Ever found an expired product on a store’s shelf? If so – and if you noticed before you bought it – you probably either put it back, brought it to an employee’s attention, or if it happened often enough in the same store, chose to do your shopping somewhere else. Finding out-of-date items for sale can be annoying, and sometimes kind of nauseating. But is stocking expired food illegal?
Well, Pennsylvania regulators don’t look so kindly upon the practice. The state Attorney General’s office on Wednesday announced a $450,000 settlement with CVS, in which the drug store chain agreed to provide coupons worth $3.50 off just about anything in the store, to any shopper who finds certain expired products on a CVS shelf anywhere in the state.
To some determined CVS couponers, that’s not a promise – that’s a challenge. Find an expired product, get a $3.50 coupon? Let’s go to CVS and find us some expired products, pronto!
The real idea, of course, is to ensure that CVS has an incentive to no longer stock any expired products. Then again, that was the idea in 2010, when CVS and Pennsylvania settled an earlier dispute, with CVS agreeing to pay a $250,000 fine, and offer $2 coupons to anyone who found expired over-the-counter drugs, infant formula, baby food or dairy products in its stores.
And apparently, CVS handed over a lot of $2 coupons.
As part of a compliance check, to ensure that CVS was holding up its end of the 2010 bargain, the Attorney General’s office said “agents allegedly reported finding expired products, including infant formula and drugs made for children, at five of the six CVS stores they visited. CVS employees in two cases also allegedly bypassed a register prompt that was designed to prohibit the sale of expired products.”
So the two sides agreed to a new settlement that ups the penalties – this time, CVS will pay $450,000 and raise the coupons’ value to $3.50.
The dispute centers on specific food and medicinal products that can really go bad when they get old – as opposed to more shelf-stable products that are actually good well past their printed “sell by” date. The new settlement requires CVS to put in place better internal auditing systems, and to “prominently post notices in the aisles where baby food, dairy products, infant formula and over-the-counter drugs are offered for sale, reminding customers to check the ‘Sell By’ or ‘Expiration’ dates.”
Several other states have expressed concerns in recent years about the dates on products stocked at CVS. Maryland reached a similar settlement in 2013, while California, New York and Connecticut all did the same back in 2009. So if you don’t live in any of those states, but find expired products at your local CVS, you might be inclined to bring it to the attention of your own state’s Attorney General.
All of those settlements, like the original Pennsylvania agreement, required CVS to give out $2 coupons. So Pennsylvania’s new settlement isn’t unique, but it does offer the highest-value coupons of any of the agreements.
In a statement, CVS said it “has not admitted any liability or wrongdoing, and has entered into this agreement to avoid unnecessary expense, inconvenience or uncertainty of further investigation or legal proceedings.” The statement went on to say that “CVS/pharmacy makes every effort to ensure that expired products are not sold to customers, and we have a clear product removal policy and procedures in place at all of our stores to help ensure that items are removed from store shelves before they reach their expiration dates. Any unintentional deviations from this policy that are brought to the company’s attention are quickly rectified for customers.”
Rectified, in the form of the best CVS coupon you’re likely to find anywhere. At $3.50 a pop, finding expired infant formula and pharmaceuticals can earn you a whole lot of free (unexpired) baby food and dairy products.
Purposely seeking out expired food just to score coupons isn’t the point, of course. So going on an expired food treasure hunt in order to collect coupons isn’t exactly advisable. In the end, high-value coupons are nice, but unexpired products are better. It’s up to CVS now, to determine which one it’s more likely to provide.
Pennsylvania CVS Stores are still issuing the $3.50 coupons for expired items. Unlimited and per item, you find 65 things you get 65 coupons, period. The coupons also ALL have the same barcode when you redeem them, you can use self checkout with the coupons up to 2 per trans at self checkout, unlimited at register.
Does anyone know of any stores in NH that participate in the oudaters coupons?
UPDATE 10/4/2021 coupons are still being issued for expired items. $3.50 per item found.
I was in a CVS in Pa, And there was a couple of women looking for dates and they were so frantic about it. They had two full carts of things, I couldn’t believe that people have the time on their hands, it’s kind of embarrassing if you ask me. It’s almost like you’re beggars, begging for money.
