Mayonnaise roulette

[gmi3804]

I'm in the camp that if it's not Duke's mayo it should be thrown in the trash regardless if it's been sitting out open or not.

Why is it a contest?

 

[mom2rtk]

No.

I am an actual nurse in an actual hospital who heard this from my actual friend who was in on this surgery.

Pay no mind. There's one in every group.

 

[Imzadi]

*cough* Hellman’s

Interestingly I just noticed Duke’s on the shelf last grocery trip. That is new for Shoprite’s around here.

Hellmann's is a regional name. On the West Coast, Hellmann’s is labeled as "Best Foods." "Best Foods" has to be the most generic name there is. Yet, the exact same manufacturer makes both and it's exactly the same thing with different labels.

I was on the West Coast for a while and couldn't find Hellmann's anywhere. I even asked for it. Yet no grocery store had ever heard of it's name. They only had that cheap brand "Best Foods" which I wasn't going to buy. Then I was in a dollar store there and saw my beloved Hellmann's being sold on a pallet as one of their cheap dollar store (quality) items. (No, it wasn't near expiration date.) I nearly had a heart attack.

That's when I did my research. The "Hellmann's" manufacturer on the East Coast probably made more than the East Coast distributors bought that season. So, the excess was shipped and sold cheaper on the West Coast as an "off-brand" to smaller distributors/retailers, like dollar stores, which will take the excess at a marked down price.

It's likely the same manufacturing plants also jar up and label the same mayo under many cheaper generic and store brand labels.

When a PP dinged me up-thread for getting cheap Dollar Tree mayo, as though it may not be as carefully made, I thought, "Do you not know that many cheaper brands are made by the same large manufacturers?" These little generic and store label brands don't have the means to manufacture their own line of foods. The manufacturers just have different price points for selling the exact same product by slapping on different packaging for the same internal product. Or they will change the ingredients slightly, like use a cheaper oil to keep the price point down.

Anyone who has ever seen food recalls often sees a LIST of the same food manufactured with a LOT of different brand names.

While the Dollar Tree doesn't have the same mayo as either Hellmann’s or Best Foods, (it doesn't taste the same,) I make sure whatever generic brand of mayo I do get is manufactured in the U.S. So, it's from a mayo manufacturing competitor and made to U.S. safety standards.

 

[barkley]

with mayo (even non name brand) not selling on the BEST of sales for less than $6 per jar in ages here it would break my heart to toss all of this but having gotten sick on bad mayo i would'nt be willing to chance it.

btw-when i open something that i froze or can be used past the 'best by' date i mark it with a sharpie to show when it was defrosted/opened so i can guage when i need to toss it. you could always just write something on condiment containers to denote when you opened it (but ideally this does'nt happen again).

So is anyone else amazed that you had 4 new unopened jars of mayo for this kid to grab? I'm lucky if I have 1 in the pantry when the jar in the fridge gets used up.

when it goes on sale i grab several since the use by dates are pretty generous-i've got one jar open (in the fridge) and 3 unopened in the pantry that are all good until 9/24.

 

[Mysterian]

Didn't Joe Rogan already used to do that sort of thing on Fear Factor?

Wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Genie+]

with mayo (even non name brand) not selling on the BEST of sales for less than $6 per jar in ages here

Last week Shoprite had Hellman’s $3.99 for Labor Day sale and I did a happy dance

 

[Imzadi]

when it goes on sale i grab several since the use by dates are pretty generous-i've got one jar open (in the fridge) and 3 unopened in the pantry that are all good until 9/24.

That's actually the best way to take advantage of sales, and if your area still has double and triple couponing on paper coupons you save the most. With the way inflation raised prices, saving here and there adds up.

This is how it works:
The same items tend to go on sale every 6 to 8 weeks. Some items are rarer at 10 to 12 weeks. When something goes on sale, don't just buy one item. You buy as many as you will use until it goes on sale again. So, if you go through a jar of mayo a week, you'd buy 6 - 8 jars on sale to last you to the next sale. 6 jars of Hellmann's mayo, normally $6, bought on sale at $4 saves you $12.

The real savings are when you COMBINE the sale WITH PAPER COUPONS for the same item. Stores usually don't regulate you being able to use a coupon with an item on sale. (Some places do limit the amount of coupons able to be used.) Instead, manufacturers and large chain supermarkets actually work together on this. They want you to buy their product over other brands, and hopefully become brand loyal, so they make incentives to get their items. If a mayo coupon is in the Sunday newspaper coupon circulars a particular week, generally, expect that brand of mayo to be on sale at large chain supermarkets in the next/few couple weeks. Or before the expiration date of the coupon which is about 3 months.

You think, I have ONE coupon for $.75 off one jar of Hellmann's mayo. Big whoop. Yet, with people recycling their newspapers nowadays, you may be able to get 6 coupon circulars from friends, neighbors or coworkers who still read newspapers and toss them in the clean recycling bin after. $.75 x 6 coupons gives you another $4.50 off the Hellmann's mayo for a total of $16.50 off!

AND there are probably 6 other items in that one coupon circular in which you can combine with other sales. We all use shampoo, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. If all those coupons are also $.75 off x 6 items each, that's $4.50 x 6 = $27 in coupons in one circular PLUS the amount off the sale price. NOW collecting those coupon circulars and keeping an eye on the sales may become worth the time.

Also, ironically, do NOT be brand loyal if you can. If you normally buy Tide, but you get great coupons for Persil for a $1 off + the sale price of $3 off, get the Persil (unless you are really opposed to that brand.)

And as I mentioned earlier, if you live in an area that doubles the face value of a coupon, that $.75 coupon becomes $1.50 off instead. Places that triple coupons are even rarer and may be extinct in most places now.

