Saturday, May 7, 2011

Shopping was not entirely a pleasure...

Well...okay, it wasn't bad except for one thing. I was in my neighborhood Publix today (arguably one of the worst Publix stores in the area, in my opinion), and aside from the usual mediocre quality of the produce, my shopping experience was okay. Then I got to the yogurt aisle, where I thought I'd take advantage of a sale they had on one brand of Greek yogurt. Amazingly, they had all four flavors in stock, so I decided to try one of each. Now, imagine my dismay when every single container of the honey flavor turned out to be out of date. Mind you, today is May 7th.... every single one was dated May 03 2011, except for one which was dated April 17 2011!!! WTF?? EVERY SINGLE ONE was out of date! The other flavors were fine. So, I grabbed a hand basket, loaded it with all the expired honey flavored containers, and strode up to the customer service counter where I found the manager. I explained the situation to her, and told her it seemed pretty bad that they'd spend the time to put the sale price tag on the shelf (on May 5) without checking the dates on the stock. She thanked me and said she'd take care of it.

A few minutes later, as I was shopping in another section of the store, she approached me to let me know she had taken care of it. She said it wasn't her department, but she talked to someone in that department, and said that they just got the shipment from the warehouse yesterday and it was put on the shelf. Really? I didn't tell her what a lame-ass excuse I thought that was, but I asked her why nobody bothered to check the dates before they put it on the shelf. She said usually it's not an issue when it comes from the warehouse. Well... I'm not sure I buy that explanation in the first place, and even it DID come from the warehouse already expired, why WOULDN'T someone check the dates before stocking it on the shelves? Is it just me, or is that inexcusably poor quality control?

Other than the lameness of the excuse, I have no problem with how the issue was handled. The manager was cordial at all times, found me to follow up and let me know what happened and offer me a rain check, and thanked me for letting them know. And an employee from that department came to be with a new box of the honey flavor in hand, and asked if I still wanted any. (I'm a sucker for the honey flavor, so of course I took one.) I'll still shop at Publix... I love their bakery department, and their prices are usually better than other area grocery stores. I'm just not a big fan of my closest store. Actually not a big fan of any of the locations near us. My favorite Publix is near my office. I'll often go on my lunch hour and do some grocery shopping there. It's a smaller store, I think, but the staff there is super friendly. Even if I'm in a bad mood when I get there, inevitably I leave with a smile thanks to them. I only wish every Publix was like that!

1 comment:

  1. The staff at that publix rocks by us!

    And since I used to stock at Target I call BS on the managers excuse. Stuff from the warehouse expires weeks from when it was stocked. At Target, when we stocked we pulled yogurt if it was within a week from expiring! Most likely someone stocked new product in front of the old ones instead of rotating like they were supposed to. Therefore, everything in the back expired and was simply moved forward by someone else who obviously cared as much as the person who stocked it. laziness at its finest.

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