To expect bleeding Sainsbury's to provide food that's edible

[Conundrumish]

Hate Sainsburys at the moment. We were hosting two parties at home during this week and when I went to make bread for the first the bread was utterly stale (it had arrived the night before). I had wasted so long the night before because part of their website was down and this was the last straw. Cue DH struggling for 30 mins to get to shop and buy new bread and nearly being late for the party. Customer service was crap when I called them.

Then, today, I went to cook brocolli we got on Friday night and this was yellow and smelly (had been in cool dark garage). AIBU to expect brocolli to last 4 days in these conditions? don't know if I am or not.

i would expect bread to be stale if it a day old. and yes broccoli does go off

you are receiving my first

I gave up on Sainsburys years ago but sounds like they still have same old problems (love shopping in-store though). TBH even though Ocado offer the best service they routinely send items which are a day or 2 from best before date.

Sainsbury's have the same problems with bread in-store at my nearest one - I now double check the dates on any sliced or packaged bread I buy there, as two or three times I have opened a packet bought the day before to make school lunch sandwiches and found the bread covered in mould, and the best-before date was the day I opened it. I've had to call staff over several times when I've found bread past its best-before date still on the shelves. Poor stock control or what?

Bread does go stale. If it doesn't, you don't want to be eating it as it is being kept 'fresh' by chemical means.

not sure about the bread...it does go a bit dry after 12 hours, past its best but not stale as such so it depends what you mean. Brocolli should be OK for a week or so though, that is bad

Sainsbury's is a rubbish supermarket. The fruit they sell is appalling. And they are an expensive supermarket imo.

I did MySupermarket yesterday and Sainsburys was the cheapest by nearly £12 and all my fresh goods were well within date today when they arrived. I have more problems with Asda and best before dates.

Thank you, too p'd off with them to be rational about my manky brocolli! We had only had the bread from 6pm to 9am and it was stale .

YANBU - I would expect bread to be fine overnight and I would also expect broccoli to be unmanky after 4 days if kept cool and dark.

I once found what can only be described as alien pupae in a tin of Sainsbo's own baked beans. it was truly revolting a black and clear gelatinous lump, that was getting on for egg sized.

I took it back to complain, and they bagged it to "send to their lab", did they buggery!. I kept going back in to get results until the manager told me that there had been a mix up and it had been thrown away. All they did was refund for the beans, I got not a penny for the trauma caused.

I have also had rancid "fresh" pasta sauce from there that was well in date.

We twice bought fish from Sainsburys that was rotten when we opened it at home the same evening. The first time DH went in and got a refund. The second time we rang to complain that there seemed to be a problem with their fish storage and the manager said "we don't sell food that's off", so we jumped in the car and took it back to the store and held it up to his face - he offered a refund but said it wasn't "off", it just smelled "strong"! Won't bore you with the whole sorry story, but have never bought fish from there since.

Having said that, poor service/substandard food are often down to a bad store manager rather than a particular supermarket.

I have in the last two weeks had one rotton and one mouldy onion and gone off mince from Sainsburys but generally find them ok.

We took the mince back because it was expensive but just binned the onions. I guess this is the worst time of year for onions, are we still eating last years crop?

this is why I won't order groceries online.

when I go to the shop I check the "use by" date and get the one that is the furthest out. Naturally the shop workers would like to get the ones with the closest "use by" date cleared so that they don't need to be thrown away, so I suspect that when a shop worker picks the items for me they will choose the opposite of what I would choose.

Based on the number of times it has happened to me, and with disparate retailers, I suspect this is policy and that they consider refunding/replacing the odd one that gets complained about to be cheaper than letting the food close to it's use by date go off and sending people the "fresher" ones.

I usually use tesco and have never had too much of a problem with this. For stuff that does go off quickly like coleslaw or ready prepared vegetables I ask for as long a use by date as possible but in general (milk etc) I find I get roughly the same as if I'd picked it.

I keep broccoli in the fridge and find that even so supermarket stuff goes off quickly wheras farmers market/ shop stuff lasts much longer. I think bread is best on the day it was made so yes yabu in your expectations of supermarket food imo.

I always shop in store for the reasons above.

I will also lift the top crates of fruit and veg up so I can get the fresher stuff underneath. I then tend to hold it up a tad longer so the little old dears can choose some too

bollocks, bread doesn't go stale in a day?

Brocolli should be kept in the fridge but 4 days is pushing it tbh.

I have found the customer service to be terrible. So...i have resorted to redialling, asking to speak to manager and telling them not only the problem I had originally but also my issue with customer service.

Last time I did this over a £12 pair of fairy lights which were broken. I got a cheque sent to me for £40 made up £20 for the lights (original cost plus postage) and £20 goodwill gesture/apology. CS manager was very upset at bad service and went off to listen to the calls, called me back to apologise again (she could locate them from my number). Had a cheque not a gift card as I said I was not sure I would be using them again!

The time before, I had a broken tv, and was made to go trundling through a tiny loft hatch in a loft in the process of being converted (so a mess) for my guarantee despite being heavily pregnant, even though the tv was their own make, clearly broken, and all I wanted was a refund. I made such a fuss, right there, in store (it was the day before my due date) and then flounced off to get the receipt, produced it, said I disliked being put into the category of possibly 1% of those who are dishonest rather than the 99% of honest people, and got a £50 gift card and a written apology and the tv replaced.

So, yes, they are crap sometimes, BUT if you complain enough/loud enough they will compensate.

Unlike morrisons who sold my friend runner beans with bugs crawling through them, and gave her £2.50 gift card

(and all I wanted was a replacement tv, not a refund!)

I've found the customer service via the website to be brilliant. Make sure you add your nectar card number, ask for compensation. Last time we got £5 worth of points for an off chicken.

Funnily enough, I was in Sainsburys today and a couple complained to staff about all the 'fresh' ginger being green inside. Mmmmm! Overheard dept manager saying to the staff member who'd received the complaint that some people were too fucking fussy!

MrsMindControl - that is really bad - I hope he/she didn't use that language. I think these guys are forgetting there is a recession out there and that there are several supermarkets we can choose from. I will be swapping to Tesco for a bit just to make my point (though I have to go back to the horrible people at least once to use the compensation they have given me!).

TonariNoTotoro - personally I think £5 worth of points for a chicken off within its sell-by date is very poor. Off chicken can be very dangerous and who wants money that has to be spent in the same shop that sold you rotten chicken!

We've had good experiences with sainsburys when something hasn't been right, usually getting a refund and a replacement and further compensation if something is really bad (like a large moth in a bag of rice - refund plus £10 voucher). We generally have no problems with the freshness of produce from our store, though. I think the way a store is run can make a lot of difference.

In contrast, we have 2 large Tesco stores nearby or convenient for DH's work and a Morrisons. We've had stuff from all of those stores that has gone off well before its use by or best before date - probably been sitting around the shop waiting to be put on display, or, dare I say it, redated.

I love Tesco amd Waitrose