Community Chat

[Etoile308]

Where I live, food items returned to a store are then trashed and not resold. If I picked up the wrong peas, they'd be donated to the food pantry.

[Annabellethecat66]

Well just last Friday I went to Harris Teeter.  They only stock 6 cases of Pepsi with Real Sugar.  It was buy two cases, get two cases free.

I had one heck of a time bending over and getting the last two on the shelf.  I finally got 4 in total.

When I got home and my friend had stacked them up I noticed 2 were not REAL SUGAR.   I'll either drink them or give them to my friend.  Not a big deal.

I often pick up the low sodium cans of green beans.  I either keep them (it's better for me and I can eat them cold right out of the can) or I'll give them to that same friend.

I never carry anything back.  I'm lucky I get it home in the first place much less carry something back.

Lots of times my friends do things for me (install new kitchen sink, change light bulbs that are in ceiling, vacuum, etc) and they won't take any money but they will take things like I mentioned.

Sometimes I'll surprise them by sending them food or anything from QVC.

We all win.

[Annabellethecat66]

@Tinkrbl44  I'm a nut for checking the dates on everything.  Sounds like you are too.

When I plan ahead and have Harris Teeter shop for me I type in on everything "Check the Date".  It's amazing how many things are out of date just sitting on the shelves.

Sometimes I'll set the outdated on another shelf so people don't buy it.  I'm amazed at how fast people shop, never looking at dates.

Last year (I remember because my daughter was here from Colorado), I had Harris Teeter shop for me.

I had something like 4 boxes of Harris Teeter cream sickles and same amount of round ice cream sandwiches.

They were delivered to the house and all of the boxes of ice cream were melted.  I called the store and they had an employee deliver to me 8 boxes of the ice cream.

What had happened was the HT shopper was new and just put all of my groceries in the 'cool referigator' and not keep out the ice cream and put them into the 'freezer'.

They didn't ask me to prove it.  They took my word for it.  I have to admit I go there pretty often and have met the supervisor and I know some of the checkers, etc.  I'm sure they take anyone's word for it.  I mean I believe most people are honest.

[drizzellla]

I know if someone returns any item to the grocery store, it is thrown away. Can't trust anyone that the item was not tampered with once it left the store.

But I saw a man returning a flat truck filled with cases of mayonnaise to Costco. There had to be more than 30 cases of Hellman's mayonnaise on it. Would Costco destroy all those cases of mayonnaise?

[jannabelle1]

This is an interesting post. I don't return items to the grocery store unless I've bought something that is defective. I try to make sure that what I buy is what I want (I shop for my own groceries). If I buy something that I don't like, I chalk it up to just that and don't buy it again. Since I now only grocery shop at my favorite local chain, I know that if I buy something that is defective they will reimburse me.

Edited: Defective is not the right term. I meant a grocery item that is past the "use by" date; is perhaps moldy when opened; is not sealed as it should be, etc. Although I have yet to buy groceries like that from my locally owned grocer.

[Markg123]

I totally agree. Image getting a defective item, that would really suck. Like a pre paid phone or a supermarket tv (mine sells them) but I don’t think they save money. I’m pretty sure they have some type of insurance or something similar that will cover it

[DiAnne]

I don't remember ever returning groceries to a store so I don't know if mine is accepting returns. 

[Snoopp]

My store hasn't taken returns since last year; hope they start taking them again.

I've seen some awful people try to get a refund on items they have purchased.  One snowflake wanted a refund on a cooked chicken.  She said she wanted a different type of chicken, bought it and fed it to her kids anyway.  Scammer.  

[RainyDayGal]

I have only ever returned 2 items in my entire life.  One was a bag of dog food probably 35 years ago  that was moldy (grocery workers were on strike so food just sat around).  The other was an relatively expensive item my husband purchased by mistake. 

Other than that, I think I would only ever return something that was bad - like moldy veggies or obviously bad meat.  And it better be over $10 otherwise it's really not worth my time and gas money to take it back.

[Lipstickdiva]

The only time I ever returned a food item was a package of ground meat.  It looked fine on the outside but once out of the package, the underside was gray as was the middle.  I was so mad about it, I returned it.  Usually I toss stuff.

Last week I returned a fabric softener that was rancid. Who knew it could even be rancid?  It was the store brand free and clear, which I buy all the time.   I noticed the smell as I was pouring it into my washer.  It even had a chunk in it.  I swear someone replaced the fabric softener with milk.