Kadishi Oliseh One of the most painful thing happened to me recently and this has led to me writing this post, I went to the supermarket to get my monthly supply of groceries and provisions. I was super excited to have had that checked off my to-do list, because grocery shopping can be a very stressful task, especially with the consistent price changes and increment of products price. Anyways, fast forward to 2 days later, I decided to snack on cereal and opened the milk, I used it and upon packing it back I decided to check the expiry date and saw that it would expire in 7 days. I was super sad and furious because I bought the biggest size 900gram, it was expensive and there was no way I could finish it.
Long story cut short I went to complain, their first excuse was that they could not collect it back because I had opened it. Their next excuse was that they wrote sale on the shelf, I told them that there was no indication on the shelf that showed it was on sale, in my defense, we went to check the shelf and it was obvious that they did not indicate purposely which just simply showed they purposely did it, and guess what over 3 tins of milk was there with the same expiring date. Anyways I felt cheated and It is very unfair that a supermarket would do that, I have learned my lesson and have decided to share it with you and also ways to avoid this kind of situation from happening again. Here are my 3 suggestions on how to avoid buying expired or almost expired products from supermarkets.
LOOK AT THE EXPIRY DATE, ALSO MAKE SURE IT IS NOT TAMPERED WITH
This is the fastest and safest means of confirming the best before or expiring date of a product is expired or about to expire. It is always written at the bottom or side of a product. In cases where it seems like the date has been tampered with or scratched, avoid it.
AVOID THE SALES SECTION, EXCEPT IF YOU ARE SURE
Sometimes when you see a sale section that relates to food or groceries, chances are it is about to expire, so make sure to check the expiring date and also be sure that you can finish it before the best before. You don’t want to buy something because is on sale and then regret it later. I am not saying the sales section is bad, I am simply just saying make sure you are sure and check the espirinf date.
AVOID THINGS THAT ARE CHEAPER THAN NORMAL
Recently, a red flag for me when shopping for groceries and provisions is when it is cheaper than it normally is, in the country I am in (Nigeria) prices remain the same or increase on a daily. So avoiding the sales section when I am not sure is a measure to take especially the fact that some grocery stores or supermarkets do not write sales on the shelf although some supermarkets write a huge sign with SALES in capital letters while making sure it is written in red for all to see.
Most importantly, In the case that it happens that you end up buying an expired product make sure not to eat or even taste it to confirm if it is spoilt, go back to the supermarket, ask for the manager and lay your complaint and also ask for a change or refund for the product.
Cheers to an amazing shopping experience.
