Do you ever return Food to the Grocery Store if it's bad?

Absolutely! But, truthfully, depending on what it is, the store may not even want you to bring it back, because it stinks! When you are a frequent, known customer, you usually can just call them immediately about what happened and go in at your convenience to talk to the person that you spoke to on the phone.

 

I've done that twice. You have to understand, as the customer it's your right to turn a product if it wasn't as it was meant to be. But to be fair, if we're talking about fruits and vegetables, you should be able to see if those are bad beforehand since you pick those up unpackaged and you can outright see them.

 

I've only done this on one occasion- there have been a few more times where I've wanted to and if it were easier for me to get back to the store without excess cost and travel time I would have, but as you stated, sometimes those reasons make it less worth it to do a return trip. Still, it's always a shame when you feel like you're not getting your money's worth, or something is expired or something like that, and it's definitely your right to return it if you want to.

 

I have never taken food back because I've luckily never bought anything bad/rotten. I would take it back if I got something bad, though. I deserve to get what I pay for. I think most grocery stores have a pretty understanding return policy as long as you haven't eaten half of the product or anything

 

I have definitely returned spoiled food to the grocery store. Fortunately for me it was only twice. Once it was fish and the other time chicken.

 

Absolutely! There's no excuse for the food to be bad when you buy it and most likely, it's a more expensive item like Meat that has the biggest chance of being bad. And grocery stores are actually thankful you return the item and often will give you a gift card or something to make up for it. The last thing they want is you to go write an extremely bad yelp review or something that would hurt business.

 

Yes, but it depends on how far is the grocery store and/or how much the food is. If the store is just walking distance from our house then I would definitely return it, regardless if it's expensive or not. If the store requires me to commute/drive to get there, then I would not bother anymore. I would just be wasting my time/transportation cost.

However, if the food is really bad as in people might get sick if they ate it - then I feel it's my obligation to let the grocery store people know about it. So they can take it out from their shelves and prevent other people from buying it.

 

I have not personally, but my room mate has taken milk back once because it went bad just two days after purchase and it was dated several more days out. Turned out the store had had a problem with the thermometer in their refrigerator and the milk had been much warmer than it was supposed to be when it was stored. Quite a few gallons came back from customers who had the same problem and they exchanged them as is was caused by their refrigerator.

 

Very rarely, and unfortunately most of the time it's been at Trader Joe's. There were several times I bought a large beef roast or some beef steaks there and when I got them home and opened the package they reeked of a sulfur like smell. I know that it's pretty common for stores to pack their meat with gasses such as carbon monoxide, which gives them a bright red color and makes them look fresher, but the side effect is it gives the meat an awful smell, despite being harmless. But I am not going to take that chance, since it could also have been that the meat was simply rotten. If it can't make it past the sniff test it's not going in my mouth. Also, if I am spending $15+ on a pack of meat, I am not going to just chalk it up as a loss.

 

Yes. It is my right as a consumer, so I return spoiled food. Sadly, it is a very tedious process which will just make you angry and have a headache. If you press your rights though, the store will compensate you. Still, I just return bad products when I spent a lot for them. If it's just a single item that is not that expensive, I let it be.

 

We do it all the time in our household. The last time we returned something was about two weeks ago. My local grocery had fried chicken on sale in a container. Pretty much all of the chicken was burnt and hard as a rock. We returned and the guy that cooked the food got in trouble. Never feels good to get someone in trouble but putting something like this out won't help out the store you work for.

 

I probably haven't done it enough times! Only last week I had to throw out some grapes that turned out to be really soft and turning moldy. I guess in my head I'm probably not sure of my rights with these things - "let the buyer beware" and all that. But if it's something like chicken that is clearly going off I certainly would go back and get my money back.

 

I returned some Paula Deen flavored butters back to Walmart because when I opened the herb flavored butter, it was moldy. This was during the Paula Deen racism scandal and Walmart was clearing out all of the Paula Deen products.
They didn't give me too much of a hassle about the return.
Even if returns are inconvenient, I won't keep spoiled food and waste money.

 

Yes. It makes me feel like I've been duped, even if it cost under a dollar. I payed for it with hard-earned money, and I aim to get my money's worth.

 

I would return items, but to be honest I check before I leave the store. If it's a jar or can then I will take it back and also contact the manufacturer, but as for fresh fruit and vegetables, you buy them as you see them as they are perishable goods.

Most stores have wastage budget and will do it for customer goodwill.

 

Most times I don't because it's not all that convenient for me to do it, but once just last summer I returned a package of cheddar cheese because it was green with mold on one side. I had just bought it and don't really know how I didn't notice it right then. I guess I just haven't had that happen before and never thought to look that closely. The store I bought it from is just a little country store a few miles away from my home, not all the way into town like the bigger stores. And they were good about the return.

I've also returned a watermelon to walmart once. The thing was nowhere near ripe. No problem returning it, either. Walmart has a lot of faults but they're usually good about returns of any kind.

 

I've returned bad prepackaged products before, and certain chains let you return produce without the receipt or sometimes without the produce itself if you do have the receipt. I'm not going to go out of my way to return these things unless I feel that I've been wronged in some big way by the manufacturer or the store that sold the product.

 

I don't return food to the store mainly due to laziness and the low value of the items. I fully agree with those that do return bad food though as it is their right and the stores need to know if they are selling sub standard goods for consumption.

My sister did return a packet of frozen peas to the grocery store once, when she took it home and opened the pack she found a dead frog inside! Both the store and the peas company were very apologetic and she was compensated for the experience. In a case as extreme as that then i would exercise my right to complain and take it to the highest level. I think that would be my duty.