Grocery shopping is on everyone’s weekly to-do list. But as often as they come, shoppers only see the good side of the supermarket. Different sale items and all the neatly arranged produce mask the uglier side of grocery stores. Luckily, we have 15 pieces of insider info from store workers that they wish they could tell shoppers.
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Green Leaf Lettuce Was Full of Spiders and Various Other Insects Before We Cleaned Them
Your vegetables and fruits grow in a natural habitat so it is likely that they have all sorts of insects in them. One commenter replied that their coworker cut into a returned cauliflower one time to find “100’s of baby spiders came skittering out.”
Clean Your Apples Before You Eat Them
Similar to the green lettuce advice, you should wash all fruits and vegetables before eating. Apples especially have a ton of wax on them for preservation.
Grocery Workers May Not Wash Their Hands Before Touching Your Bag of Chips or Soda Bottle
Another poster commented that up to five grocery store employees may touch anything you buy from the grocery store. And you can’t guarantee that every one of them has washed there hands after going to the bathroom.
Frozen Product Sent Back Goes in the Trash
If you stand in line and want to send back a frozen item, it will probably end up in the trash. Sent back items sit in claims bins behind customer service and “sits there until someone empties the bin in a few hours.”
Tons of Produce That Are “No Longer Aesthetically” in Their Prime Get Thrown Own
One grocery worker said that most product that doesn’t look appealing anymore gets thrown out even it is perfectly fine. One commenter said that “my spouse works at our local zoo. They have an animal care employee go to our local Costco every day to pick up produce that is expired or about to expired. The keepers throw away what is rotten (a fair amount sometimes) and the rest is given to the animals to supplement their diets.”
Clean the Lids of Cans
Both soda cans and canned foods must be cleaned before you consume them. Cans can get dirty from any number of things from rat and mouse waste to other cans leaking all over them.
Publix Employees Are Not as Happy as They Seem
One poster compared working at Publix as “the Disney Land of grocery stores” where people have to look like they are happy. They go on to say “when hired you are literally hired as the ‘talent’.”
Traders Joes Employees Are as Happy as They Seem
On the flip side, Trader Joe’s employees are actually happy. Another commenter said, “they give you a pay raise every six months if you are doing a good job.” Also, “the managers treat everyone with respect.”
Cashiers Aren’t Allowed to Stop Shoplifters
That job is left to the security guards who have to catch the shoplifters before they leave the store.
The Most Profitable Items Are a Bag of Ice and Bakery Bread
One poster said that the “ice can have a 100% mark up, and bakery bread can be 90% mark up.”
Asking a Worker to Check for Something in the Back Likely Won’t Work
A poster said that they just “reply to a couple text messages, come back out, ‘nope, checked everywhere we could have more, were out.'” Another more honest worker did say that they do check in case it is hidden somewhere.
A Lot of Whitefish Fillets Had at Least One Worm in Them
The worker said, “We did our best to notice them and remove them, but some go unnoticed. That’s just a product of living in the wild.”
The Store Brand Products Are the Same as More Expensive Brands
They generally come from the same facilities and grocery stores will occasionally get products with another store’s name on them by accident.
Ripped Meat Packages Go Back to the Meat Market Where They Are Resealed
One worker who worked for HEB said that “you never know what kind of dirt from the belt that it may have been on.”
The Meat in the “Hot Meal” Section Was Often Just About to Expire
That’s one way to not waste food.
This thread inspired this post.
Featured Photo by Aleksandar Malivuk on Shutterstock
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