First In, First Out=Wrong

[EricKei]

I really wonder how she got it in her head that the younger ones should be in the front...

She's probably used to shopping at stores where the perishables are seldom rotated properly. Eww.

[Flying Grype]

When I'm buying milk or cream for my household, I just grab what's at the front (although I do look at the date to make sure it's not tomorrow).

When I'm buying milk for the restaurant where I work, I'll dig to the back and find the youngest milk. Boss doesn't cook with milk because it's mostly Chinese food. The milk is there for making lattes and cappuccinos, which most of our customers don't realize we have. Hell, most of our steamed drinks are made with soymilk anyways. So we don't go through the cow milk very fast.

[BrenDAnn]

I buy organic milk (Horizon, if anyone is interested) and it generally lasts MUCH longer than non-organic. We're talking the date is at LEAST a month longer than non-organic. The date on the container in my fridge at the moment is sometime in October. However, I do always try to find the freshest, just because, well, it's just me drinking/using it, and I hate wasting things like that.

[ozcatbug]

I noticed most people don't even look at the dates....they just grab from the back.

I was working grocery and my night manager asked if I could go sort out the long-life UHT milk. He then apologised, and told me to take as long as I needed. That really didn't fill me with confidence.

Bit of background. At that stage I had got the UHT milk working well. The reason I was put on there was because someone kept pushing everything to the back of the shelf and filling at the front. It took me 2 shifts of 5 hours to get everything back in order (yes it was that bad). I had to take everything off the shelves (6 modules of 6 or 7 shelves each) reorganise the dates and put them back. There was quite a few cartons that were out of date, which is impressive when you consider the shelf life on these products is about 9 months, and the store hadn't even been open a year yet. After this all worked out, I only needed to work on the milks about once or twice a week to maintain it, and the other nights other fillers could fill by pushing everything to the back and filling at the front. End background.

So the night the night manager apologised before sending me to the UHT milk. I get to the aisle, and almost burst in to tears. The milk on the shelf was pushed all over the place. Several cartons had been deformed so that they didn't even stand up. There were cartons all over the floor and all mixed together on the wrong shelves. It was obvious that someone had tried to get the latest date so had gone digging through the completely full shelf to get what they wanted. If they had just realised that EVERY CARTON on THAT SHELF AND the TWO SHELVES ABOVE AND ONE SHELF BELOW HAD THE SAME FRIGGIN DATE! It took two hours to sort that mess.

But you can't really blame the customer can you. After all almost 10 months shelf life is nowhere near enough. There might have been some cartons with a years shelf life.

[Geek King]

She's probably used to shopping at stores where the perishables are seldom rotated properly. Eww.

Or possibly sells so many that the stock rotates itself rapidly enough not to sit on the shelf very long.

[EricKei]

But you can't really blame the customer can you.

Well, yeah, I can. Going for the youngest date is cool, it's expected. But, it's also expected that the custy's NOT destroy other stock in the process.

[MadMike]

Gotta love these people who think they're right and the rest of the world is wrong. I used to live with one, after all.

At my old supermarket job, many of the cases had reminders printed on them to rotate the stock by moving the older stuff to the front and putting the new stuff behind it. Apparently that wasn't always being done, however. I had to work a different aisle one day, and noticed that the newer stuff was in the front, rather than in the back like it was supposed to be. In the back was some product that was a couple years past the "Sell by" date.

[Food Lady]

I noticed most people don't even look at the dates....they just grab from the back.

I have never, ever looked at dates, and I grab from the front. Milk is so pasteurized that it takes a lot for it to go bad. Not once, but twice I have forgotten to put a gallon away and left it in the living room overnight. I put it in the refrigerator after that and smelled/looked at it before I used it. It didn't look/smell bad at all because air hadn't gotten to it, so I used it. I'm still alive.

[Lovecats]

I've had milk go bad before it's sell by date and then I've had milk that was still good days after. I just always sniff it before I use it just in case.

[Andara Bledin]

I have never, ever looked at dates, and I grab from the front. Milk is so pasteurized that it takes a lot for it to go bad.

It's almost entirely dependent on how it's stored.

I only glance long enough to make sure that I've got a few days left on the 'sell by' but otherwise don't really care. I don't like wasting it, but no matter how little I get, if it's enough for my needs, then I'll end up throwing the remainder out.

^-.-^

[dragon_wings]

Not once, but twice I have forgotten to put a gallon away and left it in the living room overnight. I put it in the refrigerator after that and smelled/looked at it before I used it. It didn't look/smell bad at all because air hadn't gotten to it, so I used it. I'm still alive.

Both my roomie and I have done this at least once. And there was the one time we left it in my car for about an hour in 80 degree heat. Surprisingly enough it was fine. Roomie and I drink it so fast anyways.

[SkullBash]

She should just switch to soy milk. That shit lasts forever.

[PepperElf]

I check dates. If the sell by date is in two-three days, I take one from the back. Sorry, but in my experience that date pretty much is the expiration date (or "use by" date if you prefer). It might last 1 or 2 days beyond that but I'll be able to tell it's starting to go.

But I completely understand stores putting the older product out front. That's logical. SC's, however, usually aren't.

Yes and no.

The real "expiration" date is one week after you open it. Assuming you bought it before the sell-by date.


So in my home, we get our milk at least a week before the date, so by the time that date rolls around it's time to finish it or dump it.

[Jester]

Unless the date on the milk/cottage cheese/whatever is really close, I just grab the front stuff.

EXCEPT, that is, with my rye bread. I LOVE Arnold's rye bread (and rye bread in general), and I'm sorry, if there are newer and older loaves, I AM going to the back of the shelf to grab that newer loaf of rye. Because very few things make me happier than a fresh fresh fresh loaf of tasty rye bread. (Yes, I'm absolutely serious about this.)

UHT milk

What's UHT milk?

[Andara Bledin]

UHT stands for Ultra High Temperature and is also sometimes referred to as Ultra-Pasteurization.

After doing research, I wouldn't drink it, myself. There's a decent chance it's the reason I suffer stomach problems if I drink milk these days.

^-.-^