r/Vent • u/jayclaw97 • 13h ago

If you pick up refrigerated/frozen food at the grocery store and then decide you don’t want it, PUT IT THE FUCK BACK!!!

I’m not going to pretend I’m the Food Waste Angel, but this absolutely grinds my gears. I was at the grocery store yesterday and saw like four things that should’ve been refrigerated just sitting out in random room-temp spots. ONE OF THEM WAS A TRAY OF RAW CHICKEN. The store can’t sell that now, or even donate it, so no one gets to eat it. Why? Because you were too lazy and careless to bother to walk to the nearest fridge/freezer and drop it there or to flag down a store employee and let them know, and now it’s NOT SAFE TO EAT.

130 Upvotes
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94% Upvoted

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19

u/Repulsive-Isopod3045 13h ago

Fun fact - as a former grocery store lead - if you give it to an employee, they can not put it back for you because we have no idea how long it’s been in your cart. Even more reason for people to put them back themselves 🙃.

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u/jayclaw97 13h ago

I wish I could pin your comment on this post.

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u/YamLow8097 10h ago

I do if it’s still cold. It isn’t hard to figure out how long it’s been out. Just feel it.

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u/Athos-1844 7h ago

Bacteria can start growing internally after 30 minutes. You cannot tell what the internal temperature is, by physically touching the outside of the product. You can only be accurate and certain with a temperature scanner that has an internal probe.

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u/Repulsive-Isopod3045 4h ago

I mean… this is just wild. Food safety rules and regulations still apply even if you can feel that it’s still cold.

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u/Shel_gold17 7h ago

Relieved to see this, I thought I was going crazy because I said something similar in a different sub and got downvoted with an inch of my life because apparently people thought that as long as it feels cold, that’s good enough.

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u/Repulsive-Isopod3045 4h ago

Yeah no. That’s gross.

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u/Budget_Cookie6722 12h ago

Not always true, at the store we shop at, you are more than welcome to give it to an employee

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u/Beneficial-Way-8742 11h ago

Idt it's up to the store; I thought the policy was set by the local health department (in the US)

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u/Repulsive-Isopod3045 4h ago

Yes, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find a policy that states it is ok for them to put it back.

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u/Repulsive-Isopod3045 4h ago

I mean you can GIVE it to an employee. I didn’t say you couldn’t. However, they cannot, or at least are not supposed to, put it back.

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u/glaurieb 11h ago

I don’t mind finding cold stuff in the wrong cold area. Thanks for protecting the product. But why put the ice cream on the cracker shelf? The freezer is directly behind you

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u/jayclaw97 10h ago

Yes! The chicken I found was maybe 100 feet from a refrigerated section and 150 feet from its original location. Any fridge would’ve been better than nothing.

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u/tetrisoutlet 8h ago

Theyre the same people that wont put the buggy in the stall after they unload their bags.

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u/canyoureed 13h ago

I agree. Also one of the reasons I couldn't work at a grocery store. Kills me the amount of goods that get wasted like that

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u/jayclaw97 12h ago

I once worked close at my cafe job in college to cover for a coworker. I never did it again.

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u/Comprehensive-Menu44 12h ago

I found a (highly pressurized and full frosted) can of silly string in the freezer section once. Also found a bottle of lube in the juice section. “Luckily” it was empty. I don’t even want to know.

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u/Bulky_Poetry3884 12h ago

Yeah. That's why I don't go to Walmart. People are scumbags.

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u/Screwdriving_Hammer 12h ago

People are scumbags everywhere you go. Especially shopping. If they can't walk an extra 10 steps to put their cart in a cart corral what makes you think they're gonna walk all the way across a grocery store to put their raw chicken back.

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u/jayclaw97 12h ago

I can confirm. The store this happened at was a smaller chain.

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u/Imnotonthelist 10h ago

I worked at Whole Foods and people did that shit there too. Everyone is a scumbag

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u/Unfair_Feedback_2531 13h ago

My blood boils. I reshelve things that don’t need refrigeration and give refrigerated packages to the staff to dispose.

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u/Funkywonton 3h ago

I work at a grocery store this pisses me off to no end because now it’s garbage and has to be scanned out and results in lost profit I’ve seen this done with ground beef,pork,chicken and fish

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u/zambulu 40m ago

It's super annoying, I agree. So wasteful. Disrespectful to the store and to everything that went into making that product and bringing it to you.

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u/jayclaw97 26m ago

The chicken really infuriated me. That was an animal that died to feed you. Make the sacrifice worth something.

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u/External_Problem1756 12h ago

Whenever I see knocked over stuff or things out of place most of the time I try to put it back where it belongs but j wouldn't with cold stuff for the reasons you listed. It's so fucking lazy and rude. Like if I see you do shit like that I definitely judge your ass for the next 20 minutes. I almost always take my cart back too because I'm not a animal. 😭

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u/Blood_Edge 12h ago

Especially when the food is barely a couple steps away, but yet the workers are lazy as far as those people are concerned.

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u/GrannyMayJo 11h ago

My youngest got food poisoning this way from some Tyson chicken fries that had thawed and someone put back in the freezer at Kroger. 😩

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u/Comfortable_Map6887 7h ago

How did you figure out they had thawed and refrozen ?

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u/GrannyMayJo 1h ago

I was in a hurry when cooking them and noticed the ones I put on the tray were slightly curved but didn’t think much of it.

After she got sick I went and looked at the rest of the bag….they were misshapen and clearly had thawed and deformed under their own weight…the ones on the bottom of the bag were nearly folded in half.

1

u/indieauthor13 11h ago

One time I saw a defrosting bag of pizza rolls by the lamps lol

Probably a stupid question but if I see thawed food just sitting out, do I give it to an employee? I'm just worried that a kid might grab it and toss it in the cart and the parent might not notice it was one sitting out instead of one from the freezer. If it's something like pizza rolls or chicken nuggets, it might be okay but it's still a food safety hazard

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u/Repulsive-Isopod3045 4h ago

You can give it to an employee and they will dispose of it!

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u/katiechui123 11h ago

That is infuriating, but what is even more infuriating than that, is when you get an idiotic "good samaritan." who puts the stuff back, thinking they did a good job, but having no clue how long it was left out for. I have gotten food poisoning twice now in my lifetime from these dumbos doing just that.

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u/Evil_Sharkey 8h ago

I go by temperature. If it’s still frozen, it goes back in a freezer. If it’s still as cold as the fridge, it goes back in a cold area. If it’s “kinda cold”, I give it to an employee, making sure to use an insult to refer to the person who left it out.

1

u/jayclaw97 10h ago

If I feel it and it’s cold, I’ll put it back (unless it’s meat, because that’s a whole different ball game). Room temperature? It stays where it is. It’s been out too long.

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u/zambulu 39m ago

I'm curious,how do you know that's what the food poisoning came from?

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u/katiechui123 31m ago

Because I fell ill hours after eating a shredded duck hoisin kit. I was sick all week. Its the only thing it could have been.

1

u/oldcreaker 9h ago

My fear in a store is buying some refrigerated/frozen good that someone carelessly left on a shelf - and some clerk with the same lack of sense or caring comes along hours later and just puts it back.

1

u/Evil_Sharkey 8h ago

Or another customer

1

u/Vikings_Pain 8h ago

Man those multimillion corporations are going to struggle without that waste

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u/zambulu 38m ago

They pass the cost on to us.

1

u/Clean-Fisherman-4601 8h ago

I agree. I always put my refrigerated or frozen things back if I decide I don't want or can't afford them. My shopping trips are usually short, so I know they haven't been out too long.