Best by when? Second sticker extended date
EUGENE, Ore. -- Joseph Bates said he didn’t think he'd be sacrificing quality when he bought cookies at a discount market.
“When I sampled each one I just thought they kind of tasted stale. So I thought that was kind of unusual,” said Bates.
He then looked at the cookie box packaging and found two expiration dates. One was dated May 2010, but underneath he found a "best by" sticker for December 2009.
He contacted KVAL News to investigate the sticky situation.
“Shouldn’t the consumer be aware that they are already three months past the expirations date before purchasing it?" he asked.
Grocery Outlet's Owner Michael Griego said they check product dates weekly and they just started carrying the cookies a few days ago. He said he was unaware that the cookie boxes had two expiration stickers.
Melissa Porter, Grocery Outlet’s Vice President of Marketing, said the new label represented the new "best by" date.
“Last fall Cougar Mountain had some all-natural cookies that were approaching the 'best if used by' date," she said. "They froze the product before it reached that date, extending the 'best if used by' date to May. They relabeled the product with the new, extended date and delivered the product to our stores with the new label.”
Cougar Mountain's owner David Saulnier told KVAL News the label was not intentional deceit, but rather a misunderstanding between his company and Grocery Outlet about how the cookies should be labeled.
He sent KVAL News a statement from his Seattle office: "We were looking for an "outlet" for our past-date products and thought we clearly represented this fact to Grocery Outlet. Our cookies have a 3-week room-temperature shelf-life in terms of what we consider to be a fresh, “Gourmet Cookie”. Beyond that date and for several months afterward, they begin to lose flavor and softness, but they remain wholesome, healthful, and a source of safe nutrition. However, they no longer posess the top-quality and freshness you get for the regular retail price of $3.99, but they’re still an excellent value at $1.49. This is akin to buying “day-old” bread. The customer gets a discount for less freshness.
"We were relying on Grocery Outlet to sign these items properly and the fact that they didn’t was the result of a misunderstanding, and a lack of oversight by both them and us to make sure we were correctly merchandising these items. This was a 2-day old relationship between our company and this retailer and the signage error would not have continued long before being corrected, with or without Mr. Bates’ complaint, which was unfortunately directed to the media instead of either Cougar Mountain or Grocery Outlet," Saulnier wrote.
Griego said he doesn’t know why the cookies Bates purchased were stale but said if a customer is ever unsatisfied with their products they can return them with no questions asked.