You sound like a bitter CVS employee. Why wouldn’t people take free money?
Exactly she must be mad she can’t participate 🤣
lol – they are working and they get. paid 3.50 for their work! per item! jelly much
The only problem I have with outdaters is when they come in, they leave our stores looking atrocious. Products are pushed everywhere, nothing is where it belongs and on top of that, I honestly believe they either bring expired products into the store with them or hide products that are soon to be expired and then come back to retrieve them when they are expired. We work hard at a store level to face our shelves and to have them look bad after the outdaters come in is just wrong.
They likely do hide things. Don’t know if you know this, but the bottom of a lot of the shelves lift up almost like a secret drawer. (I didn’t realize this for many years of working at CVS). People hide crap in there, which is also why the bottom shelves are a wreck when they leave.
when does the courtesy coupon program expire/end?
Did you ever find out
11/4/19 – I went to a local CVS to use some of my coupons that I have kept and are dated 2016. I ended up spending $76 which $68 before tax, I used 17 coupons and paid some cash difference. I also found 12 luna bars all the same flavor that were expired, so I got new coupons for those as well.
Hi–I’ve been collecting these coupons for about 3 years, just a few occasionally. I was told last weekend in Reading PA, and now today in Harrisburg, PA that they are no longer giving coupons because their obligation for the lawsuit had been met. Do you have any updated information?
Thanks so much!
Melissa
Uhh, no it keeps going on until January 21, 2020. I live 40 minutes south of Pittsburgh and just found 24 items today. You should contact the AG’s office.
is this in michigan
So after January 1, 2021 CVS is allowed to start selling expired goods again?
I was just in cvs and a lady had a cart literally overloaded with expired items. A clerk was checking them and counting. I don’t know all but she had several Boost drinks and a pile of makeup. I ask the clerk what she was doing and she indeed said you get a $3.50 coupon for each item
And I guess you don’t have to actually purchase the item just find it on the shelf and show them! I left before she was finished counting but I bet she had at least 50 or more items.
No you do not have to buy them. Just clean the shelves for them like you work there and you get 3.50 per item.
I was just at CVS and found over 50 expired makeup items. They said makeup isn’t eligible for the expired item thing. So I call Ed the number it says to call when you find expired products and they don’t give you money (the district attorney)
If the expired date just say the month and year
Ex. 01/18 and i found them on 01/20/18 are them out of date? Or need to wait until february?
February, they are good for the whole month of January
Store manager, Cheri, will tell other cashiers to tell customers that she isn’t there so she will not have to give coupons. S een it happen.
I found jars of baby food that had a date of 2001. I had no idea of this lawsuit or I would have made a bigger deal about it but I did clear the shelf of all of them and took them outside to the dumpster and tossed them in (making sure they busted). The manager said he was calling the police and I told him go ahead then it’ll be on record that you are selling expired BABY FOOD. Needless to say he didn’t call the police. I’m in Mississippi does this lawsuit apply to this state? I feel it should apply to ALL states they have a store.
I get that u found outdated products but the store has to damage items out, cant just be thrown away or taken. This makes the inventory system seem like it was stolen!
If I accept that, that means the inventory system is keeping track of items and that also says they are AWARE they have outdated BABY FOOD on there shelves and don’t care enough about the consumer to remove them. So I could care less about inventory count, and if it shows up as stolen they can write it off, but tell me can a parent write off the health of their child?
CVS cpu system only is counting the inventory. It does not keep track of dates unfortunately.
Next time Kim, do NOT toss them! Though well meaning, you accomplish little this way. You need to contact the attorney general or FDA. This is the best way to protect ppl from food related concerns and help your state become further protected from expired food issues like other states that are now under watch.
Hi I live in NY state, will that work here too?
NO, just PA as of now still.
Is there an ending date when CVS no longer has to give out the $3.50 coupons for expired items?
Did anyone ever find an answer to this ? id like to know for how long this program is going on for too
January 2021
Can you do an update on this? Specifically because the District Manager in my area has forbid any coupon to be issued unless the item says “Expires xyz date” or exp xyz date”. So I contact cvs about finding juice with only a date on the cap and baby formula that said “use by March 1 2018”. I was denied coupons but after some arguing they were issued. The DM then issued me an apology saying she had incorrectly informed the store on “those items”, but when I was in CVS just now they said coupons can only be issued for baby product medicine and a couple other categories.
