We were on our way to attend a wedding banquet that evening when we had to make a quick stop at the SDM location to pick up a wedding card. That location is close to our home and we have been frequent customers there. My wife was hungry and asked for a bag of pork jerky from the store when I went inside to pick up the card. My first thought was that the jerky would be sold at over $2 cheaper at Walmart, but that thought went away quickly as I felt paying more for the convenience was worth it. I got what I needed, went back to the car and drove off, while my wife started to get into the pork jerky. Beef and pork jerkies are my favourite snack and I eat quite a bit of them, and the first thing I noticed as I picked up a piece and passed to my daughter was that the jerky felt really dry. I asked my wife to check the expiration date, and guess what? Two months expired! I was SHOCKED initially, that a drug store would sell expired FOOD product! Then I remembered having bought expired products at different SDM stores over the years so I got over it. People make mistakes and I don't want to be too tough on them, even though I gave it to my 10 year old to eat earlier. Just wanted a refund and leave it at that.
I went back to the store and looked for the other bags on the rack - same issue. Expired. So I went back to the cashier and let her know about it. There were no one waiting in line at that time. The cashier had a "normal" reaction to this, which was apologetic and a bit shaken up - yes, selling expired food product, especially at a drug store, is a BIG deal. She picked up the phone to call her manager to come and issue a "no receipt refund". I couldn't hear what the manager said, but the cashier I was with repeated twice "But all the other bags on the rack are also expired!" TWICE! I could only assume that the manager didn't want to come out and just wanted to exchange the product. At that point I was getting a little upset. I bought an expired food product, from a drug store, fed it to my 10 year old, and if I wanted a refund, I sure thought I deserved one. How could she dismiss my request and offer what was more convenient to her?
She finally came out, didn't look at me, didn't say anything to me. Just picked up the bag of pork jerky, threw it on the other checkout counter, and proceed to checkout other customers who were in line, leaving me standing there not knowing what was going on. She didn't ask me to wait. She didn't say it would be OK to issue the refund but just needed to checkout the others first. I was completely ignored, like I was begging for change there! I let her help the first customer, but when she started to scan the items for the second customer, I had to stop her. I don't necessarily think that just because I have bought expired food products, from a drug store, and have fed it to my 10 year old, entitles me to cut in line, but I also don't believe I should have let others cut in front of me either! During that whole time, the manager didn't say anything to me, didn't look at me, just did her thing and issue me the refund. I have never been in a situation that was more insulting and humiliating before in my life! I bought an expired food product, from a drug store, fed it to my 10 year old, and the manager acted like I was the most annoying customer that caused her a ton of grief. Who was in the wrong here and why did I have to experience such poor treatment that I didn't think anyone should deserve. Sorry for the inconvenience I guess?
Everybody makes mistakes but It is how you handle it that makes the difference. I still can't believe the bad attitude that was displayed that evening, in front of around 5 other customers too! What was she thinking? Did she not care how the other customers would feel about this? Are employees of SDM getting treated this badly that they seriously don't care? And if they are not staffed to handle food and grocery, then perhaps they should stop selling them.
I am driving a block West and bring my business to the location at Warden and Highway 7 from now on. read more