From The New York Shitty Inbox, Part II: A Question About Khims

L (who sent the above photographs) writes:

My boyfriend and I were picking up some snacks at the Khim’s Millennium Market on Driggs Avenue this afternoon, and after getting about halfway through our sesame sticks, he noticed that the label looked a little….thick. So, he started to peel back the top label, et voila, there was another underneath! But where the first had a “packed on” date of 05.08.10 and “sell by” date of 08.05.10, the second was packed on March 8th, to be sold by May 6th! And it came from a different store location, the one on Graham Avenue. Going for broke, he started to peel back the second label to find YET ANOTHER ONE. Turns out these snacks were originally packed back on January 14th, with a sell-by date of March 14th. This, too, was from Graham Avenue. (Interestingly, the ingredients, weight, and prices change with each sticker.) Now, we know that “sell by” and “expiration” dates aren’t the same thing, and these crackers clearly hadn’t gone bad–they weren’t even stale. Still, “sell by” should mean “sell by“, right? Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation for this…but we took pictures anyway, and thought we’d send them in.

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is they’re reusing the packaging. I have no idea if this practice is legal or not but the implications are pretty disturbing. Thoughts, anyone?

Miss Heather