Fruit photo courtesy of: http://everydaytrash.com
Last Monday I was at my local farmer’s market to pick up some fresh greens. The arugula had been attacked by some bugs and was full of holes. They were offering it at a 50 cent discount and I didn’t think twice about it. Had I bought that holey arugula at the store and saw the state of it once I returned home, I would have been annoyed that I hadn’t noticed it, but I doubt I would have returned it.
Do you return bruised or rotten produce?
Riding my bike to the market to get my groceries means that bruised fruit is part and parcel of the mode of transportation I have chosen. I have, however, come home to find that half a head of cauliflower is kind of browned or I’ll cut into an onion to find a whole half of it completely rotten but I have never returned produce.
This is why.
My mom used to shop at Pusateri’s, a hotsy totsy, fancy shmanzy grocery store uptown, where people pay a premium for a pretty store and a policeman to hold up traffic while you enter and exit the parking lot. My mom had come home from a routine grocery shop and as she was unpacking, realized the grapes she had bought were rotten. She went back a few days later with the intention of exchanging them.
She did her shopping, filled her cart and when she was at the check-out, she explained about the rotten grapes. The cashier wouldn’t do nothing about it and called over the store manager. The line grew behind my mom and the exchange would not be made. Furious at the poor service and the growing embarrassment that came from the store making a big stink about a few rotten grapes, my mom left the store- her grocery cart full in the checkout line, and never went back.
This was about ten years ago and since then and because of this poor service, the store has likely lost tens of thousands of dollars in business from my mother and now I have this thing about returning stuff… That is until my jeans ripped. They were essentially deteriorating and so I called Aritzia, the store where I bought them. I was very apologetic about the whole thing, but as I could no longer wear them I wanted to know if I could contact the manufacturer to let them know their jeans fell apart and if there was anything they could do.
Without any hesitation, Aritzia offered me a brand new pair of jeans if I brought in my thread bare ones. They were incredibly helpful, gave me a whole bunch to try on and I left with a brand new pair of jeans and a $25 credit as my new jeans cost less than the pair I was returning. That is outstanding service and I didn’t feel the least bit bad about making the return.
Why I am okay with returning clothes but not food is a mystery to me. Food is the tools with which I do my work. If I built houses and my hammer broke, I would surely take it back. Something about returning food is just challenging to me.
I am interested in your take on this issue. Thoughts? Comments? Experiences to share?
I don’t return anything after an awful experience when I was teenager. Do you remember the store Bata? They were all over Ontario. I bought shoe cleaner, used it on a small area of my shoe and it didn’t work. I returned it the next day. The assistant manager was so rude to me. To make a long story short I contacted the District Manager who apologized and asked the Assistant to apologize to me. During the apology the assistant called me a b*tch. I then reported back to the District Manager who demoted the Assistant. Before I buy anything I try to make sure that it’s in perfect condition and in the case of clothes, it fits. So, I don’t return anything.
I have worked in a grocery store and people return all sorts of things no questions asked. One woman bought strawberries that were off and made a fruit salad with them. I gave her money back for all the fruit in the salad not just the strawberries. That’s customer service not the service we get these days.
I have been mulling this over for a long while now. I remember that as a teenager, I saw an older lady return a box of milk. At first this perplexed me, but as I eavesdropped the conversation further, I saw her point. The milk was rotten and she didn’t get a chance to consume the product.
A few years later, I paid some attention to this, and read the back of my receipts- Loblaw’s, Dominions (metro?), etc… and found that they did have a return policy. I even took part in the process with some rotten lettuce. I even called a milk manufacturer after the milk I bought soured in less than 24 hours. Both cases were dealt with to my satisfaction.
I am now a firm believer that if the product you buy- be it food, clothing or a restaurant meal, is not up to snuff, then you can return it. That’s what the whole system is geared around- so why not?
I am a big returner. If I dont like it or I feel bad about how much I paid for it back it goes? I have never returned produce though. I have never had an experience where I needed to but with everything else I have. Right now I am a cheap college student soo everything must be worth it.
I think I get this because my mom has always been a returner. She strongly believes that if you’re not satisfied then its the store’s responsibilty to fix it or give your money back. Its just good customer service.
I am not ashamed to return something to the store when it doesn’t meet my needs or isn’t what I expected – but it depends on the scale of the item.
