Countdown in Moorhouse, Christchurch has upset customers by stocking and selling expired milk despite several ongoing complaints. The issue started towards the end of July when a customer, Kayne Harrison, noticed cartons of expired milk on the shelves, took a photo and posted it to Facebook - calling out Countdown to replace their stock. Countdown responded, thanking Harrison for contacting them and promising to follow up with the store’s manager.
A week later Harrison went back to the supermarket and saw the same, expired milk cartons on the shelves. Despite continually contacting the supermarket, the stock was never updated. The latest photo taken by Harrison was on October 7, where the dated milk is still at the front of the shelves.
“As you may see, I usually move all the expired milk together and have to gather it up. This time it was all where I left it, just straightened back up, so anyone could accidentally grab one from the front of the line. Admittedly, at first, it was only the calci trim milk I was concerned about, as that is what we buy. But then I figured some of the other milk must be out too, and what do you know, it was,” said Harrison.
Harrison has also brought the issue to the attention of staff working at the checkout, but no actions were taken.
“I think the shelving staff just can’t be bothered. They haven’t even bothered to look at the dates when rearranging the shelves after I have moved the milk from its place on the shelf.”
Countdown has now responded to the matter claiming, “We’ve checked with the store team, and all the long-life UHT milk on shelf is within its use-by date.”
“When our team restocks products we have a range of processes in place to rotate stock and make sure products are within date. We can occasionally miss a product so if customers do spot a product that we may have overlooked by accident, please let the store team know,” said a Countdown spokesperson.
