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I HATE this. I previously shopped at Trader Joe's with confidence - I knew I wasn't being gouged on price, so I generally ignored prices. I knew the food was go

by _lex 13y ago

I HATE this. I previously shopped at Trader Joe's with confidence - I knew I wasn't being gouged on price, so I generally ignored prices. I knew the food was good, so I could turn my brain off and just buy whatever I fancied. However, maybe 7 months ago, I started to notice that I was buying expired or nearly expired things from Trader Joes - bread that would go bad the next day (got mouldy), cheese with mold, etc. It was super irritating, and I would never remember to return those things so I'd wind up eating the cost. I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the back of the shelves, so now I just head for the back of the shelf when I need to buy perishables there. This sucks for me, since buying at TJs used to be a stress-free experience, and now I check the 'use-by' dates on everything. I actually flirted with shopping at Walmart (the one on San Antonio), but even though the prices are lower, the checkout lines are crazy at peak times, which is when I shop. I also checked out Safeway, but they do a pricing technique that I call "Price Warfare". They randomly advertise products on heavy discount, and get you to incorporate those products as defaults in your shopping habits, then they switch their discounts to other products. This means that I've wound up paying $7 for basic icecream (which usually costs around $3:50). They also like to prominently display expensive items and hide their cheaper substitutes. This is most visible in their produce section - if you go in looking for grapes and without your senses about you, you'll pick up organic grapes by default. It also means that shopping at Safeway is mentally exhausting, since I've got to recalculate the 'best' prices on everything I buy every time I go there - so I avoid it now. <end rant>