I have never returned produce, but I have returned clothing, books (a whole chunk of the book was missing and another section was duplicated) and most recently protein powder. The protein powder had made me very sick and I had emailed the company to let them know. They were incredibly kind and offered to take it back without any issue and gave me a credit for the full price paid – so fabulous!!
This also applies in restaurants. If your meal was not prepared to your standards or requests, would you send it back? I have and I don’t feel bad about it, especially now when certain things would make me sick. I try to be especially gracious and appreciative when I make these types of requests, and servers are usually happy to comply.
I have worked in customer service, so I really appreciate these types of experiences and like your mom, will stop shopping at stores when the customer service is bad. I do like to believe that the customer is always right. I try not to be mean or rude, but I do believe in getting my money’s worth. And you’re right – food is essential to your work and if the store values you as a customer, they would do what it takes to make you happy.
Glad you got your jeans replaced!!
I’ll return produce if it’s bad. I’ve returned cheese and other items too. I learned that from my mom.
Recently I picked up 3 young coconuts at Whole Foods. One was moldy and I decided to return it. I cut into the second one but it seemed off so I threw it out (didn’t think I could return something that I’d cut into) and decided to return the remaining coconut along with the moldy one. They refunded me for all three even though I’d thrown one out.
I occasionally return stuff that I bought and then decided that I didn’t want or need (unopened) and I think I’ve occasionally returned nutritional products that I tried and didn’t like – always with an apology and acknowledgment that they might not take it but I’d appreciate it if they would.
At restaurants. I’ll send a dish back if that’s not what I ordered or if there’s something foreign in it such as a hair. I wish I could return restaurant food that tasted bad such as the overly salted food I ate on Friday but I don’t. I’d advise others to, but I don’t do it myself.
A store (etc.) that takes my returns no questions asked is one at which I’m a repeat customer. Good customer service is important. If I get bad customer service I’ll blog about it, tweet about it, and use other social media to get the word out. Occasionally I’ll complain to management, but if it gets that far then it means that my experience was as bad as it gets. Last year I emailed Richtree’s customer service department after a particularly bad experience (counter staff with a “that’s not my station” attitude, raw eggs in french toast, fruit that was still frozen when I bit into it, putting a hot entree into a plastic container that made the food taste toxic) and received an email of apology and $10 gift card in response. I’d have returned the meal but I’d taken it back to my office.
Something I read once regarding the difference between American consumers and Canadian consumers sticks with me: Americans will kick up a fuss in the restaurant or store but go back. Canadians won’t say anything at the time, but they’ll never return and they’ll tell everyone they know.
The people at Pusateri’s sound like assholes who don’t care about customers. That’s really too bad. I hope it’s changed since.
Oh, and regarding farmer’s markets: If it’s rotten return it that day if convenient, otherwise tell the farmer the following week. They’re nice folks, they’ll make it better. What market is open on Monday? I thought they were all closed.
I will admit I am rather lazy. I have no trouble returning some items, but returning food that requires a return visit to the store depends on how much the item costs. It has to be worth the trip, because I believe I would have to return the produce immediately after buying/finding out it was bad. Generally, I have not had problems with returning food items to reputable grocers.
I agree, food is hard to return. Same thing with dishes at a restaurant that aren’t made properly. Maybe it’s because we feel like we should have noticed that it was bad to begin with, or that others will think we are just being cheap instead of logical?
I hate wasting food so I try not to buy any bad produce, especially since I get yucked out by it and won’t eat it if it has that moldy/musky taste and smell. Blech.
I agree Elain that making a special trip to return food is not likely for me either. But in this case with Pusateri’s I was returning only a couple of days later, I used to be there every other day since I like to buy produce fresh. Now I go to a local produce store and they are happy to refund or exchange any produce that I am unhappy with. Just to clarify Meghan’s telling of the story, the manager suggested to me that if I have a problem with produce i should call the store and let them know prior to returning it. That seemed to me unreasonable and ever since I very rarely shop there. I have probably saved thousands of dollars since it is pricey.
Oh man, ripped jeans right after you bought them would be a bummer. I returned a pair of cycling gloves to REI after I’d had them for 1.5 months and they were completely full of holes/shredded from everyday bike commuting. Luckily REI has a crazy good return policy so I didn’t feel too bad about it, but I was pretty annoyed that the gloves were such poor quality (and cost $30 or something like that).
