Our Reader asked us to publicize the matter. In an email to the editorial office, she wrote: “On January 23, I was shopping at the Carrefour store in Bolesławiec. I bought a few things, including sausages […]. Imagine my surprise when, the next morning, I wanted to eat them for breakfast and saw that they had expired. It turned out that the sausages bore an expiry date of 21-01-2013!! (meaning I bought them when they were already 2 days past their expiry date). I feel cheated by the store because they were not placed on a shelf with food having a short shelf life – they should not have been there at all. They were simply expired.”
She added: “I know this is a trivial matter, but I think it is worth bringing it to the attention of other readers so that they check labels before buying and do not get taken in as I was!”
Here is the chain’s press office comment:
With reference to the question asked, we kindly inform you that on January 21, 2013, Carrefour hypermarket in Bolesławiec was selling products at reduced prices with a short use-by date. The sausages shown in the photograph came from the aforementioned discounted-products section.
The package of sausages with a short use-by date may have been moved to the area designated for non-discounted products (with a longer use-by date) as a result of an employee’s oversight or because a hypermarket customer put the product back incorrectly. Regardless of why the expired product ended up on the store shelf, we would like to sincerely apologize to the customer who purchased it.
At the same time, we would like to emphasize that Carrefour, as a retail chain, attaches great importance to checking expiry dates and strives to prevent such situations. However, due to the very high turnover of goods and the number of product references in the range, such situations may occur. In such cases, we of course refund customers for the goods purchased. We also assure you that every customer who comes to us with an expired product purchased from us can count on our apology and, of course, a cash refund.
(information: ii)