Amen, also if its not priced in the department it's $1.99....something I have learned over the years! lol
I love the customers that return produce because its bad inside and complain to you about it! (When even they said it looked gorgeous on the outside)...... its like REALLY.....
I always heard this, "no price, that means it's free." at least your customers wanted to pay.
you should see the produce that gets returned at Walmart! they will accept anything.
I've seen ears of corn with kernels all dried up, returned in another store's bag that's not even in this area I live in. watermelons cut in half, clearly eaten. a jar of kimchi, never opened, yet the claims receipt stated "reason: poor quality."
that's just the produce. often times, I'll go to the service desk and grab dairy, meat, deli, and bakery returns, and theirs are even more ridiculous. I leave grocery returns alone, but theirs make me laugh when I see them as I'm digging through the bins.
I've seen EMPTY milk jugs, melted chocolate bars (never opened), and I'm sure this is only the beginning.
I know this is driven by the goal of ultimate customer satisfaction, and I guess their profit outweighs that which they lose based on their no restrictions return policy, so they don't really care.
True, but in today's world there is never any ultimate customer satisfaction. You tell a customer your able to do something this one time, "Well they did it for me last week" !! We were told not to question anything, they tell us it was $1.00 price override it (taking off $15.00...whatever). Don't question coupons, $10.00 off a 5.00 item....give them the extra $$$. Make it right............. you thought you say something advertising this item for $2.99 but its priced at $29.99.....sure.
"make it right" was always funny to me. some ways I was trained in the initiative were logical, such as giving the customer organic produce for the conventionally grown price, if conventional was not in stock. on the other hand, there were some sketchy parts of make it right, in which I got conflicting ways of doing things from different people. this one salaried manager said, yeah go ahead and give them a bagged salad with today's date at no charge, just bring it to me to sign off on first. that didn't sit right with me, so I brought it to the produce manager who always trained us to get it off the shelf if it had today's date, and he tells me if Ecolab saw me give that to a customer, that would be my job. (I'd lose it) from then on, I just always made sure I looked for and pulled out of dates at the beginning of every shift to avoid this scenario. as you said, the "they did it for me last week" is the last thing you want to deal with, especially if it could cost you your job.
Actually, Ecolab isn't the police, Kroger just uses them as an outside entity to judge the stores. If the item has today's sales by date, most likely its still good! But the issue the company has with that, who do you know that uses every items they purchase today....actually today? Customer expect 3-4 days life on a perishable product. 3 years ago, we only pulled items that were actually expired....no items expiring tomorrow!
Actually, Ecolab isn't the police, Kroger just uses them as an outside entity to judge the stores. If the item has today's sales by date, most likely its still good! But the issue the company has with that, who do you know that uses every items they purchase today....actually today? Customer expect 3-4 days life on a perishable product. 3 years ago, we only pulled items that were actually expired....no items expiring tomorrow!
It's my understanding that we are supposed to pull any items on the shelves that have today's "sell by date' on them . For instance, today's date is SEPT 29. So Kroger wants all products with that date removed by 9AM (perception dating) today, at least in produce. I assume that is true of other depts.
SO, my question is this: EXACTLY what does "SELL BY SEPT 29" mean? Does it mean "SELL BEFORE SEPT 29" (that is, on Sept 28 or before)? Or , does it mean "sell on or before SEPT 29" which would theoretically include the 29th? I think the wording needs to be changed so there are NO misunderstandings!!!!! (and there was a story on the national news a few weeks ago that indicated different companies had somewhat different understandings/procedures on just what those phrases meant and how they should be applied).
Sell by, Use by has to deal with BEST Product Quality...it does not mean the item is bad yet....just its not the highest quality. After the Sell by, Use by just means the product will start to break down and not be what the customer expects it to me. Must customers understand they have 2-3 after the Sell by, Use by date to actually use the product. The issues is....you really don't know when the item will go bad after that date....sometimes depending on other factors the item does not even reach the Sell by date
Expiration date should be "Best quality if used by...". We can use that as a guideline to mark things down, or few days before that date. Depending on a product.
For example, some packaged salads still look perfectly fresh on the Exp. date. Some go bad days before.
But if mayo has 3 years shelf life, I wouldn't wanna eat it past the exp date, or even close to it. Because of the ingredients which have potential to get you really sick when spoiled. And some items don't give you a hint when they are spoiled. Salads - you can see if good or bad, milk - you can smell, but dressings and such - they'll just make you sick.
Unfortunately some customers don't think this way and they believe items turn bad at the stroke of midnight on the exp. date.
Sell by, Use by has to deal with BEST Product Quality...it does not mean the item is bad yet....just its not the highest quality. After the Sell by, Use by just means the product will start to break down and not be what the customer expects it to me. Must customers understand they have 2-3 after the Sell by, Use by date to actually use the product. The issues is....you really don't know when the item will go bad after that date....sometimes depending on other factors the item does not even reach the Sell by date
Oh, I understand all that. The sell by dates are primarily intended as a rotation device. (In fact, I know some salad mixes have looked just fine, and I ate them with no problem, as late as 5 days or even a week after the 'sell by date" on the package, being in my refrigerator at home that whole time, my refrigerator being quite cold).
But my pointed question was not really answered..........is the "SELL BY" date intended to mean "sell before" or "sell on or before" the date given on the package. No one seems to know exactly how the word "by" should be interpreted. Do I make sense? Is there even a "correct" interpretation that Kroger would agree on?
In any case, some of the salads do deteriorate much faster than others. Some of the GLORY brand packaged cut turnip greens are the worst..........they usually look like they are already starting to decompose even when we first get this in from the warehouse. And sometimes we have to mark them down earlier than we "should" if only going by code date management cues. Some of the DOLE brand salads were looking like they had been frozen (on a truck a bit too cool?) or at the warehouse? ....... yet others look great far past their sell by date.
Sell by, Use by has to deal with BEST Product Quality...it does not mean the item is bad yet....just its not the highest quality. After the Sell by, Use by just means the product will start to break down and not be what the customer expects it to me. Must customers understand they have 2-3 after the Sell by, Use by date to actually use the product. The issues is....you really don't know when the item will go bad after that date....sometimes depending on other factors the item does not even reach the Sell by date
Oh, I understand all that. The sell by dates are primarily intended as a rotation device. (In fact, I know some salad mixes have looked just fine, and I ate them with no problem, as late as 5 days or even a week after the 'sell by date" on the package, being in my refrigerator at home that whole time, my refrigerator being quite cold).
But my pointed question was not really answered..........is the "SELL BY" date intended to mean "sell before" or "sell on or before" the date given on the package. No one seems to know exactly how the word "by" should be interpreted. Do I make sense? Is there even a "correct" interpretation that Kroger would agree on?
In any case, some of the salads do deteriorate much faster than others. Some of the GLORY brand packaged cut turnip greens are the worst..........they usually look like they are already starting to decompose even when we first get this in from the warehouse. And sometimes we have to mark them down earlier than we "should" if only going by code date management cues. Some of the DOLE brand salads were looking like they had been frozen (on a truck a bit too cool?) or at the warehouse? ....... yet others look great far past their sell by date.
"Sell by" means you can sell it up to and including the date on the package. It's the same as when you get a bill. If it says pay by a certain day you can pay it as late as the date given. If it says, "sell before" it means you can't sell it on or after the date on the package. Then of course there's what they call perception dating. That's when they give something an extra day to make it look like it's fresher than it really is. The items are pulled a day early. So the actual shelf life remains the same.