backprojection 13y ago
I generally agree with you - shopping at TJs is a fairly low-BS experience. But I feel that putting less fresh stuff in front is just common sense - its just a a FIFO buffer.
- _lex 13y ago
  I'd agree with you, if the buffer had a sensible cutoff. The cutoff is currently "tomorrow" - so you'll buy stuff who's useby date is before you've even opened it. Sucks.
  - ars 13y ago
    You are confusing sell by and use by. Despite what it says, the date on the shelf is almost always sell by.
- jmspring 13y ago
  FIFO is common at many stores. I mostly shop at a handful of local stores, one in business for around 100 years, the other around 40 now. The younger of the two is more "hippy" (for lack of a better term) and has had many expired products on the shelf I've had to point out/return (when I wasn't paying attention). The older, not so much. I don't shop at the local Safeway -- a wholly different issue. A lot of stores go with the FIFO approach, but some staff don't necessarily pay attention. In other cases, the vendor rents space and is responsible for stocking their own shelves...this happened to me recently...juice 2 weeks past due (didn't check when purchased, returned an hour later) -- store honored the return, but mentioned it was the vendor's responsibility.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    What an absurd way for the store to put it. "Yeah, we don't look after the sell by dates, but shop here anyway." (It's perfectly fine for the store to rely on the vendor to stock their products, it's silly for the store to try to communicate to a customer that they aren't still responsible...)
jlgreco 13y ago
Interesting... a few months ago I noticed exactly the same thing. I've begun walking a half mile further a few times a week to a Safeway rather than go to the Trader Joes two blocks from my home because of this. (I refuse to use store club cards, so I don't encounter the trouble you have with them). I actually prefer some trader joe's branded food to the alternatives, but it isn't worth it to go there. Food from other stores simply lasts longer, which is essential when you are buying for just yourself.
- _lex 13y ago
  Exactly. Most people aren't realizing that my frustration is with the extremes of the rotation - food shouldn't be going bad/ have a use-by date that is the day after you buy it. Trader Joe's obviously has had a significant change of policy recently to reduce losses to perishables, and it's foisting those losses on customers. I hate it.
mansam 13y ago
> I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the back of the shelves, so now I just head for the back of the shelf when I need to buy perishables there. This sucks for me, since buying at TJs used to be a stress-free experience, and now I check the 'use-by' dates on everything. I just wanted to mention that this is a standard practice called rotation. After all, putting new product in front would result in wastage of the older product. Products are supposed to be culled on their sell-by (not expiration) date, and it's unfortunate that you got some bad groceries, but they didn't do anything unusual or shady. Similarly, Safeway's practices are fairly standard amongst grocery stores, though it's a little annoying. Best to follow the sale circulars and keep your wits about you.
- yareally 13y ago
  Yep, just look at milk. The newer milk is always in the back. If the expiration dates are too short and you won't be able to drink it in time, just look for ones towards the back and get those instead. I generally don't care though as long as the expiration isn't within a week.
  - refurb 13y ago
    Hackers new tip: Buy lactose-free milk and it will stay good for much longer than regular milk. I don't consume a lot of milk, and I was getting tired of buying a half-gallon and having go bad two weeks later after I had only consumed 1/4 of it. Lactose-free milk stay good for a long-time. Most of the time when I check, the best-before date is at least 6 weeks into the future. I've never had the milk go bad even if I've had it for 8 weeks. I'm not lactose intolerant BTW. The only drawback is that the milk definitely tastes sweeter than regular milk. I'm used to it by now, but I'm sure some people would find it disagreeable. I'm not sure why it lasts so long, even though there is no lactose in it, there is plenty of other sugars in it. Lactose-free milk is made by using enzymes to split the lactose into galactose and glucose. It tastes sweeter because both of the sugars have a higher perceived sweetness than lactose on a weight basis.
    - silencio 13y ago
limejuice 13y ago
>I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the back of the shelves, so now I just head for the back of the shelf when I need to buy perishables there. < This is standard practice at grocery stores to put freshest food at the back and soonest to expire in the front. No reason to hate on TJ's on that point.
- stephengillie 13y ago
  It's called "rotation" and yes it's something grocery store managers struggle to get their lazy employees to keep doing.
ars 13y ago
> I HATE this. I previously shopped at Trader Joe's with confidence Um, this has NOTHING to do with Trader Joe's! Is it too much to even read the title? Never mind the actual article?
- _lex 13y ago
  I read the article. You need to read my comment. It's about the fact that food often DOES go bad by the sell-by date, and that Trader Joe - where this guy got his experience - has changed their policies to aggressively push older, effectively near-expired goods on customers. That's what I hate, and it's pretty relevant.
  - ars 13y ago
    It still has nothing to do with this. If they changed policies it has nothing to do with him. And his idea of using old food has nothing to do with their policies. You are combining two unrelated things.
arbutus 13y ago
Not sure how a LIFO queue would possibly work whatsoever for perishable goods.
ap22213 13y ago
Maybe I'm crazy, but I always thought that Trader Joes just bought their food from low cost countries and cheap manufacturers and then sold it for much higher prices, but with cool labels and within a fun atmosphere. I would never trust Trader Joes food, personally.
- gaadd33 13y ago
  Trader Joe's is the American version of Aldi. Almost all the products are store brand so that they can offer lower prices. Plus the stores don't have nearly the same number of SKUs as other competitors. Why wouldn't you trust it? Do you not trust grocery stores in general?
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    There are Aldi in America too, and I don't trust them either. Their produce, at least at the locations I have been to, is really sketchy.
mistermann 13y ago
> I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the back of the shelves I can't imagine this is a new practice at Trader Joe's, it's an industry standard, and common sense quite frankly. I'm very interested in what you consider proper practice should be with perishable foods (or what you think they used to do)? It almost sounds like you think they used to throw all perishables away that didn't sell on the first day and restock everything fresh nightly.

by _lex 13y ago

backprojection 13y ago

I generally agree with you - shopping at TJs is a fairly low-BS experience. But I feel that putting less fresh stuff in front is just common sense - its just a a FIFO buffer.

_lex 13y ago
I'd agree with you, if the buffer had a sensible cutoff. The cutoff is currently "tomorrow" - so you'll buy stuff who's useby date is before you've even opened it. Sucks.
- ars 13y ago
  You are confusing sell by and use by. Despite what it says, the date on the shelf is almost always sell by.
jmspring 13y ago
FIFO is common at many stores. I mostly shop at a handful of local stores, one in business for around 100 years, the other around 40 now. The younger of the two is more "hippy" (for lack of a better term) and has had many expired products on the shelf I've had to point out/return (when I wasn't paying attention). The older, not so much. I don't shop at the local Safeway -- a wholly different issue. A lot of stores go with the FIFO approach, but some staff don't necessarily pay attention. In other cases, the vendor rents space and is responsible for stocking their own shelves...this happened to me recently...juice 2 weeks past due (didn't check when purchased, returned an hour later) -- store honored the return, but mentioned it was the vendor's responsibility.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  What an absurd way for the store to put it. "Yeah, we don't look after the sell by dates, but shop here anyway." (It's perfectly fine for the store to rely on the vendor to stock their products, it's silly for the store to try to communicate to a customer that they aren't still responsible...)

jlgreco 13y ago

Interesting... a few months ago I noticed exactly the same thing. I've begun walking a half mile further a few times a week to a Safeway rather than go to the Trader Joes two blocks from my home because of this. (I refuse to use store club cards, so I don't encounter the trouble you have with them). I actually prefer some trader joe's branded food to the alternatives, but it isn't worth it to go there. Food from other stores simply lasts longer, which is essential when you are buying for just yourself.

