I suggest checking the dates on every product you buy just to be sure it's not expired. I can't tell you how many times I've almost purchased outdated food at the grocery store!

@dragonfire81: In my experience, there's three related problems; it's a case of management being asleep at the switch, PLUS not training employees about it in the first place, AND pure, unadulterated LAZINESS on the part of the employees. If one has to stock shelves, they just shove the new boxes in front, never bothering to check the dates on the boxes already on the shelves, or removing the old boxes and putting them in front of the new ones. There is a reason so many outer cartons say to ROTATE PRODUCT. The problem is getting lazy morons to actually heed that advice.

furthermore, retail stores arent entirely to blame. companies print their expiration dates in code. for example, certain product is marked D9 12:04 DC and if you see this on the package, you have no way to accurately, without a reasonable doubt discern what the actual date is. Some companies say that the number of the letter (d=4) stands for the month (april) and the number is the year (2009) others say the number of the letter stands for the year (2004) and that number (9) is the month (september)

We need vigilanties to go through the stores loading up a shopping cart will all the expired items they can find. Then go to the checkout and hand the item to the cashier and tell them it's expired. Or just leave the cart of expired items near the entrance.

Rite Aid sold me expired PRESCRIPTION meds that cost over $100 for my portion. The pharmacist got into a big argument with me when I complained and demanded my script back. I also found out later that it is perfectly LEGAL to sell expired meds. The custom (not law or rule) is to put one year from the script date on the bottle as the exp date - no matter the real date! These are meds I take for months at a time before refill too. Expiring the same month when clearly I wasnt going to use 100 pills in one day...geesh.

CVS regularly has diary products that expired 2 MONTHS AGO! Smells goooood in there *gag*. I am a freak about exp dates but I didnt realize ppl are accepting so they dont check.

Too bad the undercover investigator wasn't in Ulta - they'd be thrown out for sure and the drugstores could continue on their merry way...

@NORMLgirl: They probably fished it back out and put it back on the shelf.

Me: "I want to return this. I accidentally bought the wrong kind."
Cashier: "Ok, no problem. Do you have the credit card you bought it with?"
Me: "Yes"
...
Cashier: "You didn't use it did you?"
Me: "No, no, no. I just bought the wrong kind. I didn't even open it."
Cashier: "Ok, just wanted to make sure before I put it back on the shelf."

I mean, she asks me that as an afterthought. Like if she didn't think of it she would have just put it back on the shelf for sale.

I don't know, I find that to be off-putting.

@dragonfire81: Probably more about cutting labor costs. It takes people's time to check the shelves as opposed to standing around at the front counter and talking about the latest hookup incident among associates.

I had previously seen Cheese Whiz, Velveeta, and actual real dairy products all expired at that store as well.

A couple of days later, I went back and the same OPENED EXPIRED bottle was sitting on the shelf!!! I told them to throw them away. I watched them do so, then never returned to that store.

@eigenvector: This is why I always reach to the back of the store shelf and never take the one in front - so I can get fresher stock.

These stock people have to learn to rotate the stuff, new stuff in the back, and old stuff in the front.

Then only occasionally will something expire and stay on the shelf, but it will be a slow selling product and in the front where it can be easily checked periodically between restockings.

Besides, don't we get enough medicine from our drinking water? A little more yaz will help grow your man boobs!

Don't companies get credit for expired stock??? I can understand not getting credit for fresh items (produce, meat)...

Packaged stuff should be returnable to the distributer for credit.

I have seen the other Hyvee stores try to sell expired milk and would frequently find dairy products past their date. Walmart also got caught doing this locally in SD. One of the local news crews started checking formula cans and found most of the shelves way past their date.

I just wish we had an AG willing to go after people like NY does.

I've found plenty of expired products in all kinds of grocery stores, especially when we lived in Las Vegas. Some of them didn't matter so much, like canned goods, but other things like pectin could make jam makers in a bad situation. I've also seen expired dairy products.

One time when I found a shelf full of expired Kraft Mac n Cheese, I turned them all so the date was showing outward, then found the store manager and told him. He said he'd fix the problem right away. Know how? He went back to the aisle and turned the boxes date-side-inward again and then walked away. He didn't know I was watching. I called to him as he walked away and said that I had seen what he had done and would be contacting their national office and no longer shopping in their store. He apologized but looked more annoyed than anything, so I walked away from my cart and never went back to that store again, and did indeed tell the company via the website. Never heard back...don't think they cared.

So when I saw the expired pectin at the new store I started shopping at, I took it to the customer service counter and the manager thanked me. At least there, it didn't reappear on the shelves.

Are companies selling expired product to try and cut costs and limit the amount of fresh product they need to order is this just a case of them being asleep at the switch?

+1 to Cuomo, NY's bas-ass AG.