# Taking the fresher stuff from the back of the shelf **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 14, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471 "2022-02-14T17:33:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/61 "2022-02-15T23:23:33Z")
The store already factored that in when they chose to stop individually picking out items for the customer. The customer is paying with their time and energy, and gets the opportunity to pick. The cost to the business is a little more wastage but it’s better than paying all the employees they would need. It was a compromise that created the modern supermarket. Just because some social compacts are old doesn’t mean that the compromise is outdated. If the store wants control they need to provide the manpower. Any relationship I have with my fellow shopper is a middleman problem. Any wastage is a middleman problem. Competition for shoppers is a middleman problem. The market has worked, this is the least wasteful option. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/62 "2022-02-15T23:26:20Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > It was a compromise that created the modern supermarket. Just because some social compacts are old doesn’t mean that the compromise is outdated. And with the huge increase in curbside pickup during the pandemic, I suspect they’ve moved back to the old way of doing things. If the store employee is picking out my items, that gives the store a lot more control over stock rotation. So I’m trading control over that for the convenience of not having to drag myself through the store during a pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/63 "2022-02-15T23:37:08Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > If they don’t restock with new ones, everyone else will continue to buy the ones that are left. If they don’t restock with new milk, the shelf will eventually be empty. If they restock before that point, what’s already on the shelf will be older than the new stuff they put out and therefore not get bought. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/64 "2022-02-15T23:46:52Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > If they don’t restock with new milk, the shelf will eventually be empty. If they restock before that point, what’s already on the shelf will be older than the new stuff they put out and therefore not get bought. Unless they slap a 5% off sticker on it. There’s always someone who wants to save 15 cents. ---
**Author:** ![Ranch\_Dip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranch_dip/32/5238_2.png) [@Ranch\_Dip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranch_Dip)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/65 "2022-02-15T23:48:20Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My wife will never, ever take the carton/box/can/bag at the front of the display. I don’t think she ever looks at the “best before” date on anything other than milk, though. Yup. I don’t want the thing everyone has touched. Even before the panorama. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/66 "2022-02-15T23:52:15Z")
If the items in front are dated fresh enough for my expected holding time, I won’t rummage for something fresher. My ethos is “take what you need”. If nobody buys stuff that’s less fresh, or just fresh enough, then it may expire and go to waste. That’s bad for prices, bad for consumers, bad for business, bad for the climate, just bad all around. And basically no noticeable upside for me. So I don’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/67 "2022-02-15T23:52:31Z")
That works for bakery goods already, but seems like a pain in the ass for dairy. You’d need an extra refrigerated section, and it would have to be divided up properly to handle pint to gallon size items. For bakery stuff they can just pile it on a table, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a round cake or a long box of donuts. In any case, as mentioned before, there doesn’t seem to be an actual need for this. Enough people just pick from the front to keep things cycling. But the people picking from the back are still driving up the spread of dates. There wouldn’t be nearly the variation if people always picked from the front. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/68 "2022-02-16T00:02:30Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > One day, several months later, I found my desk covered with clear but brownish liquid–and an empty can. I eventually found the pinhole where the revolting fluid had dissolved through. I can’t quite explain how the drink had chemically converted into whatever it ended up being. Lots of food including highly natural food like say lemons and tomatoes are acidic. Mrs P loves to point out how long it takes white bread to go stale now and takes this as evidence it’s not “food”, and now you are pointing out a drink has turned into something undrinkable after a few months and take this as evidence there was something wrong with it - these multinational food conglomerates just can’t win! > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > An additional cost of the second case: people who can’t or don’t shop every couple of days would often be unable to have relatively perishable items, because they would much more often find that everything on the shelf would go bad before the next time they’d be at the store. At a practical level I already said the current system seems to work out fine in practice, but that I saw habitually taking the freshest - without need - as mildly jerkish. The economics of what you say are interesting though. What is happening is that the store is working on a supply chain that - most economically and with minimal waste - delivers food in X days. But the people you describe are taking advantage of the store’s “open” stocking system to be able to get food in X minus a day or two. They are paying for a slower supply chain than they are obtaining, by riding on those who don’t need such a fast supply chain. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/69 "2022-02-16T00:35:04Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > and now you are pointing out a drink has turned into something undrinkable after a few months and take this as evidence there was something wrong with it In fairness, it might have become _more_ drinkable. It was undrinkable to start with. Perhaps it had degraded into pure water with brown coloring, which might have actually tasted fine. I didn’t test it. Ordinary cola is also acidic and I’ve never seen a similar issue there, even with cans sitting around for years. But most likely, the problem was a random defect in the plastic lining, which could have applied to any drink. