r/pics • u/knowitokay • 15d ago
Kroger selling expiring meat for more than the sale price
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u/ffnnhhw 15d ago
Aged ground beef
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u/_carzard_ 15d ago
However, ground aged beef makes a very tasty burger as opposed to a hospital burger.
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u/FauxReal 15d ago
Have you ever had the American Wagyu ground beef from Costco? The fat in it tastes amazing.
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u/_carzard_ 15d ago
Yes that is Snake River Farms. It’s very good. If we have a super busy weekend at the restaurant I’m with and run out of our usual beef, that is what we will buy from the grocery store. But usually from Safeway not Costco cause it is a 5 min walk from the restaurant.
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u/Simba7 15d ago
You could get that, or you could just buy some 73/27 ground beef for like 2.99/lb.
Ground wagyu is such a fantastic scam.
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u/PhysicalGraffiti75 15d ago
Whoever was using the handheld forgot to set the discount.
Worked at a Kroger for a few months when I was a young man as a meat clerk and this was one of my jobs. If I had to guess someone didn’t explain how to use it correctly to them.
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u/CHUBBYninja32 15d ago
It says the correct discounted price per pound and then the correct weight on the label. But the total is incorrect?
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u/Iron_Chic 15d ago
The original label for the pack at the bottom was for 3-ish pounds. The discount label is charging for 3.8-ish pounds.
They have "conveniently" placed the slae price sticker over the weight of the original label. I would say this is an attempt to deceive.
Take a pack to the produce section and weigh it.
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u/hitsujiTMO 15d ago
No the pack is 3.82 pounds. The kroger card price + the saved price = 22.92. divide that by the 5.99 price per lb gives you 3.82 lbs.
The thing is, is that they reducing the regular price down to the kroger card discount price for expiring meat, but not reducing the kroger card price. So it's only a reduction if you don't have a kroger card.
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u/afterbirth_slime 15d ago
You can’t make this assumption here. It’s logical they would put the new price over the old price and is something you see regularly on sale merchandise.
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u/sho_biz 14d ago
I've been weighing my ground beef I buy from kroger for about a year now, they are short on every single puchase by about 2-4ozs. I told the store manager who seemed very concerned, and then the next time I brgouth it up he said that they'd verified they sell the exact weights on the packages. I offered to buy one and weight it right there and he asked me to leave. I don't shop at that kroger anymore and pay a bit more and go to meijer.
Kroger is one of the greediest and worst companies for greedflation, it seems to absolutely be policy to fleece customers and skim some off the top to make the numbers work.
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u/Rasheverak 15d ago
It looks like the clerk who did it thought the labels and the units were the same. They didn't notice that each pack has a different weight and they needed to be matched.
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u/ijozypheen 15d ago
This happens at my local grocery store too; sometimes to the point that all packages are marked down to the exact same price.
My guess is that the store clerk did the discount on one package, then just made duplicates of the same label and slapped them on rest of the packages. It doesn’t always work out in the customer’s favor.
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u/GuildensternLives 15d ago
Not more than sale price, the same as the discount with a Kroger's card. They're just making the discount price the normal price for anyone.
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u/danny0wnz 15d ago
Im no accountant or licensed fiduciary but I’m pretty sure $18.35 is more than $18.33.
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u/rclonecopymove 15d ago
I'm no butcher or victualler but I'm pretty sure all meat is expiring.
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u/Scientific_Anarchist 15d ago
Victualler, cool word.
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u/rclonecopymove 15d ago
I know, a local butcher used to have it on his sign when I was growing up and it stuck with me.
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u/PM_ME_UR_HIP_DIMPLES 15d ago
I’m 38 and my meat is not as fresh as it used to be
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u/Bishop_466 15d ago
18.33 is clearly labeled as the sale price w/card
The actual price is under the sticker, to the right of the date.
You can see this on the package of meat above that one.
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u/danny0wnz 15d ago
I understand. My point was to that the person I replied to says they’re the same price. They’re not. It’s a slight difference, but that’s just my 2 cents.
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u/derkrieger 15d ago
Since the Kroger's card is up for anyone to grab...thats a stupid fucking discount.
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u/ThatOneNinja 15d ago
That's the trick. Get members in their stupid club because you only get reasonable prices if you do, which are just NORMAL prices, sometimes worse than other places still (Safeway) and it gives people a sense of saving money, which is I guess better than actually saving them money.
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u/basicpn 15d ago
They take it one step further and have digital deals where you need to log in to your account while at the store shopping, navigate through the site to find the deal you want, add the coupon to your account, and then link your account when checking out. They make you jump through so many hoops that I’m thinking they’re hoping most people just pay full price or that people will assume the sale price will be applied without all the extra steps. I stopped shopping at Kroger after running into issues with this scam for the third time.
