for customer service, one of my orders had been damaged somewhere in the chain of delivery and they supposedly did some magic to make it right. Received incomplete order with them saying everything had been delivered. Their reconciliation procedure was shipping back the supposedly defective/bad items and getting new ones, which if not they would charge for. Remember, never received? Nothing TO sh
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That does not match my experience with Amazon. They have always stood behind their sale with me - even when I've had issues with 3rd party vendors. I had a crappy and probably counterfeit set of earbuds show up - they refunded my money without complaint. The same goes for a battery that wasn't as described.
Serious question, not a criticism: At what point do you decide that enough is enough, I don't care that customer service takes care of the problem, the time and effort wasted and the risk of dealing with fakes and inaccurate listings is not worth it and I'm better off ordering 1) directly from the vendor/manufacturer, even if the total price is slightly higher, or 2) from another retailer whose supply chain I trust, even if the total price is slightly higher?
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I take all of the above to account. I think most people do.
And we all weigh them differently. If you are living on the edge, price might be the only thing that matters, particularly if you are also very young and haven't been burned.
Amazon isn't the best, most reliable retailer I've ever dealt with. The biggest brick and mortar places have to hold that crown... they all take pretty much any return, no questions asked. And they are usually very price competitive at the same time.
Ebay retailers are at th
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They didn't for me. That's why I no longer buy used books from Amazon. The bastard kept my money and didn't send the book, and Amazon said, essentially, "sucks to be you".
Whenever I have a choice I buy elsewhere, even if the state price is higher.
It's only partly Amazon's problem, but an easy fix (Score:2, Interesting)
Amazon themselves are shipping "expired" food (Score:2)
Two things The Fine Article is ignoring or confounding:
"Sold and shipped by Amazon" means nothing when the commingle SKUs they procured and ones from 3rd parties so they can ship them faster and cheaper from a warehouse closer to you. I don't know if they do this with food.
They don't appear to pay much attention to expiration dates for a lot of food items they directly source, that have no 3rd party sellers. At the very least, they sell and ship a lot of food that's within a month or two of its Best By da
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I would be willing to bet that the largest retailers are much better with expiration dates on food than the smaller ones. Amazon should be pretty damned good, as should Publix, Walmart, Kroger, Ralph's, etc. They move a huge volume of product, ensuring that stuff doesn't sit around so long. Their supply chains are also quite tight - so they don't have 3 months worth of cereal sitting in warehouses.
Compare with a small corner grocery in the city. That can of condensed cream of mushroom soup might have bee
Amazon is a waste (Score:2)
I think I'm the only one I know who's ditched my prime account. Amazon is worthless, but convenient. The shipping alone is to expensive. Drop your prime account, it will change your life for the better.
We don't have to worry about Amazon and expired food, if everyone stopped ordering food from Amazon, then they'd stop selling it.
Expired Hot Sauce? (Score:2)
Nothing can grow in that shit to begin with if it's worth a damn. It's almost like honey in that regard. How old is this hot sauce that it's fucking expired? This is the real question I need an answer to!
I buy all my expired food from Dollar General (Score:4, Funny)
At my Local Supermarket (Score:2)
At my local store, on any given day. I could fill a shopping cart with expired merchandise,
As a consumer i check and avoid expired products,
As a working class American i do not have the time to pro-bono secret shopper Acme. (oops i said it)
To get the best deal on food from Amazon (Score:3)
You'll find that used Twinkies (just as an example) can be purchased for much less than new ones.
Depending on the item you may even find some that are "Used - Like New".
Bon Apetit!
Not Surprised (Score:2)
I once ordered a USB-C to HDMI dongle and instead received two boxes of cookies !?!? And I'm pretty damn sure after I return said cookies, they'll just shove another label on them and ship em to somebody else.
Scale of problem (Score:2)
A data analytics firm that specializes in the Amazon Marketplace recently analyzed the site's 100 best-selling food products for CNBC and found that at least 40% of sellers had more than five customer complaints about expired goods....
So they hone in on the 100 most popular products And say 40% of Suppliers Had at least 5 complaints about expired food.
Ignoring the conflation of products and sellers, I'm curious to know how many different sale transaction each product/supplier had of Each of the best-selling Products to get a sense of the scale of the problem.
Let's say the most popular product represents 10,000 distinct sales - are five complaints about expired product really a serious problem?
Brick-and-mortar stores manage this two ways
Seems like a self-correcting problem to me? (Score:3)
I mean, if Amazon sends you expired food products? The products are still required to have those expiration dates accurately printed on them by law, so they can't really legally deny you demanding a return or exchange. Unlike the local grocery store though, Amazon incurs the cost of paying for its return shipping, or at least, paying for the replacement shipment to go out to you.
At some point, those financial losses will encourage them to take the more cost effective step of tracking the expiration dates in their system and auto-rejecting the expired products before they're boxed up and shipped to a buyer.
If the sellers are third-party? That's another story, but they're probably held to pretty high standards too, as in having to meet or exceed certain performance metrics on a monthly basis. A bad vendor can sell a lot of merchandise on Amazon in the first month -- but as their metrics plummet from dissatisfied customers demanding refunds or giving them poor ratings, they aren't going to stick around for too long.
No shit (Score:2)
In fact I expect they're explicitly told to take the first-whatever from the front of the produce section regardless of it being beaten up, bruised, fatty, rancid, mouldy or even in-date. It's not their job to care one way or another. That's why I don't understand why people are so damned la
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, but nobody should be receiving food that is past any of those dates without explicit full disclosure.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure that's not really the expiration date, but rather the way they were handled in storage. Not that that's any better.