ottawa foodies

I bought a bag of chestnuts at Loblaws last week for our regular Brussels sprouts and chestnut dish. I wasn't really impressed with their quality. Normally, you can expect about 20% waste with nut meat that isn't quite good enough. With this batch, it was more like 80% waste. They were just awful. The ones we used were fine, but the amount of waste was unacceptable and I'll be taking them back to see what can be done about it. It'll be a small victory, but I expect not to be hassled too much. Last year I returned a whole pie with a piece missing (a piece that we had tried).

I find you have to watch what you buy at Loblaws. I was making the stuffing for our bird yesterday, merrily cutting up the bread when I noticed that there were spots of mold on it. We just bought this a couple of days before at the Merivale location. Thank goodness Shopper's was open. One other time I was buying yogurt there and what I was looking at had expired good before dates. I reported it, two days later I was back for something else and the same containers were still on the shelf. I could go on......

Same store, I've encountered similar issues. They had the salted and unsalted butter mixed together once. I sorted it out for them because I know how disappointing it can be to get the wrong one, and I knew it would take all day for them to fix it.

If I find expired products, I'll take them out of the case and take them to the cashier with me. That's the only way I know of to get them out. If they intentionally put them back in the case, there's only one thing I can do about that: open them before taking them to the cash. I'm not quite there yet.

It is kind of fun to load up the belt with 20 tubs of yogurt, then tell the cashier that you don't want them because they're expired. THAT gets the attention of the head cashier and it flows up the line from there.

I would take it to the manager rather than the cashier . . . it's the manager's fault, not the cashier's.

"...load up the belt with 20 tubs of yogurt, then tell the cashier that you don't want them because they're expired."

I do this when I find slim pickins' in the Blah-Blah's dumpster. Next morning, Yoghurt for breakfast. Freeganism rules !

I used to find tons if items expires at A&P,
a couple years ago they had a "fresh or free" policy and I would try and stop by the Mcarthur rd store before going home after school.

I would find so many expired items,I would just have to buy fruits and veggies- oh wait, they had expired salads-so I would always get free salads too.
They would give you the non-expired item.

I had to really limit what I took because I could not carry or eat that much stuff.

Then they changed their policy to you having to spend the value of the items you found.
But the store sold gift cards- so ended up with at least $800 Home Depot gift cards and some from other shops too.

Now no more A&P , no fresh or free either.
I'm sure the store did not like me, my friend,aunt and the other people who used this policy.

I always check the dates on every item I buy now.
Also, if you buy juice, rice dream- make sure to check under the lid to be sure you get a sealed item.
I bought rice dream, pringles-only to get home and see my item was already opened...
No car,so going back to the store is very annoying.

*Bought some chestnuts at Cedars grocery, just a handful but they all seemed good or at least 9 out of the 10.
one was a bit too hard-but maybe I put them in the oven too long...

Sounds like a scene from Ratatouille . . .

Hi,
well when I do not check my items I often end up with the wrong things.
Just happened to me at Popeye's. Wrong shrimp and sauce. Order for take out,store closing soon...so could not go back.

Ordered butterfly shrimp and asked for cocktail sauce.
Was given some old popcorn shrimp, sweet heat sauce and honey??

I acknowledge the price up, but the chestnuts i got at Whole Foods were near perfect.

I got some good ones at Herb and Spice on Wellington over the holidays, after passing on the dodgy looking ones at Loblaws.

Nuts.com looks like they have some amazing chestnuts online.

-they also say if you are not 100% happy with an item they will refund you.
They are in US dollars, so that sucks....