HEB OR Walmart? (Pleasanton, Howe, Alto: military, groceries, shop)

[Herbrocks]

A little OT, but good info: Most 99 CENT stores sell milk, usually the same or less than other grocery stores. I have never got a bad gallon. They also have bagged ice for .99, which is a heck of a deal these days. WALGREENS also sell milk and ice, usually expensive but ususally once a month they put it on sale the same or cheaper than HEB/WM, the sales change every week. Check the newspaper or store marquees. I love getting milk there, I'm in and out in 120 seconds

[sleeptech210]

It depends on what items your looking for, Wal-mart may be cheaper on some items than H.E.B. And vise versa...but I try my best to avoid the Cesspool that gathers at wal-mart at all cost!

[tony78201]

walmart has more variety, HEB always lets me down

[Hedgehog_Mom]

Originally Posted by stoneoak

if you find an expired item on the shelf, you bring that expired item and another one of the same item that is NOT expired to the cashier and they take the expired one and give you the not expired one for free.

I have lucked out in the block cheese department a few times now... it's not an urban legend, I have really received free items due to this policy.

This website backs me up...

Groceries for Free with Fresh or Free

This really does work. It takes some time though and you will never find an expired steak.

I did it a few years ago because I was sick of the HEB I shopped at not rotating their dairy items. I figured if I had to dig through the milk and yogurt to find fresh ones, I might as well take advantage of their policy (which I heard about when my sister worked there). I walked out of there with a couple hundred dollars worth of free items a few times....more than I could even use. I was giving the extra to the neighbors because I couldn't fit it all in the fridge. After a couple trips like that, the dairy aisle at that store was always full of fresh, non-expired items I branched out after that...some of the managers will give you a ton of attitude if you have a cart full of expired items. Most of the cashiers don't remember how to ring it up and they have to call the manager to do it. You'll also see other people searching for expired items...you can recognize it when you're doing it too. Some will point out items to you, if there are extras, others will try to hurry so they find it before you.

Ham during the off season (end of summer, check the spiral sliced hams), sausages, lunch meats, organic milk, multi-packs of yogurt, cheeses, bagels, etc...also the gourmet foods like fancy jellies or honey with walnuts in them, those are all good candidates. The bigger packages of yogurt or sausage are more likely to be out of date.

I haven't done it in a few years, but I may go back to it this summer to offset the high gas prices

[L210]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom

This really does work. It takes some time though and you will never find an expired steak.

I did it a few years ago because I was sick of the HEB I shopped at not rotating their dairy items. I figured if I had to dig through the milk and yogurt to find fresh ones, I might as well take advantage of their policy (which I heard about when my sister worked there). I walked out of there with a couple hundred dollars worth of free items a few times....more than I could even use. I was giving the extra to the neighbors because I couldn't fit it all in the fridge. After a couple trips like that, the dairy aisle at that store was always full of fresh, non-expired items I branched out after that...some of the managers will give you a ton of attitude if you have a cart full of expired items. Most of the cashiers don't remember how to ring it up and they have to call the manager to do it. You'll also see other people searching for expired items...you can recognize it when you're doing it too. Some will point out items to you, if there are extras, others will try to hurry so they find it before you.

Ham during the off season (end of summer, check the spiral sliced hams), sausages, lunch meats, organic milk, multi-packs of yogurt, cheeses, bagels, etc...also the gourmet foods like fancy jellies or honey with walnuts in them, those are all good candidates. The bigger packages of yogurt or sausage are more likely to be out of date.

I haven't done it in a few years, but I may go back to it this summer to offset the high gas prices

There's this lady that regularly does this at Central Market. She walked out with over $200 worth of groceries one time and the managers really got on the stockers for not pulling those items off the shelves.

[ggeorgie]

I was at my Oak Park H.E.B. and they had gallon milk for one dollar but the expiration date was in two days.
I had never thought of shopping for soon to be expired items....

