Irrationally fuming with M&S food store

[Pancakeflipper]

Just let me vent....
Yesterday (the 9th June) I was driving near an M&S food store. Popped in for salad stuff. Stunned myself at my strong will to not buy biscuits or chocolate.

Did buy my DS2 one of their big veg samosas. It's dairy-free and it's not always easy getting dairy-free treats. And DS2 is in GCSE hell and all treats welcome.

DS2 was at home before afternoon exam. Asked me of the veg samosa was OK to eat.... the use by date was the 7th June.

I'm a bloody idiot of not checking the date (I am usually meticulous on this) and M&S are bloody idiots for having stuff in their fridges 2 days out of date.

Rant Rant RANT.

Agree they aren’t supposed to sell out of date stuff, but I’d still happily eat it. Two days out is fine to me, three probably OK, at four I’d probably bin it. Five I certainly would.

Not ideal but I would have eaten it. Its veggie it's going to be fine to eat.

Yes, that's poor. I'd have eaten it though.

It's probably fine, but keep the packaging and ask for a refund next time you're in. If you don't have a receipt then a rough idea of the time and till may help.

Sadly I do not trust supermarkets anymore and always check dates. I have been caught out too many times over the last couple of years. I have noticed in my local supermarket that they don't appear to do stock rotation much just push the old stuff to the back and put the new stuff to the front.

I think your fuming is irrational,
but then - so do you.

so all good, then 🙂

I live near a huge M & S and a small "convenience" type one. They are both as bad as each other. You have to check every single item for the sell by dates which are often as much as a week past it. It's fucking infuriating. I've been caught out too many times to mention. They obviously have a lousy policy when it comes to stock control.

They have very tight standards usually

It’s been worse since the cyber attack I've noticed . Lots of food been out of date out going out of date that day, all at full price. Store worker was stacking a shelf full of ready meals the other day, every single item went off that day.

Oh agree completely. One of my pet hates. Not because I think I’ll die if I eat it but it does mean you have to have stuff almost straightaway and if it can’t be frozen it can mess up a meal plan!

The good doesn’t actually go off on that day though

If it smelt as good as I’m imagining I’d still have eaten it.

I’m struggling to imagine DD ever enjoying a savoury snack over a yumnut.

Message them on fb. I bought a cereal topper than was 2 months out of date and they sent me a refund voucher (nothing more than the cost mind). And I used it as it smelt fine 🤣

I would just eat it and then check more carefully next time

Their dates have never been good but I'd have eaten it. What really, really annoys me is the week leading up to Christmas when you only want to shop once more for fresh stuff and all their cream, bread and prepped fruit etc only has a couple of days on it. I gather it's to get us to go in yet again and buy stuff not on the list. Grrr!!

@Sidebeforeselfi know that but M&S food is expensive and I don’t really want to pay full price at 5pm for meals that go off that day . If anything, they should be yellow stickering some of them to shift them rather than have full shelves of products they have to bin a matter of hours later .

That that is a very poor show from M and S,I would expect better of them. It's probably perfectly safe to eat though,I've eaten veg samosas a couple of days out of date. More importantly,do you,or your son actually like those samosas? They are the one thing that I've had from M and S that I haven't liked! Had a really unpleasant taste. I am a big fan of M and S food,but this samosa was a let down!

I wondered if that's a reverse psychology thing - they think customers are going to take from the back because we think it's fresher.

In related matters, it really fucking grinds my gears to see some staff throwing, bashing and shoving hard (mushrooms in one case) fruit and veg while they're restocking. Treat it like eggs and it'll keep better.

And then you get to the till having carefully chosen what look like blemish free apples and the till operator weights them (back in the day) and bangs them down on the counter and shoves them down to you for packing - RAGE!! < this was over 20 years ago and I still won't go to her till nor will I ever forgive her😠

I do have a life, honest 🙃

I suspect that the store is being sent very short date stock because of the cyber attack. Those items that were same day would have been yellow stickered and happily purchased for some people’s freezers.

@Snorlaxothat was the problem though, the lady was stacking the shelves with the meals but not one was yellow stickered, she was just pushing more and more onto the shelves . There were loads of items we’d already seen in store that were going off that same day too and some things which literally had 20p off which was ridiculous as no-one was still buying them. Such a huge waste of food that would have to be eventually binned.

Annoying! If you have the dated receipt, you should be able to get a refund.

Back in the day when M&S sandwiches had just been launched, my DGM bought a prawn sandwich that was off. The store manager drove to her home after closing with a replacement sandwich, a bottle of wine and a gift voucher for £5, which would have bought quite a few prawn sandwiches in 1981! 😂

it can be a mix with some stores , especially the fruit and veg etc

@Pancakeflipper A veggie especially a dairy free one as well is perfectly fine to eat. Did you check if was a Best Before or an actual ‘Use Date’? I’d be surprised if it was the latter. Anyway as an Indian, they are very safe to eat several days later! My tip is to pop them in under girl or in oven not microwave as they get soggy as opposed to crispy. My other tip (since I’m on a roll 😅) is to hunt down your local Indian shops as the samosas from there are so so much cheaper for one. Also way bigger and plumper and usually made fresh that day and just bursting with flavour! You can also gets a variety of meat fillings. PS if they’re out your way, you can freeze them also and just pull out as needed for DS (do check but generally traditional samosas do not contain any dairy) 🙂

If you contact them through Messenger and give them all the details, they will most likely refund you and ensure the store knows so it won't allow it to happen again.
I'd be wondering why it didn't have a yellow sticker on!

I tried to buy some knickers online recently and couldn't because of the cyber attack - I've just googled when the attack was (6 weeks ago) and they've apparently got their online shop back open again today. From what a few of you are saying and the online store being down for six weeks, it must have caused one hell of a mess for them! £300,000,000 worth, apparently! 😱

Back in the day when I worked for a supermarket, there were quite a few safeguards in place to stop us from selling out of date food, because it was a HUGE deal that could land the company and individual managers in some very hot water indeed! Manual checking by staff as well as computerised systems. Since M&S Foodhalls aren't usually the biggest it's pretty poor to have an item on the shelf that is two days past it's sell by date.

(I'd eat it too - I'd give it a good cook in the airfryer if I was worried about it)