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Annoyance of the day: “Sell by” dates
It’s possible I only dreamed this, but I seem to recall a time in the past when perishable items such as milk, cheese, etc. had a date on them. This date was labeled as an expiration date. It had a very clear meaning — after this date, do not eat or drink this product. I understood what to do when that date arrived — I would throw out the product. The world was a happy place.
Now, almost everything comes with a “sell by” date. Now, if I were a store owner, I’d find this date useful. I’d know to not sell an item after that date. But as a consumer, a sell by date is useless. When the milk I have is on the sell by date, does that mean I have 2 days before it expires? 1 day? Or is it the same thing, and is probably already expired?
My sense of smell is less than stellar, so don’t tell me to try the sniff test. Honestly, I think fresh milk smells pretty bad — so if I relied on the sniff test, I’d throw all of it out.
My proposal is that everyone goes back to an expiration date. And standardize the sell by date as being 3 days before the expiration date. This way, both stores and consumers have the information they need.
Wed November 23rd, 2005 10:57 pm
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I don’t think you only dreamed it, because I feel like I remember only expiration dates myself.
The idea of a “sell by” baffles me. I mean…doesn’t an expiration date tell the seller enough? Doesn’t it, then, do what it needs to do for both the consumer and the salespeople? Because if there is an expiration date, doesn’t that mean that the people in our neighborhood Kroger, Tom Thumb, or wherever can throw out a carton of milk (or ten) just the same way that the rest of us with our little refrigerators full of going-bad food can?
What possible purpose could a sell-by date serve? If the sell-by isn’t the same as the expiration, then it’s unnecessary. Concrete example, wherein the sell-by date is, as you stated, three days before the expiration: a jug of milk has a sell-by date of August 15 and an expiration date (printed or otherwise) of August 18. WHY, if the milk won’t go bad until August 18, does it matter if the seller foists the milk off on a consumer on August 16 or 17? Why does the seller have to get rid of a jug of milk three days before it will expire, if we are all to understand that the 18th is the expiration date, anyway? Why can’t the seller have another couple of days to hawk his product–and maybe someone who has to bake a bunch of cakes from scratch or eat three packs of Oreos or WHATEVER will come in, see a jug of milk that expires in a day, and say, “Hell, I don’t need twenty-four hours to finish this milk! I can take care of it in less than five!” And then no milk is wasted, the seller still makes money, and the consumer still gets his/her milk.
It makes no sense, I tell you. An expiration date does all the work.
Andy, you had a flood of posts and now have been inactive for many days. I thought you wanted to get better and more steady about this. Yes, I know I have a stagnant blog - http://weasel281.blogspot.com - but I also didn’t set any goals for it. Sweet absolution!
That’s so Mike’s way: aim low, and you never disappoint.
Mal: that’s a good point… but you’re also giving the consumer a lot of credit. These are the same people that run around looking for an excuse. Like Mike Mills said once (I’m probably butchering the exact wording, but whatever): “You can make a lot of money underestimating the public.” I think he meant that as in, the canned crap music a lot of people buy, but the point stands.
Mike: I got busy! Sue me. I’ll try to even it out, schedule things better. But you know how it goes.
Mal (again): good point! Mike is consistent — one post every 3 months! That’s not a blog, that’s a ghost town
Where am I giving the consumer a lot of credit? By knowing what day it is? And what the word “expiration” means? That probably sounds sarcastic, but I’m serious. Are those really all that hard?
And he chided me about my blogging yesterday. Piffle.
How about a “Smell By” date? It would remind you to smell the product and decide how to dispense it, or dispense with it.
After that date you would be taking your nose into your own hands.
My wife and I just had this discussion this morning. She’s headed out to the store and I asked her to buy milk. When she said we had some, I pointed out that the date on the bottle is THREE DAYS AGO! She insisted that the milk is fine, and I told her it’s not fine by my standards.
I refuse to eat, drink, or otherwise consume any product once it has passed the date stamped on the package (that would make Budweiser’s “Born On Dating” a big problem for me, if I drank beer).
My wife hopped online and searched for “sell by dates” and found this post. Thanks for being the voice of reason! My wife thinks I’m a nut when it comes to Expiration/Sell-by Dates. To me they both mean the same thing: throw it away.
She also found a page at About.com that says milk should be good for “at least a week” after the sell-by date if kept properly refrigerated. Again, too vague for me. I think I’ll continue to think of it for what it was when I was a child: an Expiration (Do Not Drink After) date.
Joe
[...] It causes paranoid people (read down to the comment by “Average Joe”) to throw milk out early. [...]