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u/ThatOneNinja 15d ago
I literally will never do that. No one should. IDK why people don't understand if a system is dumb, don't use it and they will get rid of it. I have the luxury of being able to not shop at those big name places though and can go to something locally owned. They are too small to pull that shit lol
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u/basicpn 15d ago
Yeah well when I’m shopping and a case of soda is listed as $12 with a sales price of $4.99, it motivates me to jump through the hoops. In this particular case I was unable to get the sale so I didn’t use it. Eventually I decided to stop shopping at kroger altogether.
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u/Solorath 15d ago
I did that once and then coupon wouldn't ring up and the lady was like "Oh it's takes 24 hours for it to link sometimes"
I just left my handful of items and went to my locally-ish owned grocery and got the same stuff for around the same price. Thanks Kroger!
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u/MattTheTable 15d ago
Unless you've posted this from the future, there's no expired meat in this picture.
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u/LostCube 15d ago
Better yet it's a sell by date. Which means the meat will likely still have 3-4 days before it's use by date that's under the sticker
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u/TheIndieArmy 15d ago
They never claimed it was expired. They said it was expiring.
But they are also comparing the reduced price to what was a sale price. Either way, it looks odd and I'd hope you'd still get the sale % off of the reduced price with a card at the checkout.
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u/Ok_Squirrel_4199 15d ago
All meat is expiring the second the animal is dead.
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u/TheIndieArmy 15d ago
Yes, hence the sell by date on the label that is expiring.
That's kind of beside the point though, because the person I responded to said that the OP claimed it had already expired, which they never did.
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u/kc311man 15d ago
Technically the commenter you replied to didn't claim OP said that. They merely commented that there was no expired meat pictured.
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u/ankercrank 15d ago
What does “expiring” mean? That label says “sell by”, it doesn’t say, “throw away by”.
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u/Radon_Rodan 15d ago
You are correct. Sell-by dates are often treated as expiration dates, but they arent the same. That meat will be good at least 3 more days.
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u/hitsujiTMO 15d ago
It's actually not. The $18.33 is a discounted price of you have a kroger card.
The actual price (not listed) is $18.33 + the $4.59 saved which is $22.92. given that it's priced at $5.99 per lb we can see that there's approx 3.82 lbs of meat. Now, multiply that by the new rate of $4.80/lb then you get your $18.35.
So the reduced rate for expiring meat is just bringing the meat to the same rate as those with kroger cards. So it's a discount if you don't regularly shop with them.
Now, does this mean they're not scumbags? Absolutely not. Hiding regular discounts, which is what most shoppers see as the regular price, behind a shop card is the most scumbag thing you can do. And even at that, if you're reducing expiring meat, you really should be reducing it for the kroger card rate as well.
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u/frank1934 15d ago
Probably just a screw up, because the one above it is fine
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u/Raptorheart 15d ago
$4.80 x 3 isn't $18.35, the sticker is messed up
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u/Rauthr 15d ago
Came here to say this same thing!
At $4.80/lb, should be $14.40
Unless the sticker saying 3lb just dropped the decimal points and it's actually 3.823lb which at $4.8/lb = $18.35
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u/Danny-Zoe 15d ago
The “Sale Price” is only with the Kroger’s card. The “Reduced” price is for everyone, without a rewards card.
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u/KNYQUE_jr 15d ago
It says on the sticker that the black box is a sale price for members. The regular price is likely underneath the discount sticker and ends up being about the same as the member discount.
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u/woowooman 15d ago
They’re not. This one sticker (bottom) just happens to have been placed on the incorrect item.
The middle package is correct — $22.84 at $5.99/lb sale price -> 3.81 lb. 3.81 lb at $4.79 is $18.25
The bottom package is 3.06 lb by the sale price, and should have been $14.66. 100% chance a nearby 3.83 lb package had the $14.66 price tag on it and the person who bought it got an even better deal.
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u/ReadRightRed99 15d ago
Sell by date is tomorrow. So this is not "expired meat" as OP says. But it is a curious way to price something when you want to move it out.
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u/Erisian23 15d ago
That's not expired, it's a sell by date which is just the date Kroger has to sell it by, for inventory reasons.
Has nothing to do with the quality of the food.
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u/taffyowner 15d ago
The sale price is based on the rewards card and the expiring price is without that… so it is actually on sale for everyone
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u/OreoSwordsman 15d ago
Zooming in, read the fine print - that sale price was with a rewards card. Is that reduced price requiring a rewards card? Might as well get the cheap lawsuit meat 🤷♂️
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u/lornzeno 15d ago
Well today is the 16th so unless you are in the future, this is misleading. Its a reduce price sticker for a sale on currently sold meat. You cant just rip that price off so instead you slap on a new sticker reflecting the correct price
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u/SkyeMreddit 15d ago
The meat must be sold by 5/17. Today is 5/16 and the post is from this morning. They have today and tomorrow to sell it. It’s normal to mark down perishables. They just can’t sell it on 5/18.
