Scammed Again!

China just isn't too trust-worthy a place. I can't figure it out b/c in school they are taught really good morals, like honesty, kindness, respect, etc. This is all fine and dandy inside the school, but the minute you step out of the school gates, these morals just don't seem to be present in society. I guess in a country of 2 billion people everyone has to fight tooth and nail just to scrape by. There seems to be this mentality of "try to be #1... otherwise you'll end up being # 2,904,078"... this comes out in all kinds of facets: budging in lines at the supermarket checkout, bank, etc, pickpocketing, not stepping out of the way when you're clearly in someone's path, ripping people off, etc.

This came across yesterday again when I discovered I'd been duped by the grocery store. We are very fortunate to live close to an import grocery store where we can get lots of nice things... I try not to buy too much here b/c the prices of some of the things are WAY too crazy (eg- $12 Can for a box of cereal!). Once in a while it's a nice treat though... such it was recently with feta cheese (which costs about $10 Can for a small block). I LOVE feta cheese but never buy it here b/c of the absorbant price. However, last week I noticed there was a 2-for1 sale on feta cheese... I checked it out and noticed that the two packs of cheese were taped back-to-back with clear duct-tape... I tried to peel it off in the store so I could check the expiry dates on the back, but the tape was too strong. Seeing as this is an upscale kind of store, I decided in good faith that they wouldn't try to rip me off by selling me expired cheese (the package wasn't transparent, so I couldn't see the cheese).

So anyways, last night I was cooking and planning to use the feta cheese (very exciting... sad, I know!). I sliced thru the tape with a knife and opened the first pack... the cheese was beige, slimy, and stinky and the expiry date on the back read Feb 7th, 2009 (more than 2 months ago)!! I was so mad! Fortunately, the second pack I opened was fine. So I guess they decided to tape an old pack to cheese to a fresh pack of cheese and promote it using a 2-for-1 deal.

I know some of you will say "just take it back with your receipt", but the dumb thing is that I left the receipt at the store that day. You see, there was a draw for chocolates... all you had to do was write your name and phone # on your receipt and put it in the box and you could win a box of delicious-ness. I totally put my receipt in that box!

O well... it's only 10 bucks, but it's the trickery that makes me mad... you just don't know who you can trust around here.