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I just saw this at my supermarket today. The top brand milk, lowfat, sell-by date-stamped in two days time, clearance sale priced at 25 cents per half-gallon, and the dairy manager was standing by it explaining... "there's nothing wrong, we're just over-stocked, and it is guaranteed to be good for 9 days after the sell-by date the same as all our fresh milk," and yet he was having trouble finding takers.
People would stop, look, glance at the sell-by date, shake their head, and walk on. One young mother with two kids in the cart said "Heck yeah, they'll be gone in two days," and grabbed two.
Even with dairy manager explaining that if they were not happy with the milk 8 days AFTER the sell-by date they could brink it back for a refund, most people would look at the regular priced milk in their cart and keep walking.
It was such a fascinating display of human nature, and I think of many people's extreme caution around perishibles, that I wished I had more time to simply loiter and watch people encounter this phenomenal deal and then struggle to decide what to do.
I asked the manager what would happen on Wednesday, if he had not sold out the lot, and he said "We'll just dump it, even though it has a guaranteed 9 more days of freshness. I'd rather give people a little break on it now."
But most people seemed suspicious, and he didn't have a lot of takers.
What would your reaction be?
This is just more proof that our society has conditioned people to be idiots.
To review, on Monday Oct 22 fresh milk was put out in my local market which had a sell-by date of Oct 24, two days away. The price was marked down to 25 cents a half-gallon, and the milk was guaranteed to be good for 9 days after the sell-by date, 11 days total, or until Friday, Nov 2nd. But I saw people turning up their noses at the deal, and I didn't understand why, which is what inspired this poll and thread.
I had intended to drop by on Wednesday, the sell-by date, to see how the sale had gone, but other things came up, and I wound up shopping there the following day instead, on Thursday, and I happened to find the same dairy manager touching up a completely different display in the same cooler, so I stopped to chat.
When I asked how the sale had gone, he said he had sold about half of his stock of that item, and had about half left at the end of Wednesday which had to be dumped. I asked how many he started with, and in true dairy manager style he replied "72 Dozen." That's 864, if you don't have your fingers handy.
So 432 half gallon bottles of fresh, delicious milk from the top dairy wound up getting emptied, 216 gallons of milk went down the drain that could have saved some hardworking families a few dollars on a purchase they were going to make anyway... or perhaps inspire a special purchase they could make because of the offer... hey, it's only a quarter!... but which not everyone could apparently wrap their head around.
And the poll so far is interesting... with 48 responses to date, 41 said either Yes, or Heck Yes, I suppose proving that CD Food & Drink Forum members are actually smarter than the average shopper.
And there were a few Nos and I Don't Buy Milk, as expected. But what surprised me were the 3 who responded Ewwwwwww, which echoed the Ewwwwwww response I saw from a few shoppers in the store. And clearly it is not a logical response. Something else is obviously going on for people who get so transfixed by a date on a package and relate to it as meaning something different than what it actually means, even after it is explained to them. "This milk is guaranteed good for 11 days, and it's only a quarter!" "Ewwwwwwwwww." So that's a puzzle I'm left with.
On reflection, I had the thought that maybe I could head back to university, and take an advanced degree in psychology, and mount a research study to examine why people get goofy about food, using test cases like this sale to probe actual consumer behavior.
Then I had the thought that maybe if I warmed up some milk I might be able to go back to sleep. So I did that.
I can see the storage issue, but wouldn't the shelter have to have some way to pick up supplies?
It depends. Most nonprofits run on shoestring budgets. If you're running a neighborhood women's shelter and you must maintain a certain ratio of staff to residents at all times, it's hard to justify paying an additional staff member to run over to the grocery store to pick up some milk. Even larger outfits with transportation systems, like a regional food bank, will pass on donations if it's not feasible to pick up or store them.
It depends. Most nonprofits run on shoestring budgets. If you're running a neighborhood women's shelter and you must maintain a certain ratio of staff to residents at all times, it's hard to justify paying an additional staff member to run over to the grocery store to pick up some milk. Even larger outfits with transportation systems, like a regional food bank, will pass on donations if it's not feasible to pick up or store them.
It's a shame, but it's economic reality.
It just seems that it would be easy for a staff member to stop by a grocery store on the way to work. What do shelters do if there are no dropped off donations and they are out of food?
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You could also buy a lot of the milk and turn it into cheese or yogurt, which last a very long time in the refrigerator. I've been told that cheese-making is a fun hobby. http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html
It just seems that it would be easy for a staff member to stop by a grocery store on the way to work. What do shelters do if there are no dropped off donations and they are out of food?
I just cringe at the waste.
By all means, you go right ahead and volunteer to do the pickup. Nonprofits need more people like you.
A quarter? Shoot yes, we go through about a gallon a day right now. Let me back up the minivan.
In the winter, it's always at least as cold outside as the fridge, so I would buy eight gallons or so and keep the extras on the back porch. Today, I'd buy as many as I needed to make four gallons, which is all my fridge holds.
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The Day After - Followup