It would be nice to contact the AG of PA but I’m really bad at communicating. SO maybe coupons in the news can!
So my questions are:
Are the coupons restricted to only certain category of expired products?
Are the coupons limited to only certain expiration dates such as use by, no description but a date clearly meant to be expiry date, best by etc?
It’s been a while since doing this story, so I don’t have all the details at my fingertips… I know you say you preferred not to, but your best bet is probably to contact the AG with specific questions. Here’s how they said to do it:
Consumers with questions or complaints concerning expired products at CVS stores should contact the Attorney General’s Health Care Section at 1-877-888-4877 or file an online complaint using the Attorney General’s website, at http://www.attorneygeneral.gov (Click on the “Complaints” button on the front page of the website and select the “Health Care Complaint Form”).
You may be redacting some of what you reported 2 years ago with this because of being inaccurate. If you want a copy of the settlement email me.
hello there…i don’t know how this page works, but I would love to see a copy of the settlement. To see what products are actually eligible and the date the “program” expires.
what area are you from cuz the DM in my area did the same thing
Two weeks ago the AG was on the consumers side, when I called just this past week the AG is siding with DM in my area
Union County. What exactly did the AG say?
Also for the other person asking it expires 5 years from the date of settlement so I assume Jan 2021. I downloaded the settlement documents and still reading over them.
It’s current for all items except dairy. Period. Even shampoo if you can decode it. The DM of Pittsburgh stores sent me 50 coupons from Wilkinsburg store that denied me after I filed a complaint.
Any coupons that are refused to you in states like PA that are covered and expired appropriately, take a pic and send the info in to the attorney general. They’ll mail you your coupons in the mail. Get the name of the associate who was helping you. Always be polite.
They are still giving the $3.50 coupons my son has had at least 1,500 off them. I am still spending them
is it everywhere?
Who’s responsible for removing food off the shelf’s? CVS says the distributor and the distributor says CVS? thanks Alex
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So, as of today, 12/5/2016, I have over 400 coupons worth $3.50 each, issued by CVS stores, about 6 of them in total, that I have been to in the Pittsburgh area. It’s nothing for me to walk into a store, grab a cart, and find expired items. It may be a 6 pack of water, a whole box of Luna bars, 45 slim jims, or 2 pints of ice cream. Some stores actually thank me, and some stores are nasty. There is no rule that says you cannot grab a cart and seek out expired items, and that’s exactly what I do. I actually did run into a CVS two days ago, to grab a case of water and some peanut butter cups. I could not help checking out expiration dates on 1 liter cokes when I got my water, and they were all dated 11/6/16. There were 11 of them, and they were all expired. I went and got a cart, threw them in, and I first got my 11 $3.50 coupons and then used 2 of them from another store, to checkout my water and 2 peanut butter cups. Tonight I found fiber one and luna bars, on the bottom shelf, dusty and expired by 1 year 2 months. There were 8 left in the luna bar box, and when I took the box off the shelf, another one fell down, unopened, and it was expired as well, so the cashier opened it and I got 18 more, so for 26 expired luna bars I got $91 in coupons! It’s so easy so find expired items, they should be ashamed of themselves. If I can run in and in 20 mins be back in my car with $400 in coupons, think what a worker can do even if they looked for 30 mins, in an 8 hour shift. I do not care what they think, I do not care what anyone thinks. I could be saving someone from getting deathly ill. I will continue on going until the money runs out that they have reserved to print the coupons. Do I use the coupons? Yes I do, for dish liquid, paper towels, etc., I also buy shampoo and feminine products and donate to womens shelter, I buy toothpaste and toothbrushes and donate to the homeless shelter, etc. I think it’s great that these coupons can help so many people, and corporate issues them, so it’s not theft, it’s not petty, it’s not a disgrace. What is a disgrace is the CVS that sells 1.2 year old food right in front of the pharmacy or under your nose at the checkout. I won’t go into detail of the items that i find at every store, but just open your eyes!
That is astounding! And sounds like it’s costing CVS a whole lot of money.
