Has anyone had any issues with the products @ the Conifer Safeway being past their "best buy" dates? I feel like I find @ least one product each shopping trip that I am about to purchase that is past its date. Today, I forgot to check all my items and came home to find two of the items I purchased past their best buy dates...by over 2 months!!!! I will be going back to the store tomorrow to return these items, but wanted to know if anyone else has similar issues.

Yes, I have the same problem at many stores. Not just Safeway. It happens at Walmart, King Soopers, too. I try to get in the habit of checking expiration dates on everything. Sometimes I forget. When I find something I take it up to customer service. Like you, if I make it home with something expired, I return it to the store.

It happens at all stores.

Long ago a friend bought some biscuit rolls at Safeway that were EONS over the expiration date. I like how KS sells their almost expired stuff on clearance, and when I recently bought some organic milk on clearance, the expiration date was still a week out (WIN!).

Safeway has an almost expired shelf on groceries, too. As well, with their meat. I like that, too. Glad they do it.

We buy meat frequently from the "almost expired" bin and have no reservations about it. When we lived overseas we used to buy unrefrigerated meat off the street. Hey, thats one of the reasons to cook meat!
Sometimes we'd buy canned goods or boxed goods like cereal etc that was only a year or more out of date, again no problem.

A week or two ago Safeway had coupons in the mailer for Miracle Whip. As I was looking at the expiration dates I noticed a couple from OCTOBER, 2011.

5 months past and it wasn't on any special 'almost expired' shelf.

Always liked Safeway, and I too buy products like meat from the special bins, but come on.... 5 Months?

where are these "almost expired shelves at Safeway"

Although they should be checking dates before it goes on shelf, sometimes warehouses for brand foods will clear out their warehouses and ship out close or expired foods

I know just what you're talking about Rak! We lived in Indonesia for 2 years and would buy just killed and plucked skinny little chickens right off the street and not refrigerated - tasty but not the plumped up chickens we get here in the U.S.

Yes, many items were well over a year past the expiration date - no problems at all so 5 months isn't much at all is it

We don't check expiration dates on and we've never had a problem. I think the whole thing is 95% hype anyway.

For me it depends on what the item is as to whether I will be concerned about expiration date. A friend works for a major food products company, and he has told us that his company refridgerates foods that could easily sit out on the shelf for years (waaay past the "expiration date") and still be safe to eat... the products are marketed as meat/dairy items, but they are so processed that refridgeration is actually unnecessary. But if you are selling a "dairy product", consumers expect it to be in the fridge... it's a marketing scheme.

I have almost no qualms about those "third world" foods/prep methods myself, so long as I can see what is going on. However, the US food processing industry scares the tar out of me, so I fully expect my less processed foods to be appropriately refridgerated please.