what would you do??

[whatever]

Okay so last night we went to Aldi's to pick up a few things and we usually get their packaged lunch meat in the small packages for like .49. Anyway its supposed to be a pink color. And when they go bad they will turn a tan color. So my dh is getting some out of the cooler and luckily i'm looking at them and all he is handing me are partially tan/pink. Or not as pink as they should be. So I find an employe (so I thought just a reg. employee ) and show them to him. He says he will check it out. I know my dh has eaten some that are like that and said they don't taste right. So we go to the check out and tell the man cashier about it. And he asked if I told the manager. I said I told the kid. He said yep thats the manager. He calls him over and asked him if he pulled them off the shelf. NO he said he called another manager and they are fine. WTF!! Exp. does say April. But if they are that color now what are they going to look like in a few weeks. And we usually buy several to last thru the month.
So we didn't buy any.
I am toying seeing if I can email Aldi's. What would you do. Because he could have at least opened one and checked it out!

[Mary Jo]

If it's not expired, there's probably nothing the manager could have done.
If it doesn't look good, all you can do is not buy it.
At the store where I shop I've learned to look for expiration dates on everything because they don't always keep up on stuff like that.
I just threw away a frozen dish that I bought last night because it had something that didn't look right in it.
I'm picky. If it looks or smells funny it gets tossed. From what I've been reading in the news our food supply isn't inspected or controlled too much.
If you've ever had food poisoning you'll understand what I mean. Better safe than sorry.
I figure it's a case of let the buyer beware.
You could try emailing Aldi's and the manufacturer of the product and see if they respond. Couldn't hurt. I do stuff like that sometimes just to let them know. Sometimes I get free coupons, sometimes I get no response. But I figure the more these people hear our concerns the safer our food will be for everybody.

[taylyn]

They will probably just wait till they get more complaints or god forbid people get sick from it.
I had a similar problem with some lunchmeat I got through a deli once. When I got it home it looked at felt funny, It was normally drier to the touch. So I took it back , and the deli girl looked at it , and said that is just the way it was coming through to them and there is nothing wrong with it. - They gave me my money back ... cause I just wasen't happy about the way it looked and no one here would eat it anyway.
I think its good you told them , and didn't buy any. I don't think there is too much more you can do. Hopefully its ok.

[DrGrin]

If the lunch meats are changing colors before the expiration date goes out, there's a good chance they may have a problem with the cooler they are keeping the lunch meats in-- or that they have been improperly handled/stored at some point.

If the store manager seemed unconcerned--you could always call the health dept Monday morning and ask them if it's a potential health risk for them selling potentially contaminated meats. If they confirm that it is a health risk, I'd tell them about the experience at the store. They should take care of it from there.

[fairydana]

I know exactly what you are talking about. I love that kind of lunchmeat. But I do not even want to think about eating it if its tan.
They could have pulled it off the shelf until they figured something out.

[atprm]

If the lunch meats are changing colors before the expiration date goes out, there's a good chance they may have a problem with the cooler they are keeping the lunch meats in-- or that they have been improperly handled/stored at some point.

If the store manager seemed unconcerned--you could always call the health dept Monday morning and ask them if it's a potential health risk for them selling potentially contaminated meats. If they confirm that it is a health risk, I'd tell them about the experience at the store. They should take care of it from there.

I was just going to say that... however...

I would call the Health Dept FIRST before contacting the manager or emailing corporate.

Experience with Aldi's in the past is:

1) their managers don't really care
2) their district managers care even less
3) if you get ANY email answer at all from corporate it will be canned



If you want to get their attention --- contact your local tv news station!!



Have you noticed there is "no phone listing" for your local store??? They like it that way for a reason.





Unless it's butter, eggs, flour or sugar ... I REFUSE to buy anything else at Aldi's.

[catdance]

My same thought as the aboveposter, I do like ALDIS for a few reasons but I have found expired frozen and fresh meats and cheese, etc.
So I am very careful what I buy there as the management has never been helpful,so I shop mostly for canned and non perishables.
Sometime I didn't think I get my quarter back for the cart, either..

[jcw]

It is hard to stay on top of the dates.It really takes a lot of time picking up each and every product in a store and checking the dates. I understand running across expired dates once in a while but then I work in a grocery.lol If one of my customers tells me something has a bad date or doesn't look right I pull them all. The out of dates would all be taken out and the stuff like op is talking about would be put in a cooler in the back until it could be checked out or I would just toss it out. I never want to be responsible for making a customer or anyone else sick.