_lex 13y ago
Exactly. Most people aren't realizing that my frustration is with the extremes of the rotation - food shouldn't be going bad/ have a use-by date that is the day after you buy it. Trader Joe's obviously has had a significant change of policy recently to reduce losses to perishables, and it's foisting those losses on customers. I hate it.

mansam 13y ago

> I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the back of the shelves, so now I just head for the back of the shelf when I need to buy perishables there. This sucks for me, since buying at TJs used to be a stress-free experience, and now I check the 'use-by' dates on everything. I just wanted to mention that this is a standard practice called rotation. After all, putting new product in front would result in wastage of the older product. Products are supposed to be culled on their sell-by (not expiration) date, and it's unfortunate that you got some bad groceries, but they didn't do anything unusual or shady. Similarly, Safeway's practices are fairly standard amongst grocery stores, though it's a little annoying. Best to follow the sale circulars and keep your wits about you.

yareally 13y ago
Yep, just look at milk. The newer milk is always in the back. If the expiration dates are too short and you won't be able to drink it in time, just look for ones towards the back and get those instead. I generally don't care though as long as the expiration isn't within a week.
- refurb 13y ago
  Hackers new tip: Buy lactose-free milk and it will stay good for much longer than regular milk. I don't consume a lot of milk, and I was getting tired of buying a half-gallon and having go bad two weeks later after I had only consumed 1/4 of it. Lactose-free milk stay good for a long-time. Most of the time when I check, the best-before date is at least 6 weeks into the future. I've never had the milk go bad even if I've had it for 8 weeks. I'm not lactose intolerant BTW. The only drawback is that the milk definitely tastes sweeter than regular milk. I'm used to it by now, but I'm sure some people would find it disagreeable. I'm not sure why it lasts so long, even though there is no lactose in it, there is plenty of other sugars in it. Lactose-free milk is made by using enzymes to split the lactose into galactose and glucose. It tastes sweeter because both of the sugars have a higher perceived sweetness than lactose on a weight basis.
  - silencio 13y ago

limejuice 13y ago

>I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the back of the shelves, so now I just head for the back of the shelf when I need to buy perishables there. < This is standard practice at grocery stores to put freshest food at the back and soonest to expire in the front. No reason to hate on TJ's on that point.

stephengillie 13y ago
It's called "rotation" and yes it's something grocery store managers struggle to get their lazy employees to keep doing.

ars 13y ago

> I HATE this. I previously shopped at Trader Joe's with confidence Um, this has NOTHING to do with Trader Joe's! Is it too much to even read the title? Never mind the actual article?

_lex 13y ago
I read the article. You need to read my comment. It's about the fact that food often DOES go bad by the sell-by date, and that Trader Joe - where this guy got his experience - has changed their policies to aggressively push older, effectively near-expired goods on customers. That's what I hate, and it's pretty relevant.
- ars 13y ago
  It still has nothing to do with this. If they changed policies it has nothing to do with him. And his idea of using old food has nothing to do with their policies. You are combining two unrelated things.

arbutus 13y ago

Not sure how a LIFO queue would possibly work whatsoever for perishable goods.

ap22213 13y ago

Maybe I'm crazy, but I always thought that Trader Joes just bought their food from low cost countries and cheap manufacturers and then sold it for much higher prices, but with cool labels and within a fun atmosphere. I would never trust Trader Joes food, personally.

gaadd33 13y ago
Trader Joe's is the American version of Aldi. Almost all the products are store brand so that they can offer lower prices. Plus the stores don't have nearly the same number of SKUs as other competitors. Why wouldn't you trust it? Do you not trust grocery stores in general?
- jlgreco 13y ago
  There are Aldi in America too, and I don't trust them either. Their produce, at least at the locations I have been to, is really sketchy.

mistermann 13y ago

> I eventually realized that for perishable goods, they put the new stuff in the back of the shelves I can't imagine this is a new practice at Trader Joe's, it's an industry standard, and common sense quite frankly. I'm very interested in what you consider proper practice should be with perishable foods (or what you think they used to do)? It almost sounds like you think they used to throw all perishables away that didn't sell on the first day and restock everything fresh nightly.