to ask whether it's ok for a shop to repeatedly sell out of date stock?

[Zulor]

Bought a sandwich - a day out of date
Bought a cake - out of date
Bought some beer - out of date

Can they be called to task for this? You shouldn't constantly have to check the dates on things before you purchase them should you?

If relevant, it's a small grocery store, with no other shops for about a kilometre/kilometre and a half in either direction.

So fucking pissed off.

Have you taken the items back? Have you complained directly? Are they aware of the problem?

Are the dates best before or use by? It matters.

If it's use by it should not be sold
If it's best before it can be but I think u still have to be made aware??

Report to environmental health at your local council.

If it was the odd item and probably just hadn’t been picked up on, AND it was something like biscuits or tinned stuff (so, not raw chicken etc) then I’d not bother about it.

If it’s all the time and ‘use by’ dates, then I’d be reporting to trading standards. If it’s ‘best before’and it bothers you then you need to remember to check (food is perfectly alright to eat after ‘best before’ dates).

The sandwich will be a use by and Environmental Health would be very interested in the shop selling out of date fresh food.

Cake could be either and beer will be a BBE, but you still wouldn't expect it to be out of date and pay full price - beer has about a year's date on it, so the shop must have very slow turnover.

My bet is that the shop doesn't make much money and is in a bit of a vicious circle of slow turnover, not selling things quickly enough, but not being willing and/or able to do much about it. You feel sorry for them but they still shouldn't be selling food beyond the use by date.

I once emptied a shelf of discounted baby milk with a year out of date on it the shop was trying to sell!!! Gave them a sharp word. But then found honey on their discount shelf again a year out of date and again spoke to the manager. It’s not on. Close to and up to use by date is fine. But baby milk is disgraceful.

It's likely that they're aware of it but like PP's have said, they've probably chosen to ignore it as they don't want to lose profit.

I had a short-lived job in an independent health food shop in my early 20's. Half of the stock on the shelves was dusty and out of date. Vitamins, protein, nuts, drinks. I ended up getting the sack after someone sold out of date vitamins to a pregnant woman and I cleared the shelves of all the out of date crap. The owner got pissed off, told me to stop meddling and fired me.

Get em reported if they're selling items past the use by date.

Some shops will do that because they get away with it! People don't take a single item back because it feels like hard work and if it's convenient to your house lots of people still use the shop (just checking dates)

Saying that my local small Tesco and I had a battle over a out of date packet of tasimo coffee. I bought it found it was out of date and took it back. 4 more times I found it back on the shelf and handed it in to be told it would get removed from sale until the last time when I told them if I found it again I'd be reporting them and the staff member ripped it open in front of me. Cheeky fuckers!

Environmental health will want to know especially if the items are things that would cause illnesses.

I used to work at Sainsbury's. if I remember correctly if some sort of official person found out of date stock on the shelves we would have a large fine

This particular place makes a mint due to it being a heavily residential area with no other shops in the immediate vicinity.
I've never brought anything back as I'm in there so often and fear they'll bar me or something lol.
Might report them to Environmental Health however that's done.

Bloody annoying.

Well I think this explains it rather well.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dirty-village-store-sold-out-15059861

And other link

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/grim-conditions-shop-sold-out-15001764

I shouted at the manager and reported a central London branch of the Co-op to environmental health because they repeatedly took food out of the fridges on its use by date and piled it into a trolley to flog off cheap, even on hot days. Some of the packaging was bulging out with the decomposition gases. Foul.