It must be impossible for a small store to keep track of recalls.

[yy4me]

Yesterday, I had occasion to shop for a few things at a small local retailer. They have been in business about ten years selling overstocks, buy outs and general merchandise at discount. It is not a dollar store but what they do sell is off price name brand merchandise. Nice little place where you can get greeting cards 2/$1.00, assorted packaged foodstuffs, toys, household merchandise.

As I walked through the store yesterday, I saw many of the currently recalled items on their shelves. I would not have known of them had I not just signed up for the recall list at www.fda.gov.

I asked the clerk if they were aware of the items, she said no and referred me to the Assistant Manager. I asked her if they were keeping up on the list and she was not even aware of it. Yipes!

I was told they would get on it right away. Off I went to do the rest of my days errands.

It is not my job, certainly, to police these small, nice but understaffed stores to see that they pull this stuff.

They work with a bare-bones staff. The FDA list is now huge.

I wonder what the solution to this is? These places need to be kept up to speed on recalls but they hardly have enough staff to ring up a sale.

[elleng]

1. Would help if everyone read/followed the 'news.'

May be impossible to 'police' this, having gone well beyond autos.

[Maine-ah]

2. I used to work for a small foodservice distributor

my husband still does. We always kept track of recalls.

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Shouldn't be

The distributors are notified from the manufacturer and should have good records to notify each location/company where the products were sold to. It's when products are resold that the seller, who unlike the distributor is not under contractual requirements to the manufacturer, may or may not keep records and forward recall information to all places where they sold the product to.

[DoctorMyEyes]

4. I think it's cause they're not buying from the manufacturers

but from salvage companies. If the OP can check a website I suppose the small store resellers could check the same site. And I'm sure it is tough for a small store to keep up with the recalls.

I work for a big box and while we've been pretty lucky as far as recalls go - we haven't carried many of the products that have been tainted - it's a big undertaking when it happens. And we're in far better circumstances, having the staff, buying from the manufacturers, etc.

One thing I would like to point out about shopping at a store where you use a "membership" card of some kind is that when you purchase a product that is later recalled you can be contacted about it. Should our customers have missed a recall on the news, they'll get a letter in the mail, or a phone call from us, asking them to bring it back for a full refund.

[RB TexLa]

5. Don't many people ignore them and sell the merchandise anyway?