[Hedgehog_Mom]

Originally Posted by L210

There's this lady that regularly does this at Central Market. She walked out with over $200 worth of groceries one time and the managers really got on the stockers for not pulling those items off the shelves.

I knew people were getting in trouble when I did it too...but there were stores where I didn't find anything, where people were doing their jobs the way they were supposed to. And I could tell in about 30 seconds if I'd find anything in a particular department, just by moving a couple of items and looking behind them. For example, if the dates on the front row of items were in August, and the ones behind them were in July, then I knew if I dug far enough back, there were going to be expired items to find. A manager could spot-check a couple of sections a day and know if items were being properly rotated...so part of why they got so mad at the stockers was because the managers weren't doing their jobs either.

The way I look at it, all of the expired items that I found over the year I did it, added together, undoubtedly cost less than HEB would have paid out in a lawsuit if one expired item made a customer sick. And they rang them up a particular way, so undoubtedly their corporate office was tracking how many expired items were in which stores, to know which stores needed some attention.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

Originally Posted by ggeorgie

I was at my Oak Park H.E.B. and they had gallon milk for one dollar but the expiration date was in two days.
I had never thought of shopping for soon to be expired items....

You don't want the ones that are soon to be expired...look for items that are already expired, then take that item and one that's not expired up to the checkout and tell the cashier when you check out. You'll get the one that's not expired for free.

And if they're marking down items when they're going out of code in a few days, it means that store is staying on top of their expiration dates and you're unlikely to find many expired items there.

[Herbrocks]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom

This really does work. It takes some time though and you will never find an expired steak.

I did it a few years ago because I was sick of the HEB I shopped at not rotating their dairy items. I figured if I had to dig through the milk and yogurt to find fresh ones, I might as well take advantage of their policy (which I heard about when my sister worked there). I walked out of there with a couple hundred dollars worth of free items a few times....more than I could even use. I was giving the extra to the neighbors because I couldn't fit it all in the fridge. After a couple trips like that, the dairy aisle at that store was always full of fresh, non-expired items I branched out after that...some of the managers will give you a ton of attitude if you have a cart full of expired items. Most of the cashiers don't remember how to ring it up and they have to call the manager to do it. You'll also see other people searching for expired items...you can recognize it when you're doing it too. Some will point out items to you, if there are extras, others will try to hurry so they find it before you.

Ham during the off season (end of summer, check the spiral sliced hams), sausages, lunch meats, organic milk, multi-packs of yogurt, cheeses, bagels, etc...also the gourmet foods like fancy jellies or honey with walnuts in them, those are all good candidates. The bigger packages of yogurt or sausage are more likely to be out of date.

I haven't done it in a few years, but I may go back to it this summer to offset the high gas prices

----------------- Love it! I think I've found a new hobby

[L210]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom

I knew people were getting in trouble when I did it too...but there were stores where I didn't find anything, where people were doing their jobs the way they were supposed to. And I could tell in about 30 seconds if I'd find anything in a particular department, just by moving a couple of items and looking behind them. For example, if the dates on the front row of items were in August, and the ones behind them were in July, then I knew if I dug far enough back, there were going to be expired items to find. A manager could spot-check a couple of sections a day and know if items were being properly rotated...so part of why they got so mad at the stockers was because the managers weren't doing their jobs either.

The way I look at it, all of the expired items that I found over the year I did it, added together, undoubtedly cost less than HEB would have paid out in a lawsuit if one expired item made a customer sick. And they rang them up a particular way, so undoubtedly their corporate office was tracking how many expired items were in which stores, to know which stores needed some attention.

I once picked up a box of Malt-O-Meal at HEB. The cashier couldn't get it to ring up so he just threw it in my bag for free. When I got home, I saw that it had expired months ago. I definitely pay more attention now to expiration dates just so I won't be inconvenienced by having to bring the items back. I missed out on a couple of chances to get free dip when I saw a bunch of expired ones.