Some drug stores like Rite Aid and CVS also have sales and their own STORE coupon for say, $1 off a sale item that week. They MAY allow you to add the manufacturer's coupon from the Sunday coupon circular onto top for added savings. Store coupons directly from that store, (a Rite Aid coupon for an item,) are different than the manufacturer's coupons and usually able to be used together, called stacking. (Usually the sale's flyer will list if they do NOT allow the two different coupons to be used together.

Don't worry that the store is losing money by you using coupons. In the fine print, it usually says the store will receive full face value of the coupon plus $.12 cents per coupon for handling.

Due to the popularity of the Extreme Couponing cable TV show and those people abusing couponing by buying 20 items in one visit and leaving the shelves empty so no one else could get the item on sale, many stores now limit the amount of coupons PER ITEM, per visit.

And if you use digital coupons instead of the paper coupons, there is likely to be a limit on how many items you can get per account, like 2-6 of an item.

If you shop at stores that you know are well stocked, and do the Circle of Life concept, "You should never take more than you give," and leave enough for others, definitely take advantage of buying multiples on sale with coupons. (I'm well stocked up on Folgers coffee, down to $2 per canister, for a while. )

 

[barkley]

Last week Shoprite had Hellman’s $3.99 for Labor Day sale and I did a happy dance

i bet! that's a great deal these days.

if your area still has double and triple couponing on paper coupons you save the most

in the 17 years we've lived here i've not seen any of the stores in our region do this. i've had friends who lived in places where it was a fairly common practice at certain stores but i've just not seen it. i DO take advantage of good sales though and stock up-in fact yesterday when we were running errands i was very happily surprised to see that one of the stores was running an unlimited sale on a brand of pasta sauce we really enjoy at $1.68 per jar (normal price around $3.79). the best buy dates were well into the end of 2025 so i bought 26 jars of the 3 flavors we like (i will share the wealth with my oldest). i've also taken to buying a few items only at the dollar store (well, dollar and a quarter) like a-1. no sale ends up beating the per oz. price i pay there.

 

[RedAngie]

At least you were at home! When I was a kid we had a neighbor who would open the salad dressing and stick her finger in the bottle to taste it, and then put it back on the grocery store shelf! Even if she liked it, she'd buy a different bottle of that flavor. I am 100% convinced that she is why bottles now have that little seal on the top!

Not with a perishable food item, but my DD did something similar.

She wanted a mesh laundry bag for college. At Walmart she ripped open the hanging plastic bag they were stored in to check the size, etc.

It was good, so she threw it down on the bottom shelf and grabbed a new hanging plastic bag to buy.

I ripped her a new one for that act and made her buy the package she tore open.

I hate when I see stuff like that, packages that were opened then the contents unskillfully stuffed back in. Or just left there like DD tried to do.

 

[barkley]

i LOVE the title of this thread.

 

[Karin1984]

I bought some mayonnaise today. This bottle says "after opening keep in a cool and dark place", while other types of mayonnaise from this brand say "after opening keep refrigirated". So, I can keep this bottle in the cupboard in good conscious ;-)

 

[RedAngie]

A feature of the Mayonnaise Roulette Game Show should be a hidden Miracle Whip mystery choice.

If you gag or puke you lose.

 

[Micca]

I bought some mayonnaise today. This bottle says "after opening keep in a cool and dark place", while other types of mayonnaise from this brand say "after opening keep refrigirated". So, I can keep this bottle in the cupboard in good conscious ;-)

On a visit to France last year I tried some mayo with french fries and discovered that their version of mayo was creamier and a bit sweeter than the stuff found in the U.S. I imagine it might be similar to what you have in the the Netherlands and might have different specifications for storage.

 

[Genie+]

5 pages of mayo convo. Who knew?

 

[luvnwdwgal]

When I was a child, my parents never kept butter in the fridge. They liked it soft for spreading and never once did it spoil.
Many diners keep catsup and mustard bottles on tables all the time and never refrigerate them.

We don’t keep our butter in the fridge. Butter is safe to keep out at room temperature.

 

[Micca]

5 pages of mayo convo. Who knew?

Why not? It has all the elements of a classic Dis thread

It's about food
It's food that people have strong opinions about
There's varying issues on health and safety matters
And a challenge to someone who is actually qualified to post information
It contains sidebar comments on butter, pasta sauce and is possibly expandable to other condiments.

This is 5 Star stuff here!

 

[easyas123]

*cough* Hellman’s

 

[_19disnA]

Butter in general should be kept refrigerated. I would imagine most homes in the summer get above 70 degrees as mentioned below.

 

[luvthatduke]

That's actually the best way to take advantage of sales, and if your area still has double and triple couponing on paper coupons you save the most. With the way inflation raised prices, saving here and there adds up.

I miss those days, Imzadi.
Covid seems to have killed paper coupons in my area,
along with the double/triple offers.
Although the stores really push digital coupons (just not multiplied).

 

[barkley]

I miss those days, Imzadi.
Covid seems to have killed paper coupons in my area,
along with the double/triple offers.
Although the stores really push digital coupons (just not multiplied).

with the exception of safeway and albertsons who still give the option of either 'clip it or click it' we have no supermarkets in our region that still issue their own paper coupons anymore-and there is one single national chain (i think kroger owns them now but they don't go by that name) that ONLY issues digital coupons. the other 3 multi store 'chains' do no coupons at all. they will still accept manufacturers coupons but that's it.

what i miss from pre covid were the case sales. phenominal prices on canned and jarred goods, some frozen items, certain brands of cereal....at exceptional prices if purchased by the case. we benefited from it as a famly as well as did our local food pantrys-the frat boys sat up tables in front of the stores during the sales and provided a means to donate so people walked out and pulled 3 or 4 items from each of the cases they had purchased and still walked away with a bargain in their cart.