There is no special reward on finding bugs in salads

[Draco]

And what's funny is that it's very common for stores to issue double money-back on unsatisfactory produce, meat, and dairy.

Huh; I guess the "Double back on Meat/Dairy/Produce" is unique in my area. (The main chain I shop at prides themselves on those items.)

My company revoked those policies because people were abusing them. For example, leaving their things in the hot car for a few hours in the middle of summer, coming back, and demanding a refund because they were bad.

[XCashier]

Huh. When I find a bug in my salad, I toss the bug outside and eat the salad. I never even thought of demanding a refund. I mean, I'm eating organic salad and look, an organic bug! It's fresh!

Is that odd?

The bugs you usually find in salads are things like ladybugs, weevils, etc. Generally not filthy creatures. Now, if you found a sewer roach in your salad, then yes, there's a serious problem, probably with the processing plant. But the normal bugs are not really a big deal.

[AngryFaery]

If we did the BOGO returns as policy it would be abused. The manager can do it if they feel the situation calls for it. But its not policy.

I'm sometimes amazed at the disconnection people now have from their food sources. I've had people flip out over perfectly good food because it isn't pretty or had some imperfection with it. I've had to explain to people that color variations can be normal.

[wolfie]

One local grocery chain had (since discontinued) an "It's fresh or it's free" policy. What this meant was that if you found an outdated meat, dairy, or packaged produce item (items that already had a mark-down tag didn't count), bring it to the till along with a current-dated one, and they'd give you the current-dated one free (disposing of the stale-dated one).

On one occasion I showed up at the till with half a dozen packaged salads (I LOVE the "creamy coleslaw", but don't eat the other flavours of this brand of salad). 5 were stale-dated, 1 was current. Cashier told me that I could go grab 4 more, but I told her I only needed the one, and that I was just bringing the other stale-dated ones to get them out of circulation. After all, if the beancounters saw that this flavour was unprofitable due to the number of "fresh or free" giveaways, they'd stop carrying it - which means I wouldn't be able to get it anymore.

[XCashier]

I'm sometimes amazed at the disconnection people now have from their food sources. I've had people flip out over perfectly good food because it isn't pretty or had some imperfection with it. I've had to explain to people that color variations can be normal.

There's are campaigns now to get people to accept aesthetically-challenged fruit and vegetables, where there's nothing wrong with the item except being oddly-shaped, which happens quite frequently. As long as it's not rotten, I'll buy it, it's likely to end up chopped up anyway, so why should it matter?

[Argabarga]

In a non-perishable sense, I walked up to the customer service counter and asked for some tape once to seal a seam on my 12 pack of Coke that had started to split. They tried to take it from me and get me a new one. It took a bit of forceful insistence that nothing was wrong with the product, I just needed some tape around the handle so it would survive being carried to the car, but they were all set to throw it out as damage....

Then it dawned on me, plenty of people WOULD complaint about such a triviality, and do, and how much salable product is wasted like that every day? It's sad when you think about it.

[notalwaysright]

There's are campaigns now to get people to accept aesthetically-challenged fruit and vegetables, where there's nothing wrong with the item except being oddly-shaped, which happens quite frequently. As long as it's not rotten, I'll buy it, it's likely to end up chopped up anyway, so why should it matter?

And the "pretty" foods are sometimes less tasty than their uglier varieties. Like apples and tomatoes. Another example I use is eggs. I grew up having chickens and ducks, so I know that it is the breed which determines the color of the shell. I had no idea that MANY people think that "free range" eggs are brown. For a while we had Cayuga ducks which laid black eggs, or sometimes dark gray. People would tell us that the eggs had gone bad, and would not believe that there was nothing wrong with them. Or they were surprised that ducks laid eggs, or they thought that chickens had to have a rooster in order to lay eggs.

I heard on the radio a dj was doing some promotion at a feed and seed store. He was in an aisle and asked out loud "what's the difference between a bull and a steer" and an employee came over to ask if he was okay.

[wolfie]

I had no idea that MANY people think that "free range" eggs are brown.

Quite some time ago, that was true - along with another widely held belief "brown eggs are better than white eggs". How were these true, when it's the breed of hen that determines the shell colour?

For a while after "battery hens" (hen in a small cage, fed on a conveyor belt, eggs go to another conveyor belt) were introduced, the "battery" facilities kept breeds of hen that laid white eggs (these breeds were more efficient at turning feed into eggs than other breeds). People who kept free-range hens kept breeds that laid brown eggs (hardier, and "dual-purpose" - also a meat breed). It was the free-ranging (scratching in the dirt, and getting a varied diet) that made the eggs better.

Battery producers soon caught on, and started also keeping breeds that laid brown eggs, because people were willing to pay more for the "better" eggs.

[XCashier]

And the "pretty" foods are sometimes less tasty than their uglier varieties. Like apples and tomatoes.

Or strawberries. The big, perfectly conical strawberries the supermarkets sell are bright red outside, white inside, and have very little flavor. The small, often misshapen strawberries I get from my local farm stand? Red throughout and absolutely delicious.

For a while we had Cayuga ducks which laid black eggs, or sometimes dark gray.

Those eggs look so cool. You could combine two holidays' traditions and make Halloween Eggs!

People ... were surprised that ducks laid eggs,

Someone was surprised because a bird laid eggs?! The Stupid is strong with that one!

[Dreamstalker]

My company revoked those policies because people were abusing them. For example, leaving their things in the hot car for a few hours in the middle of summer, coming back, and demanding a refund because they were bad.

Ditto. Although I'm sure people still abuse the current policies...I once saw a woman buy some ice cream, sit on the bench and eat almost half of it. She comes back a few hours later and asks me if she could return the ice cream because she didn't like it...tomorrow (she didn't have it with her and I have no idea where it was). I almost felt like calling her out ("it took you half the carton to decide you didn't like it?"), but didn't because I was too busy.

Some stores I've been in have signs saying "During exceptionally warm weather we do not accept returns on perishable items once they have left the store, please inspect all such items for damage before leaving"

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm not really overly bothered about issues unless it's something that's either gross or dangerous. Once I bought a multipack of Diet Coke and one can was sealed and empty. I took it back and got a refund for it, no biggie. But when I bought some KitKats and one was sealed but had a bite taken out of it, I sent it to Nestle with a complaint. Stuff like that is disgusting.

But, a bug in salad? If it was dry, I'd just throw it in the bin and get on with my day. Otherwise, I'd ask for a refund. I certainly wouldn't demand extra money.