Thread: We Have Skills Too !!

Expiration dates on most things are a product of to many lawyers and companies covering their rears. [Along with getting you to toss out perfectly good things and get you to buy more.]

Sell by dates are another one.

Originally Posted by 32t

Expiration dates on most things are a product of to many lawyers and companies covering their rears. [Along with getting you to toss out perfectly good things and get you to buy more.]

Sell by dates are another one.

I worked in the retail grocery business for over 40 years. I remember the days long before 'Pull Dates'. The cans had a code that the manufacturers put on that could be read 'If you knew the codes' the same with fresh dairy products. The milkman would come in and rotate and fill the cases and pull any that were beyond what the company wanted to sell them by. In the meat department the date the meat was packaged was printed on the label and it was up to us to watch and markdown or just toss product that was going down hill.

Typically 'Most' things that have pull dates say 'Best By'. I've yet to see one that said 'Rotten At'

Several years ago I was filling the produce wet rack and a lady came up and said that the 2# bag of peeled carrots she'd bought had gone bad and handed them to me. Sure as shite, they were all slimy but well within the pull date. So I tossed them in my garbage/trim box, picked up a new bag, marked it No Charge and handed it to her and said to be sure that the checker didn't charge her for the replacement.

She couldn't believe that I had just thrown the bad product away! She wanted me to go up the chain and let those above me know about the bad package!

I've pulled pre-made salads fresh off the freight load that were 12 days away from pull date and found one in the middle totally rusted and slimy.

On that note, ever notice how most of the recalls for things like e coli in vegetables are from pre-packaged salads. I never buy them as it's not that hard to make it from scratch.

In my youth I was a butcher. Anything in the Case at Saturday closing was washed in baking soda water to remove"slime" and wrapped and frozen, or, wieners pulled from factory packages were combined into 3# bags as in store specials. Any sausage went through the same process and back into the clean case Monday morning. A two inch case greyed roast or chops made tender eating.
Back then, we bought clean carcasses and broke them down ourselves. Only pork got special handling and was purchased in loins, ribs, jowls, and pigs' hocks.
Different strokes in the early 50's !!!

~geezer

I was recently talking to a friend who is a meat dept manager in the store nearby and saw that they had expanded the display for frozen turkeys.

I told him about how back in the late 70's the man who I worked for had found his 'Turkey Order Book' from 1955 and '56. Back then they didn't carry turkeys day in and day out and when the holidays would be approaching the store would take orders on what size etc.

Turkeys cost him $0.49 per lb and he sold them for $0.59 per pound.

Years later when I was working for a corporate grocery chain the meat manager had over ordered 'Fresh' Turkeys and was fit to be tied as he was sure that he'd have to mark them down way below cost and try to get 'something' instead of 'nothing'. (He couldn't just freeze them as they had 'Fresh' printed on the wrappings).

Three days before Thanksgiving we got one hell of a snow storm that lasted until after Thanksgiving.

The people who had planned to travel to friends and relatives had to cancel those plans but still wanted a turkey for Thanksgiving--he sold every single fresh turkey as people didn't have time to thaw a bird.

This has nothing to do with skills, but surely we can't let talk of turkeys and Thanksgiving pass without this:

A little self inflicted misery this season.
Thought I drained the snow blower carbs in the spring but nope.
Some of you know that an stank in the fuel bowl smell,, unmistakable.
Everything varnished up, so tear it down and in to the ultrasonic bath.

16 minutes later, all clean and back on the blower.
Good to go.

Know the feeling of having snow on the ground and a blower that refuses to start. After last time, I only use premium gas (no ethanol) and make sure to put fuel stabilizer in before I put it to bed in the spring.

Problem this year wasn’t getting it to start, it was belts slipping. Fortunately, after it warmed up, the belts engaged and I was good to go, but Iam going to have to replace those belts.

I also discovered all the dog toys that had been left on the ground before the snow fell. You can fling one of those soft stuffed animals a long way with a good snowblower.

Originally Posted by DZEC

I also discovered all the dog toys that had been left on the ground before the snow fell. You can fling one of those soft stuffed animals a long way with a good snowblower.

From the perspective of someone that does not really get snow, that very funny. It needs to get written into some Canadian tv show.

Frozen dog turds are pretty funny to find too, hehehe.
My weirdos play in the snow plume as I blow the back yard area for them. Come in looking like snow balls..

Originally Posted by RezDog

From the perspective of someone that does not really get snow, that very funny. It needs to get written into some Canadian tv show.

Kind of reminds me of the old Red Green show!