Went into FL at 4042 to pick up some much needed items. As usual, I went by the meat counter to see what they have to offer. Saw oysters on sale with FL card. Oysters on sale were Wash state. Told the man I was from Down East and I don;t eat oyusters from Washington. Asked man about the Crassostreia Virginica oysters, from Elizabeth City. His response was..the Wash oysters were "standards" and the NC oysters were "selects" which is why they weren't on sale. I pointed out that the sell by date, stamped on the NC oysters was 10-26, TODAY. I was interested in buying some, as I could have fixed them for dinner. He took all 6 pint jars of them in the back, and came out empty handed, saying he threw those away. Whether or not he did, I do not know. I left without buying anything. Check me if I'm wrong here, but the econ classes I took said that sellers will normally sell at any price, rather than at no price, all other factors being equal. In my mind, the expiration date was today, and if they didn't sell today, they couldn't legally be sold after today. Sheeesh. And yes, given the grand scheme of things, this isn't a biggie. Sure did get under my skin, though. Done with FL. It was a convenient place to stop in for those few indulgences that they offered, as I make a daily trip to check mail at Bulldog Express.
The employee did the right thing by tossing them; why take the risk of selling a product on the expiration date? Better to err on the side of caution than risk a lawsuit involving spoiled food. He was trying to protect you. FL is VERY strict about the handling of perishable items, especially when the shelf life is about to expire. If it was something like a box of spaghetti, that would have been different. If you do wonder what happened to the oysters, you could call the manager and tell him about your experience. They could look into it for you. Please don't condemn a store because of one incident that rubbed you the wrong way. Customer service is very important.
As a Down Easter who's shucked his share of oysters, yes, I'd agree that oysters AFTER expiration are a bad decision. The sell by date was the same day I picked the jars up. And, if kept at temperature, as they appeared to have been, would have been ok. I've seen oysters in the shell at LF, that have opened=not good oysters. And that 60 minutes thing is YEARS ago, ancient history for most of the employees and customers. I still see them dropping the price on meat that expires the date they mark it down.
I don't understand why FL wouldn't mark down the oysters that you wanted to buy when they mark down steaks, chops and other meats first thing in the morning when they have a sell buy on that same day. When I get those meats I fix them the same day I get them, just like you were going to do with the oysters.
F/L dropped the ball about 6 years ago. SOOOOO glad Lowe's Food opened and even better, Wal Mart. I buy meat and produce at Lowe's and everything else at Wal Mart. They should turn the F/L into a Target or something else I could use!
Ehhh.........oysters, probably not worth the chance. They are so perishable I did pick up some shrimp and salmon at Kroger on Sunday that had an expiry date of today. 1/2 off and we ate it Sunday night and it was delicious. I bought hamburger like that ONCE. I nearly ended up in the hospitall with food poisening. Ground meat, big NO. Chicken? Heck no. Roast or steak. As long as it isn't discolored, it's fine.
About a year ago I bought some crab legs on special, not marked down, from Lowe's to eat by myself because my wife was out-of-town. I took them home and steamed them. I couldn't smell anything because I had a cold. I chowed down. The next day I had the galloping trotsky's, but thought maybe the beer and crab/high protein meal didn't mix. I cooked some more of the same crabs and by now my cold was gone. The crab totally smelled like ammonia and my wife confirmed it. I took it back to Lowe's and they refunded my money. I declined their offer for free crab from the same display case. So even if everything's w/n expiry it can still go bad. /I get the shudders smelling something ammonia-like outside of work or cleaning house.
Actually it was so long ago that evidently most folks forgot it was a 20/20 piece on TV, not 60 minutes. 8)
I have always heard not to buy meat from Food Lion, and I generally don't. I buy ground beef (in the roll) and the frozen shrimp when it goes on sale. Otherwise all meat is purchased at Lowe's and BJ's.
I get meat from the reduced meat section and it goes into Buddy's food now! :hurray: We've eaten chicken & beef and neither one of us has died yet OR gotten sick. I'm super duper picky about what I eat and if it don't LOOK right, I wont even get it for the dog!!! :ack::ack:
I've bought a few things from the new one at Riverwood and so far, so good. Got some cube steaks that were excellent.
