Smug Fruits And Vegetables In A Supermarket

"Our Fruits & Vegetables Might Look Smug Because They Know They're The Freshest."--Sign in Fairway of Harlem supermarket.

Do they also know that they will be cooked and eaten? Are they happy about that? If I were a peach or a tomato or a head of lettuce I wouldn't be.

The above sounds silly but no sillier than seeing dancing and talking fruits and vegetables in a TV commercial.

Dictionary Browsing

As a leisure time activity, I often browse the dictionary, finding, to my delight, words I've never seen before. Thumbing through my beat up copy of Merriam-Webster's, I discovered this term: "open dating." It sounded at first like there was a romance or "singles's night" connection. When I read the definition, I learned there was a marketing connection instead. The dictionary defined "open dating" (which came into usage in 1971)  as "the marking of perishable food products with a clearly readable date indicating when the food was packaged or the last date on which it should be sold or used."

So now whenever I go grocery shopping and look at the "Sell By" or "Packed On" date on a container of milk or on a deli item, I know those printed dates are called "open dating" and I can make reference to that term when talking to a store manager about an item that's been on the shelf past its expiration date.

Like No Other Market?

The upscale Fairway supermarket chain (which has several New York area locations) bills itself as being "Like No Other Market." (Its trucks have an additional slogan: "The World's Greatest Food Store.") In some ways it's precisely like other markets: Checkout scanners that charge the wrong price, food on shelves past the expiration date, and cashiers who don't pack groceries properly.

Where's the Macaroni?

I was recently in the Pathmark of Harlem supermarket and found an empty one-pound box of Creamette elbow macaroni on the shelf alongside full boxes. Actually, I shook the box and heard only one macaroni inside. The box (with a window so you can see the product) was sealed so it came from the factory that way. I watched the associate for a few minutes to see how long it would take him to discover the box. About three minutes later, he saw the box and tossed it in one of the empty cardboard boxes on his dolly. He continued to refill the shelf with boxes of macaroni.
It was the first time I'd seen an empty box of macaroni on a supermarket shelf. If I'd had a phone camera with me, I would have taken a picture of the box because it was such a novelty. It made me wonder how often that happens and how diligent Quality Control is at the manufacturer's end to prevent such an occurrence.
I've written to companies whenever there was a missing item in a windowless box like six coffee packets instead of seven and received a letter of apology and a coupon as compensation. But how does an empty macaroni box with a window leave the factory undetected?