CVS pays $875,000 for selling expired food and medicine

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today/AP

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York officials say they've reached an $875,000 settlement with CVS Pharmacy to stop sales of expired products — including food, medicine and baby formula.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who announced the agreement Tuesday, sued after investigators bought expired goods in 60% of CVS (CVS) stores they canvassed across the state.

The settlement ends a lawsuit that the state filed after it said CVS breached a prior agreement to halt expired sales.

A CVS spokesman says the company is committed to keeping expired products off the shelves and that the settlement doesn't include any admission of wrongdoing.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2009-11-10-cvs-...

[AndyA]

1. Note to self: avoid CVS...

Which shouldn't be hard, as there's a Walgreen's on every other corner, it seems. And several others on the corners where there isn't a Walgreen's.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. All of the Longs stores here that have been replaced by CVS...

...are poorly stocked and look terrible.

It used to be a ritual...go to Safeway or Lucky, walk a few steps down the mall and get a few things from Longs.

Not any more. The Save-Mart (the parent company that re-opened Lucky after Albertson's sold) by me has a Rite-Aid right next door...I've been going there instead.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Rite-Aid isn't much better.

They were on every corner here and were worse than the CVS is now. They have gone through the same expired product issues and more....

I miss the old-fashioned pharmacist-owned local drug store.

[intheflow]

15. The Rite-Aid in my neighborhood is a nightmare.

It actually shares space with--get this--a full liquor store. It's a strange place with a bad karma.

[Tracer]

24. Believe it or not, ...

... my town HAS a pharmacist-owned drugstore! Furthermore, it just opened about 3 years ago. My town also has a Rite-Aid AND a CVS (and it's not such a big town).

I go to the pharmacist-owned place, just because I want them to succeed.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. I used to love CVS when it was a small regional chain in RI & MA

They were very much like Longs -- interesting mix of goods, decent prices, friendly pharmacy. They weren't as flaky about stocking for sales as Longs though The service and selection declined with the expansions.

I became a Longs convert when I moved to the Bay Area, but since CVS only has sales for affinity card holders I'm now a Walgreens customer.

[barb162]

10. I was in one once and just didn't like it.

Anyway, there are two Walgreens' which are a lot closer.

[MissDeeds]

12. Walgreen's has problems too

Perhaps not of the magnitude of CVS, but they aren't immune from having expired items on their shelves. In the past two weeks, I have had to trek back to our local Walgreen's to return expired Claritin (purchased in October, expired in June) and Starbucks coffee (bought in November, expired in February). Our local grocery stores aren't any better. Unfortunately, it's 'buyer beware' around here.

[wishlist]

3. My local Walgreens in NC is bad for having lots of outdated items nt

[izquierdista]

5. "Expired" products

This is major bullshit, as anyone who knows anything about chemical and biological decomposition can tell you. The idea that stuff is 100% effective until midnight on expiration day and then becomes worthless is part of the planned obsolescence meme: a way to move the merchandise and keep the factory cranking out product.

People should learn to extrapolate their experience with fruits and vegetables to products that have expiration dates stamped on them. Bananas with a lot of green on them go for full price, bananas speckled with brown go for 1/2 price, and bananas that are soft and black are free, but you have to pull them out of the dumpster (but they are the best kind for making banana bread). Similarly, there still are uses for "expired" products, and stores should be able to sell them, albeit at a good discount. The reason that cheese and yogurt were invented was to find some way to use milk that was about to go past its expiration date.

But it will never come to pass, not in this country of product liability lawsuits. Given the number of lawsuits on products which were sold before their expiration date, no company in their right mind is going to try to pass the liability along to the consumer by giving him an "expired product" discount. The amount of food that gets thrown away at the average supermarket could keep a medium size hog farm running. Collectively, Americans throw away more food and medicines than a lot of third world countries produce.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Thanks for posting something that makes sense

I'd be curious to know just how out of date the products were. Most people who really care about that sort of thing know enough to look at the expiration date, anyway.

