Bargains R us
My colleague Mike Fuchs does an awesome job with his bargain blog -- helping us find great deals we might otherwise overlook.
But check this out: I was in line at Wal Mart, taking back a wooden rack, when I noticed the guy beside me trying to bring back this oversized box of frozen lasagna. I thought maybe he had discovered a problem with the food item -- but no. He had purchased too many for a get-together at his house and was returning it a day later. Now, I had to ask...so what happens to it now? The cashier said it had to be thrown away. The policy, apparently, is to accept food items back within three days of purchase.
Now, I'm all for a bargain, but wasn't that pathetic? He could have put it in the freezer or given it to the homeless shelter (with a receipt and an unopened box, I'm thinking a shelter might have accepted it). I mean, come on, is this what the return line is really for?
OK, I just had to get that off my chest (Same thing for the able-bodied guy in the minivan who unloaded his purchases and his child from his cart at Kmart and wouldn't walk three car spaces to the cart return, instead leaving the cart it in the middle of a parking space, where it could easily roll toward the car parked in the next stall; no, he didn't have to leave the child alone, his wife was driving).
Comments (4)
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I agree with you on this, Nancy. If I buy a food item and discover that I don't need it at once, I'd never dream of returning it. I'd either store it for future use or do something else with it. Waste not, want not.
Perhaps a charity would take it and it could be counted as a donation, and taken off on taxes.
But I'm not surprised that the store would toss out returned food stuff. The danger of receiving tampered material is just too great to risk.
But what really gets to me is thinking of the stores that toss out expired food items and go to great lengths to make sure that poor people don't retrieve those items from their dumpsters. That's pretty heartless, if you ask me. Why not donate expired items to shelters instead?
Posted on June 7, 2005 11:51 AM
Perhaps he desperately needed gas money...who among us...never mind!!!
Posted on June 7, 2005 7:16 PM
Yes Eric, I'm happy to know that Wal Mart doesn't take the risk of putting stuff back on shelves...although I've been in grocery stores where people dump stuff like meat or milk at the register or in the magazine rack before getting to the register, and I've mentioned in to the cashier and she/he will call a bagger to put it back up. Now, I don't know how long it had been there, but I suspect that's playing Russian roulette with us (and have you ever purchased something and it was just bad, but not beyond the expiration date?)....
True Seleena. I've been there. But it had to cost gas to go back to the store... and the guy, who had just given a dinner party, apparently, didn't look too needy. But yes...who among us....
Posted on June 8, 2005 10:11 AM
I would never return food either and this man shouldn't have bothered with one tin of lasagna. I could see if he had 10 extra tins and knew he would never use them and wanted his money back, but my goodness how much did that lasagna cost?
Posted on June 8, 2005 6:22 PM