I swear to God, I have been going to the store at 42/50 for years, but no less than SIX times in the past year, I've had to return rotten/spoiled/smelly beef, chicken and fish. Stuff that the "sell by" indicates should be fine for days has been opened to smell putrid, the meat was gray upon further inspection, the chicken was spoiled, most recently, today, the shrimp I bought yesterday that said sell by July 9 smelled like ammonia. I have never encountered this before. I had to Google it to find out what the smell meant. This isn't very convenient when you've already slices up some peppers you planned to do shrimp kebobs with. Hey, Lowes managers - yes, I know you'll give me a refund, but so what? I don't want a damn refund, I want to be able to trust the food I buy there and avoid this crap. Sorry, but this is unacceptable for a store that I remember very well as being the top-quality store in the Triad 20 years ago, on par with Harris Teeter. I have never had this experienced at the Harris Teeter in Fuquay off TenTen before, it's just not as convenient to go there. The managers seemed to have changed several times the past couple years as well, and while they are nice people, I get the sense they are either overwhelmed, or worse, indifferent. This is absolutely unacceptable, and if it happens again, take note Lowes managers - I will be calling the corporate office and asking them what the hell is going on. Also, I hear there is a new Publix store (the #1 rated grocery chain in America) off Kildaire Farm and Penny Rd in SW Cary - ironically, the site of a Lowes Foods location that closed down late last year. Maybe I'll just hit that once a week and forget dealing with you guys
My experience with Publix while living in Florida (a few miles from their HQ in Lakeland) was the same. Those issues are not exclusive to any one store. FL has had their issues as well. I'm right there with ya..I expect a high standard when it comes to food and meats. Sadly, the FDA is woefully understaffed as inspectors, and is probably able to inspect single digit percentage of imported foods, if that. Originally from Morehead City, and as a child from a long line of commercial fishermen, my mantra is "Friends don't let friends eat imported seafood. "
Haven't bought chop meat there in months because no matter what the date, it always smells when I open the package. disgusting.....
What we need in the 4042 area rather than another Sheetz, is a good butcher shop! Even little ole Angier has one. All of Lowes ground beef, ground chuck and ground round come in on their trucks. Since I wanted to get a London Broil cut to a specific size and they said they didn't do that there, I would assume most of their packaged meats also come in on the truck! How long has it been sitting in a warehouse before it gets to the store? Upsetting just to think about.
Lowes was providing irradiated ground beef products in about half of their stores at one time for a lower potential for e coli contamination. Such treatments have also been suggested for extending the shelf life of the products.
