I’d say it blows my mind that some stores sell expired food, but who am I kidding?

A lot of people are bad at their jobs and they like to cut corners!

So, what’s an upstanding citizen supposed to do when they notice something like this?

Check out how this person handled their situation!

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

“This happened about a year or so ago.

I (19) 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).

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.

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This store is also somewhat also known for sometimes not rotating stock properly, thus you may get goods that are out of date.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

Others, no.

Gross!

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.

A couple weeks later, 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?

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 there’s not much we can do, you have to call corporate.”

They were concerned about this.

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 really sick if I had consumed the mold due to my slow digestive system and at the time, I had a GJ tube for gastroparesis.

“Can I speak to your manager actually?”

They didn’t like 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.

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. 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. By this time I went back to the store for something else, I think some bottled water.

I glance at the yogurt just by curiosity and what do I see?

Jeez!

The same darn 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?

Something just snapped. I know corporate business takes a while 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.

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!

Do you know how fast you can find your local county health department?

Fairly quick with the right keywords.

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.

It was time for action.

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.

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.

Well, isn’t that interesting…?

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 a refund.

I told them that.

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!”

Let’s see how folks reacted on Reddit.

This person shared their thoughts.

Another individual has been there.

This reader spoke up.

Another person chimed in.

And this Reddit user shared a gross story.

Sometimes, you gotta go to the top if you want to get something done!

Only way to handle business.

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