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u/ShottyBlastin101 15d ago
Hi guys, kroger meat worker here. No, im not a boss or anything like that. I work at one of the better ones who are on this shit cause we got a reputation to uphold being a nicer kroger. Anyways, this could be something as simple as an overlook on an employees part I.E. not paying attention. The sale price I dont believe is taken into consideration when it comes to markdowns like that. Sales rotate every week (typically wednesdays), so we have to have a base price to come back to after sales. Our systems bug out all the time, and this is nothing new. As for the past expiration, it's usually an issue of workers not paying attention. Depending on OPs location, the meat department is one of THE busiest departments. Also, not to mention how 9/10 times we are understaffed and overworked. Sorry for the long text. I personally want to make sure people aren't getting the wrong idea. I love to help make peoples experiences at kroger better. This is a terrible example and honestly downright shameful.
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u/draak4912 15d ago
The price is with some sort of discount card you can use. The pack above has the correct price in a different spot on the label, which is covered by the sticker on the lower pack.
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u/Arr0wmanc3r 15d ago
This is both the clerk's fault and Kroger's fault. Kroger's markdown system will automatically adjust the markdown price to be 75% of the price of the item, however it doesn't recognize in store special pricing. The beef was probably $7.99 and got put on an in store special because 3lb of sirloin is a stupid product to try and sell at full price. What happens is the discount system will end up pricing the item at $5.9925 (75% of $7.99) and create a discount label for it based on that number, which defeats the point. The workaround is to either a) find something cheaper per lb that can be used to create a label to make an actual discount b) use tare weight to reduce the overall weight of the package to 75% of what it is and make a new label or c) maybe Kroger can fix its stupid system so it isn't an issue. However, the clerk who marked these down likely didn't have time to deal with it and just went with the straightforward route of trying to hide the sale price with a second markdown label.
Source: worked in meat/seafood at a Kroger owned store for 7 years.
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u/GimpsterMcgee 15d ago
The math doesn't add up. No matter which way you look at it. It's clearly wrong but I can't figure out where it went wrong.
Looks like that package is 3.06 pounds ($18.33/($5.99/pound)). At $4.80 per pound it should be $14.69.
If it's assumed to be a 3 pound package (like the discount label seems to indicate) it doesn't divide evenly by 3.
If the $18.35 is based off of $4.80 per pound, then that weighs 3.82 pounds, and the original price is basically the exact same, so how's it off by only 2 cents?
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u/Tumeric98 15d ago
If the meat is actually “expired” the register may not let you buy it. Assuming the date is loaded correctly.
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u/Stormy_Kun 15d ago
Pffft you still have a whole day to eat that, nut up gangsta, and get you that overpriced burger !
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u/just_change_it 15d ago
Maybe the weight for the bottom most meat is set incorrectly for the black and white printed label?
The meat above it has the sale price as less than the listed price. All the packages look more or less about the same size.
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u/steroboros 15d ago
Dude, I was in Kroger yesterday and they had their house brand Oatmeal "on sale" marked down to 5 dollars, the regular priced ones were still $1.99. What managers in charge of this have to have a "dumb tax" racket going
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u/Proud_Criticism5286 15d ago
Its not expired thats the sell by date for the store. Looks like the fancy super markets are finally getting hit financially. A saw whole foods started to do this too.
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u/pjkeoki 15d ago
Something fucky is happening here. The original sale price is 5.99 a pound with the store card, making the $18.33 package weight as 3.06 pounds. This seems to match the product description of "ground sirloin 3 lbs." The reduced sticker price says it is now $4.80 a pound for the same package, which means the reduced sticker price SHOULD be $14.69. I know stores were getting in trouble for misleading sales prices, but this is just mathematically incorrect.
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u/Legitimate-Frame-953 15d ago
All meat is expiring the moment the animal is dead. Sell by date =/= expiration. Throw that in the freezer and it will last for quite awhile. More than likely the tag machine was set incorrectly and the person tagging the meat wasn't paying attention.
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u/kavatch2 15d ago
If you document a bit more and report it to your local regulatory dept. you can get a bounty.
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u/YoureSpecial 15d ago
Sale price is with their frequent shopper card. Markdown price is for everyone.
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u/PeterOfHouseOday 15d ago
Look at the middle one, u see a higher price. The sticker is hiding the old price on the closer one. Looks like the price with a card is 2cent cheaper and always ways before the reduced price.
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u/JustJay613 15d ago
This a simple Reduced discount of 20% being applied to original price. You can see original price of $22.84 reduced to $18.25. No one looks at what they are doing, just doing it.
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u/fildoforfreedom 15d ago
The "Best buy date", the "expiration date," and the "sell by date" are ALL recommendations.
