Rachael absent-mindedly left her phone at Safeway, a grocery store chain. Leaving things behind is a normal thing: it happens to everyone, even if you won’t admit it. What isn’t normal is what happened between Rachael and Safeway in the days afterward. She was lucky that no other customers wandered off with her phone, and that the store held on to it for her in their safe. At least, that’s what they said part of the time. [More]
supermarkets
Woman Struck By Lightning While Cashing Out At The Grocery Store
By 7.16.13
Did you think that you were safe from lightning strikes while you’re indoors, paying for your groceries? Apparently not. A woman standing in line at a Louisiana supermarket was struck by lightning, a baffling event that a meteorologist called “one-in-a-million.” She ended up in the hospital, and business went on as usual in the store. [More]
Safeway Doesn’t Seem To Care That It Repeatedly Overcharged Customer
By 7.10.13
Safeway is no stranger to overcharging customers. In fact, the supermarket chain has twice been sued by the state of California for failing to have the prices on the shelf match what shows up at the register — and even a court order, it’s continued to screw up. And while Safeway corporate claims to care about accurate prices, that message is not getting through to some stores. [More]
Big Meat Sues USDA Over Country-Of-Origin Labeling Requirement
By 7.10.13
In May, new USDA regulations went into effect that require meat processing plants to label not just the original country of origin for each item sold, but also which countries that product might have stopped at along its way from farm-to-store. The rules also prohibit the commingling of meats from various international sources. But now a group of meat industry associations have sued the USDA, claiming that this rule violates their Constitutional rights. [More]
Neighborhood Vons Store, I’m Really Worried About You
By 6.24.13
David’s family are the very definition of loyal customers: they have shopped at the same Vons store for 50 years now. Not just “at Vons”: at the same location all that time. They know the layout of the store well. Now, David is worried. He’s worried that this venerable store has forgotten how prices work. [More]
Check Out These Exceptionally Large, Salmon-Colored Shrimp
By 6.18.13
Reader Griffin was shopping at Jewel when he discovered some exceptionally large and luscious shrimp. Which are also sort of salmon-colored. Hmm. [More]
English Grocery Store Offers Venison Special: Severed Deer Head At Checkout
By 6.12.13
You can encounter the weirdest stuff at the grocery store in the wee hours of the morning, but you probably haven’t seen anything weirder than what turned up in the self-checkout aisle of one of UK grocer Tesco’s stores at 1:30 in the morning: the severed head of a deer. [More]
Congress To Once Again Consider Legislation That Would Ban BPA From Food Packaging
By 6.4.13
Bisphenol-A (better known as BPA) is a chemical used in all manner of food packaging, in spite of numerous studies linking BPA to everything from increased risks of certain cancers to diabetes, reproductive abnormalities, heart disease, and maybe even childhood obesity. Since the FDA has decided there still wasn’t enough science to ban BPA from food packaging (though it later hedged on this ruling and banned BPA from baby bottles), lawmakers in Congress are having another go at a legislative effort to limit the use of BPA. [More]
Publix Feels Really Bad That They Decorated Your Cake With A Bug, Delivers New One
By 5.28.13
You might have had some nice celebrations this weekend, but we’d guess that none of them had the shocking level of true Above and Beyond customer service that karen experienced at a cookout on Saturday. Something as tiny as an insect can totally ruin the party, when that insect is a dead gnat lodged in the frosting of your birthday carrot cake. [More]
Man Jailed For Rubbing Pepperoni On His Weiner At Grocery Store
By 5.17.13
Earlier this week, a northern New York man was caught doing a terrible, terrible thing to an innocent stick of pepperoni. He was arrested and put behind bars…not just for lewd behavior in public in a Hannaford store, but because they had to destroy the pepperoni he had defiled afterward. [More]
Legislation Would Push FDA To Investigate Antibiotic Use In Farm Animals
By 5.8.13
As Americans grow more concerned that the antibiotics being provided to farm animals are resulting in new strains of pathogens that are resistant to these drugs, a group of Senators have introduced legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration more authority to collect data about this controversial practice. [More]
Kroger Uses Infrared Cameras To Cut Customer Wait Times
By 5.2.13
My first job was at a mom-and-pop grocery store. We normally had only one checkout line open, but if things backed up, someone would just hop on the other register and the logjam would ease. Seems like a simple enough concept, but apparently too simple for a supermarket chain like Kroger, which has turned to high-tech infrared cameras to improve its customers’ wait times. [More]
Report: FDA To Lift Ban On Cured Meats From Italy
April 29, 2013
Have you been aching for that one taste-bud tantalizing pancetta you had while visiting Italy ten years ago, but which you couldn’t get because of FDA restrictions on the import of Italian cured meats? If so, here’s some good news. Reports indicate that the ban –which had previously been eased but still severely limited imports — will be lifted starting May 28. [via L.A. Times] [More]
Giant Eagle Says It’s Doing Customers A Favor By Requiring Loyalty Cards At Self-Checkout
By 4.3.13
Many consumers have a love-it or hate-it feeling about self-checkout, but regardless of one’s personal feelings about the system, if a store makes it available, it should be open to all customers. Not according to the folks at Giant Eagle supermarkets. [More]
Bill Seeks To Phase Out Over-Use Of Antibiotics In Farm Animals
By 3.14.13
It’s been almost two years since the FDA asked the farmers of America to pretty please stop pumping up their livestock with antibiotics they don’t need, and yet that amazingly seems to have had no effect. And so today, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter of New York has introduced legislation that would curb the controversial practice. [More]
Is Seattle Plastic Bag Ban Actually Leading To More Shoplifting?
By 3.1.13 — Updated: 3.2.13
Last summer, Seattle enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags in the city with the intention of cutting down on waste and litter. Some reports claim that this ban has led to an increase in people shoplifting with the aid of reusable cloth bags, but do the numbers back that assertion up? [More]
Here’s Why It Never Hurts To Give Your Soda Can A Rinse
By 2.6.13
If you’re the type to drink from a soda can straight out of a store cooler or right from a vending machine, you might want to consider giving it a rinse or a wipe down with a wet napkin first. [More]
6 Food Items That May Be Padded With Ingredients Not On The Label
By 1.22.13
It’s one thing to look at the ingredients on some packaged foods and be befuddled by the presence of certain ingredients. It’s another thing when the makers of those products are using unlisted adulterants to provide filler to the products you buy. [More]