[robinlynne]

11. It never even occurred to me to look... until just now.

[Cal Carpenter]

26. Most nonperishable foods are good for 6 months after their expiration date

And food banks can legally distribute them. They just can't legally be sold that I know of...

eta: link to a helpful website: http://www.fmi.org/consumer/foodkeeper/

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. CVS sucks

That's all I can say.

[goclark]

14. CVS is the pits nt

[poverlay]

7. I better go check my Poptarts... Of course they'll last forever anyway. Who doesn't check their

dates?

[izquierdista]

9. Poptarts?

They have enough preservatives in them that they could have been made in the Jurassic.

[poverlay]

30. Pretty sure this box was. Mmmmm .. Tricerapop-tarts n/t

[sakabatou]

36. I thought that was fruit cake

[Gman]

13. Why do they have to point out there was no admission of wrongdoing

They settled, they're paying the fine but they didn't do anything wrong. So they're doing it just for the hell of it.

[Teramis]

16. CVS To Pay $875,000 for Selling Expired Products

Source: Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK--November 10, 2009

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) will pay $875,000 to end a probe into the sale of expired over-the-counter drugs and other products in its stores in New York state.

In a statement, Cuomo said CVS will pay $875,000 in penalties, costs and fees, and will commit to policies and procedures designed to prevent expired products from being stocked on its shelves, including training for CVS employees. The pact ends a lawsuit Cuomo filed in the matter last year, he said.

CVS stores in New York will undergo internal compliance checks for expired products, with any store that fails a compliance check paying a $2,500 penalty, Cuomo said.

"New Yorkers should not have to worry that their neighborhood pharmacy is selling expired over-the-counter drugs that may be harmful to themselves or their families," Cuomo said in a statement.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091110-714974.htm...

---

What a dangerous practice.

[onehandle]

17. What's that, like three weeks profit off of one store?

It's the cost of doing business.

[Teramis]

18. I've always felt that someone should go to jail for things like this

Or at a minimum give them a humongous fine that will make them cry.

Expired products can kill.

[earcandle]

19. Is this a fucking payoff of some kind? Who do they pay so they don't get prosecuted? Who stops

the legal process, or derails it so justice is not done?

Hell, if I can make 8M and it costs me $875K and a hand slap
dude,
which is the better business plan to you?

This has got to stop. This is not justice for the plaintiff! 

This is criminal in sheeps clothing/ 
dudesssss we are so fucking stoooopid. 

[salguine]

20. $875,000? They probably have that much in their goddamn couch cushions.

[classysassy]

28. Hello justice department

are you looking into this mess,or have you good people accepting bribes too.?

[defendandprotect]

21. Corporatism . . . suicidal . ..!!!

[pundaint]

22. So what was their net profit?

probably more than if they had to dispose of the expired goods. It's just good business...

[melm00se]

23. My 1st job was at a local pharmacy

and the Monday evening ritual was to go thru all the aisles, check the expiration dates on all items and pull the ones that had expired. The pharmacists did the same in the Rx racks.

[wishlist]

27. I returned cereal and nuts to Walgreens for being stale/outdated over 6 mos

I have become more careful everywhere after having to return several items to Walgreens when I opened several items recently purchased from them and found they were very stale and inedible. But it can be extremely difficult to find or read the dates at times.

[No Elephants]

29. 1/ Cuomo is on fire. 2/ Fines need to be a percentage of receipts. nt

[David Zephyr]

31. Our consumer slavery.

.

[Regret My New Name]

32. Oh snap! CVS is where I get my synthroid...

[w8liftinglady]

33. I have to say-my local CVS is great-always kind and helpful staff

and I get an average of 10 prescriptions/month filled there...so they know me by name.

[David Zephyr]

34. Kick. Read this story.

.

[defendandprotect]

35. And they're permitted to pay a fine and go on ... amazing . .. no one in jail???