New Grocery Chain To Sell Expired Food

[Alpha8472]

The ex-President of Trader Joe's, Doug Rauch, is going to open a new supermarket that sells expired food. He plans to start selling expired, blemished, and damaged grocery products to people in inner cities. The supermarket will be called Daily Table, and it will open in Dorchester, MA. Doug Rauch will buy up the food from grocery stores, restaurants, and producers to stock his supermarket.

I will love to watch what happens. He is trying to make money off of selling this stuff to the poor people of inner cities. Vulture capitalism.

[TW-Upstate NY]

Not very ethical to say the least. Here in NY, there are always stories about stores getting fined for having outdated product on their shelves. Some stores have even put up signs telling customers to inform management if they find outdated product being offered for sale. With all that being said, is this even something that can be done without running afoul of the law?

[submariner]

On the other hand, it's widely noted that expiration dates on most non-perishables aren't regulated very well, if at all (which is why they say "sell by" or "freshest before" instead of actually calling them "expiration dates"). Many items can remain viable long after their stamped dates.

[BillyGr]

Not very ethical to say the least. Here in NY, there are always stories about stores getting fined for having outdated product on their shelves. Some stores have even put up signs telling customers to inform management if they find outdated product being offered for sale. With all that being said, is this even something that can be done without running afoul of the law?

Yes, at least in some areas - I believe the rules tend to vary by state (and there might even be local rules in places).

I know there are (or at least were) a couple stores in Bennington (VT) that did something similar, and also found one in a small town in Ohio a couple years ago (though that store was for sale at the time).
That store had signs just about all over it explaining that some (not all) of the items may be past their freshness dates (so there was no issue with trying to "fool" people - the shoppers would know what they were getting) and giving some info about what the standards were for how long items would generally be good.

It seems like this proposed store might be a good area for such a store, as some of those "inner city" areas tend to have larger numbers of people who have low incomes, so if they can get more for what money they do have it would help them in the long run.
Additionally, it sounds like not all items are expired - some of that "damaged" stuff may not be anything more than a case of 12 bottles where 1 was broken - the other 11 are just fine, but most stores don't want to deal with having to market them somehow. Or maybe cases where a store discontinues an item and they pick up the leftover ones so the store doesn't have to have a "Clearance rack"?

[pseudo3d]

It's not unethical, they are not going to sell compromised cans that likely have botulism in them.

The reality is, most of the non-perishables have dates on them that indicate that they can guarantee the freshness and color until that date. After that date, it is usually still perfectly edible, but the color, texture, or flavor will be no longer the quality that they were. I think this is a fair idea, but most grocery stores usually donate that sort of thing.

[mbz321]

Not very ethical to say the least. Here in NY, there are always stories about stores getting fined for having outdated product on their shelves. Some stores have even put up signs telling customers to inform management if they find outdated product being offered for sale. With all that being said, is this even something that can be done without running afoul of the law?

I've never heard of a store getting fined for selling expired food, although I know local media likes to do stories on such. The only product that officially has to have an expiration date by law is baby formula..everything else is really just a suggestion from the manufacturer. Although I'm sure Trader Joe's will communicate this with its shoppers...I don't see anything 'unethical' about this..we have a huge problem in this country with wasted food.

[CalItalian]

Not very ethical to say the least. Here in NY, there are always stories about stores getting fined for having outdated product on their shelves. Some stores have even put up signs telling customers to inform management if they find outdated product being offered for sale. With all that being said, is this even something that can be done without running afoul of the law?

I've never heard of a store getting fined for selling expired food, although I know local media likes to do stories on such. The only product that officially has to have an expiration date by law is baby formula..everything else is really just a suggestion from the manufacturer. Although I'm sure Trader Joe's will communicate this with its shoppers...I don't see anything 'unethical' about this..we have a huge problem in this country with wasted food.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/co ... ment_N.htm
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/ ... nd-expired

[BillyGr]

Not very ethical to say the least. Here in NY, there are always stories about stores getting fined for having outdated product on their shelves. Some stores have even put up signs telling customers to inform management if they find outdated product being offered for sale. With all that being said, is this even something that can be done without running afoul of the law?

I've never heard of a store getting fined for selling expired food, although I know local media likes to do stories on such. The only product that officially has to have an expiration date by law is baby formula..everything else is really just a suggestion from the manufacturer. Although I'm sure Trader Joe's will communicate this with its shoppers...I don't see anything 'unethical' about this..we have a huge problem in this country with wasted food.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/co ... ment_N.htm
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/ ... nd-expired

I do notice that although the articles mention food (and one refers to this Andrew Cuomo guy as an Attorney General it may have had more to do with medical items which tend to be labelled as expiration dates.
Also I will point out that the couple stores I referenced above that sold these dated items had numerous signs explaining that the dates were just a suggestion of freshness/quality and that the items were fine past those dates (so customers knew in advance that they would find dated items where a regular store you wouldn't expect those to be on the shelf).

[klkla]

The issues here mirror an issue in the restaurant industry that has to do with how much food in the world (especially in the United States) that is perfectly edible that gets wasted. There are millions of people in the world starving and we throw away somewhere around 20% of the fresh produce grown in this country mainly for cosmetic reasons. It's an issue that needs to be addressed.

[storewanderer]

I know there are a lot of programs in place to try to redistribute short coded or somewhat defective food to food pantries, shelters, etc. I believe most grocers have arrangements to distribute these items. But even still, those facilities cannot always use all of the items and the items end up being wasted or sold to a farmer or something. I do know of one large grocery chain who does not donate such items (this large chain also doesn't mark anything down except limited deli, meat, and limited dairy items) but sells the items to a farmer to be used as animal feed directly. Is it waste if the food items are used as animal feed though? Or only waste if the food is outright thrown out and taken to a landfill?