supermarkets
Big 99 Cent Store Fined $13,225 For Cutting Dates Off Boxes Of Expired Toothpaste
Expired items are lurking on store shelves. A Fox5 investigation followed around the Nassau County’s Office of Consumer Affairs and found evaporated skim milk and diabetic medicine on the shelf that expired over a year ago. At a dollar store, they found the manager was cutting the expiration dates off boxes of expired toothpaste and still selling them. The Stop and Shop was fined $1450 for selling expired goods, the dollar store, $13,225 for 529 items. Don’t forget to check the expiration date, the store, or the Consumer Affairs Office, isn’t always going to do it for you.
Meet Crissy, The High Priestess Of Coupon Clippers
Crissy Thompson (pictured left) is among the coupon clipping elite. 11Alive News followed her around one day to learn some of her secrets. At a local Publix, Crissy managed to get two-thirds off her grocery bill and at CVS picked up $140 worth of goods for $5. Often, she spends only $10 a week on groceries and that’s with 3 kids and a husband. Check out some of her techniques and her favorite coupon web sites, inside…
Food Companies Threaten Higher Prices If FDA Increases Safety Oversight
Last week, the Grocery Manufacturers Association told lawmakers that if the FDA doubled its safety oversight budget by increasing fees from food companies, they’d have to raise prices to make up the cost. That’s right: affordable food or safe food. Choose one!
../../../..//2008/04/21/as-supermarket-prices-rise-people/
As supermarket prices rise, people aren’t just trading down from name brand food to store brands, they’re also trading down from more expensive organic brands. Also, making their own detergent. [CNN Money]
Hannaford Credit Card Theft Caused By Malware, Not Database Breach
Most corporate credit card data theft happens at the database level, like the massive T.J. Maxx breach. But Hannaford has notified investigators that the recent theft of 4.2 million accounts was caused by malware that was installed on the servers at each of its 300 locations. The software “intercepted data from customers as they paid with plastic at checkout counters and sent data overseas,” reports CNET.
Use A Price Book To Save Money On Groceries
For the ultimate in pricing transparency when shopping for groceries, use a price book. Frugal bloggers everywhere write about it like it’s the GTD of grocery shopping, and our own reader marsneedsrabbits suggested it in a thread earlier this week:
The solution to all this is a price book. It costs whatever a cheap notebook costs you, and saves a surprising amount of money and starts saving you money immediately.
If you’re detail oriented and ready to start cutting costs at the supermarket, here’s more info along with links to downloadable forms, spreadsheets (for those spreadsheet junkies), and advice.
4.2 Million Credit Cards Exposed In Hannaford Supermarket Security Breach
A security breach at the Hannaford east coast supermarket chain has lead to the exposure of some 4.2 million credit cards. The company said it was aware of at least 1,800 cases of fraud directly connected to the breach. If you shopped at Hannaford’s from Dec. 7 to March 10., when the breach is thought to have occurred, now is a great time to close your current credit and debit cards and get new ones. Side note: when clicking around their official website we found many sub-pages are down, saying they’re currently “undergoing site maintenance.”
Who Owns All The Organic Companies?
Who really owns some of the biggest organic brands in the country? GOOD magazine made one of their sexy graphs to show you. For instance, Coke owns Odwalla, Pepsi owns Naked, and Kraft owns Boca Burgers. The chart also shows you that these parent companies are among the top 30 food processing companies. Not like we’re talking a giant scandal or anything, it’s just interesting to know more about where your food is really coming from. Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it was made on a happy communal love-farm .
Birds Live In Virginia Safeway Store
Jose writes, I thought that the long lines and the produce always being out of stock was bad enough, but then I noticed the small family of birds living at my local Safeway (Nutley St, Fairfax, VA).
Fish Labeled As Steak
That is some lean beef right there. Reader Sam shares this picture of pieces of fish a Ralphs grocery store in Los Angeles mistakingly labeled as boneless chuck steak. This genetically modified food craze has gotten well out of hand. At least it’s “farm raised.”
Supermarket Trick: Wait One Month Before Using Coupons
Trent at the Simple Dollar describes the “one month coupon strategy”—a cool trick that lets you line up coupons with in-store sales for massive discounts. Set aside grocery coupons for a month, then go through and select the ones you’re interested in. Bring them to the store and you’ll find that many of them are for products that are now on sale. On Trent’s last visit to the supermarket, approximately 40% of the coupons matched on-sale products—in the most extreme example, he was able to purchase some ice cream for 19 cents.
Attention Shoppers: Please Report For Jury Duty
A Vermont judge sent his sheriff to the mall to round up a jury that could fairly try a child molester.
They stopped passers-by and asked if they were residents of Caledonia County; a “yes” answer won a summons to appear at the courthouse for jury duty immediately, right now, this minute. They rounded up 45 people that way in all, to join the 34 already at the courthouse.
../../../..//2007/12/17/whole-foods-is-recalling/
Whole Foods is recalling its 365 Organic Everyday Value™ Swiss Milk Chocolate Bars with Rice Crisps, 3-ounce size, with a Best If Used By date of 11/21/07, because the batch may contain undeclared hazelnuts, walnuts, and pecans. [FDA]
What It Feels Like To Buy Pre-Cut Onions
I bought pre-sliced onions at the supermarket last time I went food shopping. Just because it was totally stupid, and i wanted to know what it felt like to buy onions someone had thoughtfully chopped for me and placed inside a little plastic tub.
New Nutrition Label Coming To Some Supermarkets In '08
The Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI), a supplemental, easy-to-read nutrition labeling system, will be introduced on a voluntary basis next year by participating Wegmans, IGA, Hy-Vee, and Food City grocers. ONQI was developed by a bunch of nutrition and health experts and assigns products a value from 1 to 100 by scoring a number of good and bad qualities of the food. Shoppers can then compare similar products easily to see which one is more nutritionally sound.
Survey Says 73% Of Shoppers Don't Care For Their Grocery Stores
Earlier this month, IBM released some interesting findings about grocery shoppers from its new study “Why Advocacy Matters to Grocers,” including:
- 73% of shoppers “feel either antagonistic towards or have no loyalty to their local supermarket”
Are Your Cooking Spices Too Old?
In the grand scheme of things to watch out for—heavy metals, date rape drugs, foreclosure—a jar of less-than-potent nutmeg might not seem like such a big deal. But most ground spices lose their potency after only six months, which means households all across the country are about to enter the most spice-centric time of the year with expired spices. Spice seller McCormick now offers a handy spice-dating service via its website, which is how one highly excitable reader discovered that her local supermarket was selling stuff that was 5 years old.