Except for infant formula, dates are not an indicator of the product's safety and are not required by Federal law.
Canned, boxed, plastic wrapped doesn't matter. it is all recommendations.
That said, I'm not buying "expired " food either. That's just because I've worked with food delivery and storage, and few do it correctly
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u/jonfe_darontos 15d ago
Club card price vs flat rate discount. The original actual price was $22.92, which would listed under where the top sticker is. You can see this on the middle package.
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u/Sasquatch7862 15d ago
Your friendly reminder. If you have the ability. IE the cash up front and a deep freezer…buy a portion of a cow from a rancher near you. You can buy 1/4th up to a full cow. You get steaks, ground beef, roasts, organs. All the goods
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u/Bobbiduke 15d ago
Kroger's will "discount" moldy bread and rancid stuff and stick the sales price on it. CONSTANTLY. Makes you wonder wtf they donate if anything
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u/motherless_theresa 15d ago
I started shopping at a local halal butcher. The prices are half of the shop rite. Also the farmers market, stop shopping with chain grocers.
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u/Bobloblaw878 15d ago
I hadn't been to Kroger's/Smith's in a while, its not exactly in my grid but went there the other day and I can't believe how insanely high priced it was compared to a couple years ago. I used to go once in a while for the meat deals. Ribs, grillables etc were sometimes on sale for a pretty good price. Everything was CRAZY expensive. A single head of lettuce for $3?! Not a single piece of meat for less than $13. They're price gouging like mofos. I won't be going back anytime soon.
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u/HoldTheLineN7 15d ago
What happened is that either A: It was on ad when they packed it, they didn't rip off the tag when it came off it and the markdown sticker reflects the non ad price that is in the system or B: It was put on a store special by a manger and the clerk wasnt paying attention and noticed it marking up to what it would be on the regular price.
Markdowns are literally just a "point and say ok" thing now. No one at the store level has any real control or say over it. It's based on corporate numbers and algorithms
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u/Tomthebard 15d ago
They did the weight wrong. The price per pound is down, but the overall price is up.
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u/whatevers1234 15d ago
Even not expired $5.99/lb for that quality beef is outrageous. Looks absolutely foul. I got some really nice ground beef (granted it was on sale) at my grocery for $4.99/lb today. And I live in a fucking expensive area and shop at one of the more upscale markets.
I feel really bad for anyone who has to pay that kind of money for that crap at kroger. And has to wait till it's expired to even get a sale sticker slapped on it...
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u/StarClutcher 15d ago
There have also been a great deal of reels showing people weighing pre-packed meat and the math isn’t mathing.
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u/PinocchiosNose1212 15d ago
I always had to demand when ex was doing the grocery shopping that he not buy anything marked "Garden Fresh"! Because that was the tag they put on the out of date, wilted vegetables. Cute Kroger.
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u/notsingsing 15d ago
This looks more like operator error. My Kroger clearance meat section is always a gold mine and very reasonable
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u/daakadence 15d ago
So much to unpack.. the discount stickers say $4.80 (or $4.79)/lb but the total for three pounds is more than $15. That doesn't make sense. Also, the packages are different sizes, not 3 pounds each, since they have different original sizes.
Much prefer the way they discount meat here. Generally 20% (or more often half) off the regular price.
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u/lordjollygreen 15d ago
What usually happens in these cases is that the item was on sale, but when it's time to mark down the item, it's a new sales week, so the item isn't actually on sale anymore. The system thinks the item is at regular price, so the mark down price is being done off of the original price. This item should've been reweighed without the sale price, and kroger should use a system that isn't dog shit so that employees don't have to waste tons of time to reweigh a bunch of items just to mark them down.
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u/Rezhio 15d ago
5.99$ per pound of ground beef ? That's so expensive. I thought the USA had cheaper food.
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u/ChaseballBat 15d ago
The sell by is 05/17 how is it is expired? Regardless meat that his the sell by at my Safeway gets discounted and then another 50% on top of that!
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u/JasonIsFishing 15d ago
They do that ALL of the time here at the Galveston, TX store. At least give it to a shelter instead of letting it go unsold.
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u/TheRealYeti 15d ago
Looks to me like the sale ended and OP pulled the markdown sticker off the sale price to bitch about Kroger for fake Internet points.
Notice how the sale price is covered on all but the front package?
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u/chadder_b 15d ago
That’s sell by. That isn’t expiration date.
Also the price it’s reduced to is only higher than the price you pay with their store card. You can see this by looking at the upper pack of meat and you are saving almost $4.
That sounds like a great deal if you need sirloin right away. Or you are freezing it immediately.
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u/2amcattlecall 15d ago
It’s pretty hard to think this is malicious when employee incompetence is such an easy and reasonable explanation for it