The Chicago Tribune just posted a story about the Dominick’s expired food situation on their site. Look for it in tomorrow’s paper:
Dominick’s has upset a contingent of consumers over selling packaged food with expired dates.
The supermarket chain’s fan page on social networking site Facebook has been riddled with comments from posters who identify themselves as customers — angry that some stores had food with expired “best if used by,” “sell by” or “use by” dates.
Jill Cataldo, a prominent Chicago-area coupon blogger, claimed she found 761 expired items during two shopping trips, with some foods allegedly dating to 2008. She posted her findings Thursday on her blog, JillCataldo.com.“There’s a gross-out factor with it, definitely, as well as a quality factor,” said Cataldo, who added that she has been hearing about the problem for more than a year from blog readers and from students in coupon classes she teaches.
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At a store in Schaumburg, employees were seen Thursday afternoon scouring shelves for out-of-date products, filling at least two shopping carts with items, from salad dressing to barbecue sauce. The expiration dates of the items varied: from a teriyaki marinade with a sell date of Feb. 27, 2010, to a bottle of seasoned rice vinegar dated Nov. 12, 2009, to a bottle of honey mustard barbecue sauce that expired July 24, 2009.
Jdorsey says
I was really shocked to see this story today. I had just return 5 packages of rancid lamb chops that I had bought at the Dominick’s on Canal Street earlier today. My husband and I went in the store and asked the meat manager if there were any more Blade Lamb chops because they had just gone on sale today and there were none out. We waited while they were packaged, she brought them out, we picked out a few packs and proceeded to go home. We don’t live close to this store, but stopped there because we were in the area. I got ready to prepare the meat and was hit with the most horrible smell. Even my young children ran from the room. I was livid. The meat looked very fresh, but I suppose it is because the meat is heavily treated with carbon monoxide to hold the color. Well, it surely did not hold the smell. I called the corporate customer service number and the Canal street store to complain. My husband took it back and said the man who packaged the meat attributed the smell to the lamb being, “Wild”! This man should be immediately fired if he doesn’t know the difference between fresh and spoiled meat. I will never purchase meat from them again! Ridiculous!
LuluD318 says
Make it rain, Jill! Nice job!
crunchsalon says
Jill,
Bless you for all you do for us bargain shoppers and consumers! Thank you for taking the time to make our lives better. If Dominick’s were smart they would hire you to help them get back on track rather than engaging in retaliatory accusations. Any company representative who makes defamatory statements about a private citizen such as yourself puts the company at risk for a lawsuit aside from being unprofessional and uncool.
The CEO of Dominick’s should be embarrassed. As an investor, I would steer clear of SFY — problems on the front line signal problems elsewhere. I wonder how long it will be before some story about trouble in the executive suite hits the street.
J.R. says
I wonder how many Chicago grocery stores other than Dominick’s have teams combing their stores checking to make sure that THEY are not the next target of the expired item news report?
I know if I were the manager of a competitor, I’d be doing exactly that right now. No matter how good I think my staff is at rotating stock. I don’t think I’d want to have to deal with Jill and Dorothy walking into my store and putting my job on the line.