# Would you return opened food items? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 23, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724 "2013-06-23T21:00:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/21 "2013-06-24T19:30:09Z")
Sure. When I worked for Safeway the policy was to accept any returns up to a certain amount (I won’t say how much, but you’d have to bring back a _significant_ number of products to reach the limit), no questions asked. We just sent it back to the warehouse for credit. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/22 "2013-06-24T20:01:47Z")
If the food is not contaminated or mislabeled, well, I took a chance on a new food and lost. I usually buy new food items in small or even sample size. If I don’t like it, I’ll ask around to see if someone else wants it. Sometimes I’ll give it to the cats, if it’s appropriate for them. If the food is bad, or mislabeled, or something like that, yeah, I’ll take it back. I don’t just do this because I want my money back, but because that means there’s a problem somewhere in the supply chain. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/23 "2013-06-24T20:04:35Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > [anecdote] > > Back in the day, Jack Benny did a skit on TV on this subject. > > He is sitting at home, munching on dry roasted peanuts, dictating a letter as Rochester is writing it down. In his letter, addressed to the peanut company, he complains at great length about how displeased he is: They are stale; they are dry; they are tasteless; blah blah blah, etc., etc., ad nauseum. – All the while, continuing to munch on them. > > After finishing the letter, he remarks that he just loves those satisfaction-or-double-your-money-back guarantees. > > [/anecdote] I’ve found that the reverse is sometimes true, as well. I’ve written some complimentary letters to manufacturers and received a big handful of product coupons. I guess that they are in shock from hearing praise. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/24 "2013-06-24T20:42:39Z")
Kind of, there is a chacuterie near my house and I’m there a lot. The owner asked me how I liked the guanciale I bought last time and I said I hadn’t like it as it was all fat, no meat. She gave me some from a different batch. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/25 "2013-06-24T21:14:27Z")
As I said in the liquor thread, retailers WANT to know if you’re unhappy with a product. Even if there’s nothing wrong with the product. There is nothing UNETHICAL about returning it and asking for a refund. Even if you don’t get the refund… it’s up to the store owner/manager to decide whether to give you any refund or credit, but for Pete’s sake give him/her the opportunity to please you. I do not understand the thinking that says, “I bought this and I have to keep it even though I hate it.” This makes NO SENSE TO ME. And if there is indeed something wrong with the product, then you have a responsibility to return it so the store will know. A retailer \*\*wants \*\*you to be satisfied with the product and the service. Why on earth would anyone think it’s unethical to take a product back and say you were NOT satisfied? If you’re lying and just pulling a scam, then that’s a different matter and you should kick yourself in the ass and shut up. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/26 "2013-06-24T21:21:08Z")
> [@](#): > > I do not understand the thinking that says, “I bought this and I have to keep it even though I hate it.” This makes NO SENSE TO ME. There’s a difference between returning something because it is unfit for its intended purpose and returning it because I, personally, don’t like it. If I buy a book, and realize upon reading the starting few pages that this is NOT the sort of book that I like, then I can return the book and the seller can still sell it to someone else (who presumably doesn’t have my good taste). If I buy sugar cured ham, though, and it’s labeled sugar cured, then it was my mistake in buying it. I don’t like sugar cured. It’s not the retailers fault that I bought it. Yes, the retailer might very well take it back, but then that ham can’t be resold, it has to be trashed. This raises prices for everyone. If _I_ want to try something, it’s my responsibility to try it in small packages, so that I don’t get stuck with large quantities of something I don’t like. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/27 "2013-06-24T21:32:02Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I do not understand the thinking that says, “I bought this and I have to keep it even though I hate it.” This makes NO SENSE TO ME. I don’t think I have to keep it, I just don’t think it’s right to tell a store that they owe me because I don’t know my own tongue. Bad food is a different matter. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/28 "2013-06-24T22:14:49Z")
It would have to be egregiously bad for me to ask for my money back but I can see it in a very extreme circumstance. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/29 "2013-06-24T22:32:06Z")
Trader Joe’s has signs all over their stores and on their receipts telling you to try something and if you don’t like it, you can return it. So for Trader Joe’s, yes I’ll bring something back if I don’t like it. Because of that policy I’ve tried many things there I may not have in the first place and ended up liking and it’s my grocery of choice. For any other grocery, no. In that case I’d just throw it out. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724/30 "2013-06-25T00:28:53Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I don’t think I have to keep it, I just don’t think it’s right to tell a store that they owe me because I don’t know my own tongue. Bad food is a different matter. “Tell a store they owe me”?? Never. The store doesn’t OWE me anything, and I think I’ve made that clear in my posts. I think it’s appropriate to give the store owner the _opportunity_ to refund/exchange/whatever, if that suits him/her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-return-opened-food-items/661724.md?page=1)