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rabb1thole t1_itnzlxa wrote

One of my first jobs was in a grocery store deli. Worked there for a little over a year. In the decades since, i have never purchased deli meat or cheese.

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anonymous_lighting t1_ito1vly wrote

can you shed some light on why for the rest of us?

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rabb1thole t1_ito7hvg wrote

Sorry. Yes. None of this applies to a real deli, this was a mass supermarket deli. Deli meats and cheeses don't move very quickly. When the cut edge started showing its age, store managers had us slice off the end so it looked fresh. We were told to ignore expiration dates. By we, high school students. Too young to understand how wrong that was. I quit when my manager took a stack of brand name frozen pizzas that had expired dates on the boxes, removed the pizzas, and told us rewrap and sell them with deli stickers. Salads in the cases were also recycled. The old was always scooped ontop of the new so it would move first. However, there was no tracking how long a salad was kept. On the plus side, hot foods were prepared daily and not kept over, so at least there's that. Now a warehouse like Costco has enough volume I am sure so things like this would not be an issue. But your local grocery store, not so much. And that would be my advice: keep an eye on the customers getting deli meats and cheese where you shop. If the deli is busy, great. If not, maybe don't chance it.

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nottu77 t1_itoih93 wrote

I’m currently in a management role with a large grocery chain, any associate caught doing any of that would be terminated immediately. Food safety is the largest issue that is constantly monitored followed very closely by personal safety. Not saying it’s impossible but very improbable, at least in my experience.

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candle340 t1_itpgsln wrote

I’m a deli worker in a regional chain, and it’s the same here. Dates and temps are tracked rigorously - fudging them is one of the surefire ways to get fired. We also clean our in-use slicers every 4hrs, per OSHA standard and scrub our floor every night with an anti-listeria cleaner

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UI_Tyler t1_itoslwx wrote

Any chain is scrutinized more heavily has more policy on this type of stuff. I've definitely seem mom and pop grocery stores in small towns do this stuff. Everything they throw away is money out of their pockets.

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anonymous_lighting t1_ito8mvx wrote

i live in mid atlantic. every deli i’ve been to is thankfully popping off the charts no matter the time of day

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IamSkudd t1_itqlk87 wrote

Pretty wild a deli would get that much business in the middle of the ocean.

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DFX1212 t1_itqm72p wrote

Where do you think fish buy their deli meat?

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