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Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

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11–20 of 231 posts

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#11
post #2

I’ve ended up with expired food from physical stores many times in my life. It’s not really a big deal, you just return it or eat it depending on the product. Same here. It happens. It’s harmless. If it’s a big deal to you, go to the store and pick things out yourself.

That should not happen at all.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#12
post #6
post #2

I’ve ended up with expired food from physical stores many times in my life. It’s not really a big deal, you just return it or eat it depending on the product. Same here. It happens. It’s harmless. If it’s a big deal to you, go to the store and pick things out yourself.

You can look at what you're buying from the store before you buy it.

Exactly, so if it’s a big deal to you go to the store? It’s never been a big deal to me.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#13
A data analytics firm that specializes in the Amazon Marketplace recently analyzed the site’s 100 best-selling food products for CNBC and found that at least 40% of sellers had more than five customer complaints about expired goods.

In other words, Amazon knows about the sellers who ship expired goods yet lets them continue to operate. It has the data and it still fails to take one of the easiest steps to address the problem, removing bad actors from the marketplace (which would also make many other sellers clean up their acts).

I've had a similar issue with buying books advertised as "new" and they are clearly used ... including one book that had a "USED" sticker on it. I complained about the seller, and nothing happened. As of the last time I checked this seller was still in business on Amazon, with 22% negative ratings in the last 30 days.

The message to third-party sellers is clear:

Win the buy box however you can. We won’t police your listings. We won’t punish you if you lie about the condition of the goods. Even if many of Amazon’s customers are complaining about you, you can still stay in business on Amazon.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#14
post #2

I’ve ended up with expired food from physical stores many times in my life. It’s not really a big deal, you just return it or eat it depending on the product. Same here. It happens. It’s harmless. If it’s a big deal to you, go to the store and pick things out yourself.

It happens, but it's a punishable violation - the appropriate response is not "just return it or eat it" but an audit of the whole store and fines for having expired produce on their shelves, which is not acceptable.

A physical store that does not have a reasonable process to ensure that expired goods are not available for sale is not qualified to operate safely, if it does it repeatedly, then it should be shut down - it's like a restaurant with rats running around.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#15
post #2

I’ve ended up with expired food from physical stores many times in my life. It’s not really a big deal, you just return it or eat it depending on the product. Same here. It happens. It’s harmless. If it’s a big deal to you, go to the store and pick things out yourself.

That should not happen at all.

Why? Expired food is generally perfectly safe. The dates are quality indicators, not safety indicators.

It’s just being wasteful.

https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/how-to-tell-whet...

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#16
post #2

I’ve ended up with expired food from physical stores many times in my life. It’s not really a big deal, you just return it or eat it depending on the product. Same here. It happens. It’s harmless. If it’s a big deal to you, go to the store and pick things out yourself.

It happens, but it's a punishable violation - the appropriate response is not "just return it or eat it" but an audit of the whole store and fines for having expired produce on their shelves, which is not acceptable. A physical store that does not have a reasonable process to ensure that expired goods are not available for sale is not qualified to operate safely, if it does it repeatedly, then it should be shut down…

In the United States at least expiration dates have no relation to food safety.

Also the majority of expirations other than “Use by” are non binding

https://consumerist.com/2008/06/18/is-it-legal-to-sell-expir...

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#17
post #9
post #3

On the left panel under "Seller" there is a Amazon.com check box you can use to eliminate third party sellers from the product search. I tend to select sold by Amazon unless the seller is the actual manufacturer of the product, e.g. a candy company selling direct through Amazon.

That doesn't work, because Amazon comingles stock. You could still get bad product if the packaging looks the same between Amazon's item and a third party seller's item

Not verifying expiry dates seems to be something that's not affected by comingling. What does Amazon do to ensure that their expired stock does not get shipped? Why does the same process not work for third-party goods?

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happens, but it's a punishable violation - the appropriate response is not "just return it or eat it" but an audit of the whole store and fines for having expired produce on their shelves, which is not acceptable. A physical store that does not have a reasonable process to ensure that expired goods are not available for sale is not qualified to operate safely, if it does it repeatedly, then it should be shut down…

In the United States at least expiration dates have no relation to food safety. Also the majority of expirations other than “Use by” are non binding https://consumerist.com/2008/06/18/is-it-legal-to-sell-expir...

Okay, that may be a substantial regulatory difference, in Europe it's generally not legal to sell expired food. (And to illustrate divergence, that consumerist article isn't available for EU users.)

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#19
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That should not happen at all.

Why? Expired food is generally perfectly safe. The dates are quality indicators, not safety indicators. It’s just being wasteful. https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/how-to-tell-whet...

Except when it comes to baby formula, whilst it might be safe to consume, the various nutrients required by a growing baby start to degrade past the use by date so you run the risk of introducing defficiencies.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#20
post #8
post #3

On the left panel under "Seller" there is a Amazon.com check box you can use to eliminate third party sellers from the product search. I tend to select sold by Amazon unless the seller is the actual manufacturer of the product, e.g. a candy company selling direct through Amazon.

As far as I know this doesn't actually work, because Amazon will comingle goods. That is to say you buy good from A. The warehouse closest to you has the same "item" but it is from B. So they ship you B's item, but mark it from A's inventory and credit A the money. So even if you order from known good retailers, or Amazon themselves if party B puts bad products into the warehouse you can end up with bad or fake produ…

Sellers have the option about whether their inventory can be commingled. Also, when there is high fraud potential or a large number of complaints Amazon doesn't allow commingling stock.

I operate a supply chain company who works for Amazon 3rd party sellers.

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