I tend not to return produce since attempting to return a bag of shelled walnuts to the supermarket once. They smelled distinctly rancid (you know that particular off-walnut smell?). The staff at the supermarket just would not accept that they smelled off. I was made to feel like I was just trying it on, and I have never been back to that supermarket. It also put me off walnuts completely! I use cashews or pecans as a replacement in recipes now – usually works just fine lol
I never have returned food. I don’t know why. My husband worked at a Trader Joe’s and he said people returned stuff all the time. I still can’t bring myself to do it.
My husband told me about this one elderly man who would come in to his store with a half eaten loaf of bread and would complain it was moldy. They’d exchange it for a new loaf. After some time, the cashiers and managers started to recognize him and they caught on that the man was just looking for a free loaf of bread every week. No more free bread for him.
I have a hard time returning food, regardless of whether it’s bad or because I accidentally bought the wrong thing, because I know it gets thrown out. Most stores can’t even donate shelf stable items to food banks or shelters due to the possibility of contamination, or so I’ve been told by certain stores. When it comes to produce, I can normally make use out of some of it: bruised fruits & vegetables, mostly. There’s not much you can do about wilted or pathetic looking greens/lettuces, sadly.
I have the same issue about returning clothes, too. In fact, I had my mom return a sweater for me a few weeks because I washed it once and it was completely unraveling. I’m 23 years old and still can’t bear to argue with a salesperson!
I am now kind of tempted to go to my local store, dig through for something that is off, buy it and return it the next day just to see what their return policy is… I’ll keep you posted!
Thanks for all your great responses.
I definitely return or tell the manager if I purchased rotten produce (sometimes it isn’t convenient for me to get back to the store for a few days, and I really don’t want to hang onto the rotten food!).
What I do is before I start shopping, I talk to someone in produce and inevitably get the produce manager. They then usually let me get a replacement item and they usualy just say to tell the cashier that item is free per a damaged good; thus far no problems.
Oh my!
So this summer, I waved goodbye to my old corporate job and have been fortunate to work at a local business that offers my cute little northern town beautiful produce (most especially fruit).
We offer a 100% guarantee on all of our produce (which thankfully is mostly organic, and for the first time there are also a few fair-trade items!). This isn’t just guaranteed not to rot instantly, it is guaranteed to be delicious!! Each and every customer is reminded of this, and on top of that, we work on the honour system.
Even if there is one slightly weird peach in a bunch, we’ll not only replace it, but, we always over-compensate and give you extra.
Sigh.
Can you imagine how awesome it would be if you could walk into any grocery store and taste everything before you purchased it?
I am sure you all can tell that I love my job about now.
I think that it is especially important to return bad items, always. Produce, clothes (I dislike trying them on, go figure right? this has resulted in some ill-fitting items in the past), supplements, etc.
I’ve got to say though, I dislike making life more difficult for others, returning items is certainly apart of that. So, especially with food served in a restaurant I always attempt to choke it down unless it is incredibly sketchy.
Also, just one more thing to add to my novel sized comment.
I actually have lower expectations for produce that I buy in the chain stores. There is no face, or voice behind this produce. All I have to go off of is the smell, touch and the looks of it. I have no idea how long it has been sitting there for, not to mention how long it’s spent in transit, the workers surely have no idea. So I wouldn’t readily return these kinds of items due to the fact that the store is basically (silently) promising me a shit product to start out with.
I can only imagine that the cashier at Pusateri’s had died a little inside. GAAAAASSSSP, our grapes? Rotten? How dare you!! Well I never…
I fully support boycotting when faced with appalling customer service!
All right, I’m done now. I swear.
I recently had my first experience with returning food. I bought some pita bread from the A&P (now Metro I guess). Two days later all the pitas except the one I had eaten had mold on them. I took them back to the customer service counter found a different brand and completed the exchange. I did have my receipt and the lovely cashier never even batted an eye at the request. In fact there were a number of other people lined up behind me also returning items. I shop at this store all the time and I feel even more confident now since I know returns are extremely painless.
I have definitely returned packaged items that were rotten, but I usually don’t return produce. I usually eat a one of the grapes if I’m looking to buy some… but I only buy one or two of other items if I’m not sure about the quality. If the quality is good, I’ll return to buy more. If not, well… it was a gamble that didn’t pay off.
I think the reason I do not return food produce (even though many times I have wanted to) is because I am not at the store every day. If I wait until I am next there again, then the food would have spoiled even more by then and I wouldnt look believable. I refuse to drive back to the store and waste my own gas and energy to take something back. But I do get cross about it.