Walmart Spoiled Deli Meat Alma, Arkansas

Walmart prints out "sell by" dates they place on food items which indicate when the item needs to be "sold" by in order to maintain the freshest product.  If the product has already been sitting around for several days, then a deli employee places a "sell by" sticker on it immediately before it's put on the floor, the item will go bad before it's consumed.  This is against the law, but it happens every day in Walmart stores.  I used to work in the "fresh area" as they call it, and this procedure is done on a daily basis.  If done correctly, these food items wouldn't go bad.  The reason it happens is because Walmart doesn't care what you have to do to ensure the shelves are full!  Associates do it regularly to make sure there are sufficient items on the shelves for sale, it keeps the sales floor looking neat and full.  I, personally, never did this, however I have reported it to management, to no avail.  Once I transferred to another part of the store I never purchased certain food items within Walmart due to this practice.   So this consumer is correct in their speculation, and Walmart doesn't know when you are going to buy this item, but it sits around before they put their "sell by" stickers on and by the time 4 additional days have gone by it will go bad!  For this reason I never bought "refrigerated" items from Walmart as you never know how long it sat around, in addition to the coolers going out constantly!  Take it from someone who knows!   

That's because their coolers are always going out,  instead of replacing them like they should, they keep on rigging them to keep from having to spend the money!  I don't know how many times I've had to help throw cardboard over the meats and poultry to keep the coolness in everytime the equipment went out!  Tightwads at best!

from Wal*mart!