Some grocery stores have lower prices than others, but sometimes those lower prices mean potentially unhealthy food.

In today’s story, one person bought moldy food, but when the store didn’t do anything about the complaint, this person came up with another way to get the spoiled food off of the store’s shelves.

Let’s see what happens…

You wont take my complaint seriously? I’ll call the health department!

Okay so this happened about a year or so ago.

I (19ftm) lived paycheck to paycheck at the time due to only being able to work part time due to my disability (now 21 still part time at another job with more hours but still managing to scrape by) so I would frequently shop at a store in our area that would claim to help your wallet out.

It really didn’t sometimes, but if you knew where to look, the store lived up to its slogan name.

The problem wasn’t about the price of items at the store.

Here lies the issue.

This store is also somewhat also known for sometimes not rotating stock properly, thus you may get goods that are out of date.

For certain items no biggie. Other no.

Here’s an example of the real problem…

I lived with my sister at the time, and once we had gotten meat that was expired by 6 MONTHS and we hadn’t noticed till we had gotten home.

We were so frustrated that we called ahead of time and then went and asked for a refund.

We were more wary after that.

Even buying food that hadn’t already expired was risky.

A couple week after, I decided to buy yogurt from them. The single serve cups because I wanted a snack.

It was still within its best buy date, and I was excited. Only to be revolted when I got home to open it and see mold growing on the top in the corner.

What the hell?

The store didn’t seem to understand the real problem.

Immediately I called the store.

They asked if I wanted a refund and to bring in the product and my receipt.

I said no. It was barely a dollar yogurt, I wanted to let them know it had mold, and give them the batch so they could be aware and do what they needed.

Now what I can remember was them saying this. “I can speak to my manager and let them know about the complaint but if you don’t want a refund theres not much we can do. You have to call corporate.”

THIS is the real problem…

This wasn’t a complaint in my opinion.

It was a valid health concern.

Especially considering prior incidents.

What if the other containers had mold and someone didn’t notice and got sick?

I myself am disabled and could’ve gotten deathly ill if I had consumed the mold due to my slow digestive system and at the time, I had a GJ tube for gastroparesis.

Sometimes you have to ask for the manager.

“Can I speak to your manager actually?”

I hated that I asked that, but they obliged without much fuss thankfully.

But while he gave me his business email to give a copy of my complaint, he said the same about calling corporate.

OP shared a relevant “fun fact”…

Could I have called the actual company who made the yogurt?

Well fun fact, the store makes the yogurt brand so thats actually the corporate office! It was the same phone number for complaints for products thankfully, as I made sure to check.

But I digress.

OP did call corporate.

I called corporate, filed a complaint. Gave the batch number. Submitted my photos. And waited.

I waited a week.

I also had emailed the manager of the store with the complaint for his side with no response.

I expected that.

Apparently OP still hadn’t given up on this store.

By this time I went back to the store for something else, I think some bottled water. I glance at the yogurt just by curiousity and what do I see?

The same d*** yogurt!

Same dates, same batch numbers, same everything.

By this time the yogurts were days out of date.

In my opinion, they should’ve been rotated out and clearanced day of or the day before their best by date. But to still have them a week later especially when a customer has complained of finding mold?

OP finally had enough…

Something just snapped.

I know corporate business takes awhile to process, but the website had said it was resolved within like half of the time after I made the complaint. Yet the person on the phone had sounded concerned but something along the chain of the report, it didn’t stick.

So obviously someone didn’t care.

But I knew who would.

Time to take pictures for evidence.

I pulled out my phone. I took pictures of the yogurt on the shelves and proof of the date they were taken and some other things I believe too I found.

I went home and found pictures of the 6 month expired meat, they had time stamps too!

OP did some quick research.

Do you know how fast you can find your local county health department? Fairly quick with the right key words.

You can also sometimes find the public routine inspections! Theirs were meh but it looked like they were due for a new ones so….

A quick email was all it took. Explaining how corporate wasn’t really responding or taking it serious, the store wasn’t taking it seriously, and the violations I had experienced.

I attached all the images I had collected.

OP considered not sending the email.

I paused, maybe corporate hadn’t told the store to pull it yet?

No. Their store is known for being lax on rotating stock and taking complaints with a grain of salt.

I hit send.

It didn’t take long it hear back.

I do remember vividly that within 3 days I had an email from the manager of the store!

Shocking!

He did get my email then.

He was offering a refund on the yogurt again but this time without needing my receipt. Apologizing for the inconvenience that the experience had for me basically. Which was wild in my opinion.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t want I refund. I told them that.

Another visit to the store proved that the email had been effective.

But the next time I was brave enough to go in about a day later, the yogurt had been restocked completely. As well as other things that I had mentioned in my report like the meats.

Now i rarely see anything past a few days if that.

They’ve become smarter at marking stuff down too.

Now it really does help our wallet sometimes!

A store selling expired or moldy food really is unacceptable. I’m glad the health department got involved!

Let’s see how Reddit responded…

This reader doesn’t think the changes will last very long.

Another person thinks corporate has a lot to learn.

This reader applauded OP for a job well done.

Another reader shared OP’s concern about the spoiled food.

Will they go back to their old ways? Hopefully not!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.