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/70 "2022-02-16T01:05:57Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > The question is about unconditionally always picking the farthest-out date, even if the nearer dates are still farther out than you need. I don’t see that the OP said anything at all one way or the other about _always_ picking the farthest-out date. It appears to be describing a single example, without anything about motive or frequency. > [@elfkin477](#): > > > [@bump](#): > > > > They’ll absolutely figure out that milk with less than say… 4 days left just doesn’t sell, and that they’re constantly having to dispose of it, which is just money lost. > > I wish. On Christmas Eve I ended up grabbing half a gallon of milk without looking at the date, and discovered when I got home with it that its’ date was just 3 days later. It’s a sell-by date. The store’s not going to pull it until late that day or early the day after. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/71 "2022-02-16T01:15:12Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I don’t see that the OP said anything at all one way or the other about _always_ picking the farthest-out date. The OP doesn’t mention any extenuating circumstances, just that the consumer wants the freshest stuff possible and thus pulls from the back. In any case, the discussion evolved in that direction since no one here disputes that it’s ok to grab one with a date past when you expect to finish it by, even if it’s not in the front. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/72 "2022-02-16T01:45:56Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > It was a compromise that created the modern supermarket. Maybe I misunderstand, but supermarkets were big in the 1960’s and open dating was not. (They used to have “closed” date codes that were hard for consumers to understand.) Like most here, I do watch the dates. I feel a little bad about it because poor people, juggling three part time jobs, don’t have time for it and will get what I pass over. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/73 "2022-02-16T02:00:33Z")
I always pick the freshest product no matter what it is and don’t feel the least bit guilty doing it either. That’s why I always do our grocery shopping personally and don’t use any “service” as I don’t think they’d do that. I’d get what I get if I did. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/74 "2022-02-16T02:25:38Z")
Then there’s the the semi-conspiracy theory that dating was made open so you would throw out the old stuff in your house and buy more. However, I think a better explanation for open dating is consumer preference. Unless I missed it, no one is mentioning over the counter drugs. A doctor I respect said to add a year to those dates (but how could he know?). Obviously actual spoilage time depends a lot on exact storage temperature. And what about loose produce, or even apples in bags? No dates there. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/75 "2022-02-16T02:45:59Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Unless I missed it, no one is mentioning over the counter drugs. A doctor I respect said to add a year to those dates (but how could he know?). Most drug “use by” dates are shorter than “real” because the company needs to test out to that date (costs money) and would just as soon you buy new stuff and not use your leftovers. But some really do expire shortly after that date. Some, like aspirin, smell different when they break down. I confess to keeping old drugs around, and only throwing them out of they smell or taste wrong, or if they’ve gotten a lot less effective. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/76 "2022-02-16T14:23:21Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > On the other hand, if everyone always picked from the front, and the business is good about tracking demand, then the difference in freshness will never be very high. That’s totally dependent on what they feel is a reasonable length of time for things to stay on the shelves. I mean, one store may find out that their customers don’t buy milk within say… 3 days of the expiration date, while another may find that theirs happily buy it. Meanwhile, they may consistently get shipments from their suppliers that are 10 days out. It would make more sense for the first store to manage their inventory more closely so that they rarely have milk that’s less than 4 days out, while the second one could be a little less concerned. That’s basically where I’m going- if enough people buy from the back, the store will notice eventually and manage their stock accordingly, so as to not end up with a bunch of soon-expiring milk. Or maybe they’re poorly managed, or don’t care about that waste, or something along those lines. But that seems like the low hanging fruit and/or core competency of grocery stores to me, so I’d imagine they’d be on top of that. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/77 "2022-02-16T14:49:35Z")
If I specifically require the product to last for longer (for example if I am buying some fresh ingredient now for a meal I plan to cook next week), then maybe, otherwise, no - if it’s in date, and I will use it within date, I will buy the one at the front, because to do otherwise is to encourage the increase of food waste. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/78 "2022-02-16T16:04:34Z")
I sometimes buy the “discounted today” food if I can use it today. Or the day-old bread. But I admit that if I’m looking at a bin of cabbages, or apples, I will take the one(s) that look best, not whatever is on top. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/79 "2022-02-16T16:17:35Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > It was my understanding that expired goods go back to the wholesaler I don’t know about other products, but at least some cheese gets recycled. When I was a truck driver, I delivered 20 tonnes of cheese to a farm in the country. The cheese was all in little retail packs and there were several different types and brands. They were all past their ‘sell-by’ date. I asked what they did with it, imagining animal food etc, and was taken into a shed where some people were busy removing the wrapping and throwing the cheese onto a conveyor. They told me that it got all minced up together and then roasted. The result was finely powdered cheese. “Who buys that,” I ask, “W\*\*\*\*\*\*,” my guide says. “It’s the cheese flavour on their cheese and onion crisps.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471/80 "2022-02-16T16:47:58Z")
Yeah, I think picking loose produce, it’s inevitable that you’re going to select the items that look like what you want (although with some things like red peppers, I will pick one that is dark and just ever so slightly starting to wrinkle, because the flavour will be better for cooking). But packs of meat, bottles of milk, etc that are notionally all the same, if everyone takes them from the back, the ones at the front will be wasted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-the-fresher-stuff-from-the-back-of-the-shelf/959471.md?page=5)