I personally work at a CVS here in pa and I know this is a very delayed response however the thing most people don’t know is we don’t just walk and look for items strewn throughout the store. We get a sheet that prints out once a week and we go to check the listed sections on the sheet. We have no control over when they come out I’ve worked for CVS for 2 years now and I do outdates every week and I can name 2 sections I’ve only seen once in my 2 years. We are told not to touch other sections because on the sheet we are to mark what quantity of items we find. Most of the time i do not mind giving out the coupons however we get penalized for something we have no control over. CVS tracks how many coupons we issue and you are reprimanded based on if you give out too many. Another thing to keep in mind and this has happened to me several times is when we get a section to do outdates on always seems to be when people come in and beat you to the punch because you are helping another customer. I do not have a problem with people who do this and donate items such as yourself in fact I encourage the people who go way overboard on this to try it sometime. My issue is when I have people come in and spend 4 to 5 hours scouring the store looking for items and then turn around and buy 130 to 150 worth of items with them. Maybe this post will help some people with questions maybe it won’t and to the person who asked about a limit technically the limit is 1 as our system recognizes each one as the same so we can only scan one coupon before the rest become duplicates and won’t let us scan but after that we can manually enter as many as we want as long as we have a managers override.
I have found expired food items in my local CVS stores in PA in the past and received $3.50 coupons. This past week both of the store managers told me that they are no longer giving out $3.50 coupons except for baby items and dairy. I found a few expired things in both the stores and they refused to print out the coupons. I pointed out that the credit card scanner on the counter says that if you find any expired product you are to receive the coupon or contact the Attorney General. They said their district manager said it was up to the manager’s discretion. I stop in their stores about once a week for about l/2 hour and I do purchase items. Should I report these stores to the Attorney General? Is anyone else running into this?
They HAVE to give you the coupons. Call the district manager and he/she will go to the store that denied you and make them print them out and mail to you I promise.
So is this at all cvs they provide you with the 3.50
I also work for CVS and have for 18 years. I will be so glad when we will be finished with this $3.50 coupon offer will be over. As an employee in a very busy 24 hour store. There is usually only one management type person & one employee working together on an 8 hour shift, yes we get this so called outdate sheet and we do our best to get everything checked on that list, but realistically if there are only 2 people working an 8 hour shift, we restock shelves, due price changes, due markdowns, process damages, plus theft which has become commonplace sadly nowadays, plus ringing up customers, helping customers, taking passport photos, helping people at the photo kiosks, conference calls, plus trucks come and deliver stock, & displays we must put out, the list of things we have to do in a day would blow some peoples minds but more than likely not because most of our outdatters as they are called dont even have a full time job, going from cvs to cvs looking for outdated products is there job. They think they are helping us but truthfully they are only putting employees who work hard for living jobs at risk. We really don’t get paid that well because we have good health insurance which again isn’t necessarily true because we pay for it ourselves out of our biweekly paychecks. But i’ll tell you that enjoy working for cvs. But i cant stand outdatters and cant wait until we dont have to issue that $3.50 any more.
It’s sad that there are only 2 employees to run such busy establishment. Management, should look into this. Not saying you can’t handle your job, I’m saying that this could all be avoided if they revise their policies or sheet handling on items. I.e inventory check, to get accurate numbers on store products you must do a count on EVERYPRODUCT IN THE STORE. Your DM should better handle inventory non of the lawsuits would of happened or could be avoided on the future. It’s rediculous that customers get paid to find expired items. As a business perspective, how are you making money?This isn’t and employee(cashiers) fault. This is all Management/DM Decision People are walking out with FREE items because CVS didn’t do their part in making sure there was
I am SO sure that the day you go to pull items, a customer finds them first.. You have 8 hours or more that you are there, if I can come in for 30 mins and load a cart with 60 items, then you can find the stuff too. I know your goal isn’t to search every day, but you can beat most people to it, I just don’t like the comment you made.
+i, William. A friend of mine just shared 24 of her $3.50 coupons with me. She got 95 coupons yesterday and almost another 50 today! Do you have any idea how many coupons you can redeem in a single transaction? She told me that she’s never used, nor tried to use, more than four in a single transaction. I’d like to buy some quit smoking patches selling for $40.99, utilizing 11 coupons. Thanks in advance.
There is no cap on the redemption, there is simply no cash back for overage that’t all. There is no cap on how many are issued either, for expired items. Yesterday I bought dog treats, 2 dove chocolate bags, couple cans cat food, spent $30 by using 8 coupons and paid .52 cash is all I owed. I also found 14 expired KIND bars at the register so I got 14 more coupons lol. You should be able to use them, it is not one per item or per transaction, do not let them tell you that.
Sweet. Thanks so much for your reply.
Still getting them? I am.
I tried to redeem a few at a time but the manager at the CVS near my home gave me a hard time and me look like an @$$ in front of my kids. Is there a policy somewhere online or at cvs that allows me to spend more than one on a transaction? If so I’d really like to have it in hand when I go back to that cvs. Thanks
There is a 250 page document, it changes all the time. It used to be one per transaction, then one per item, now it’s just an open dollar amount. They are supposed to scan one, for 3.50, the type in the total before tax for the rest. You should call your regional manager. It is unlimited.
I totally agree with you. I do go into the stores just to look for expired items, and like you said some stores thank me for doing what their management doesn’t give them time to do. Others are very rude, makes me feel like I am doing something wrong. I try not to let it get to me, but so want to say that the only reason I am finding this stuff is due to you and your staff not adequately doing your job – but I keep my mouth shut. I would love to chat with someone, like you, that does this often because I encounter things that I have questions on when doing this and of course, the store would not be able to answer my question knowledgibly if they can’t even get their expired items off the shelf.
To me this is fun looking for items – it’s not a crime, it doesn’t hurt anybody, and I share my $3.50 coupons with family and friends.
One store told me yesterday that they were just notified by the PA Attorney General that this policy will not end on 12/31/2018 – I think the manager only told me that because she was pissed I found items (of course, I was thinking to myself that no, this can’t end yet, but I just smiled at her and said thank you for the information). So when does it end? I thought January 2021?
Any feedback or just conversation on our expired product journey would be nice.
You know what, CVS has being lying about what they are going to do with this program. I live in San Diego/La Jolla/Pacific Beach area, and I still easily saw expired items on the shelf each time I visited the stores, but since 2010, if I found items expired and took to the front desk, almost all the store managers would tell you there has been never such program existed. If I showed a print of the following
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/brown-forces-cvs-pharmacy-provide-customers-2-coupon-if-they-find-expired
only 1 or 2 store managers would issue $2 coupon like they gave you an exception. But 90% of the stores will tell you that doesn’t mean anything because their store just does not have this policy. You have to show a “printed CVS issued policy”, not the “court issued policy”. But CVS just does not issue this policy, what can you do? Some store managers will even humiliate you in public by saying that possibly you placed that expired items on their shelf.I already both called and emailed CVS about whether they can email me a copy of the policy so that I can show to the store manager, but they never responded to my request.
Anyway, think about that, CVS used this settlement to get away with paying penalty for selling expired items, so how can they be willing to pay you for expired items?
It’s only in PA!! The attorney general in your state has to file
The cashier in CVS in Belton , SC said that they don’t give ECB for expired products.
Do I call the corporate office?
This is for Pennsylvania.
Please note- CVS limits the issue to a PER DAY PER CARD/PERSON, not PER ITEM. The agreement with the AG does not seem to provide any guidelines so CVS can limit the number of coupons while getting people to clean its shelves. If you attempt to use multiple cards, my local CVS has been getting the numbers and having the cards voided as there is a one card / household policy.
The old agreement was one per day, the new one is per item. I’ve read the agreement. Whoever is telling you this is either lying or misinformed.
Sure wish they would do this at Rite Aid. They have so many expired products on their shelves and the employees don’t particularly care when you bring it to their attention either. I have no issues using the occasional expired product sitting in the cupboard at my home but I’m not interested in buying a bag of chips that expired 3 months ago.
Shoprite used to offer a $1 store coupon if you found an expired coupon. I don’t think they do it anymore, but my kids used to go right to the dairy case and find a bunch of expired stuff when we went to the store.
Food Emporium and A&P used to give you an equivalent item free if you found an expired one. At one point, I think FE upped the ante and was giving *3* of the item if you found one that was expired. Now, THAT was a great deal!