TELL US: Should Grocery Stores Alert You to Recalls?

Food gets recalled on a fairly regular basis, but when the threat reaches a critical level some grocery stores have taken steps to get the word out to their customers.

After yesterday’s recall of Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats one commenter mentioned a phone call received from the grocery chain Wegmans.

“I was really impressed when I received an automated call from Wegmans yesterday telling me that I had bought a box of the recalled cereal recently at their store,” Paula Hogan said.

Wegmans Director of Media Relations said the company has been calling customers that use their Shoppers Club Card since 2007.

“When a product is recalled we can scour our database and identify the customers who bought that particular product,” Hogan said.

Earlier this year, The Green Grocer decided to pull certain products from its shelves due to genetically-modified ingredients. Despite not being a recall, the Green Grocer alerted its regular customers through the media and signs posted around the store. 

Price Chopper stores have a similar protocol for shoppers who use their Price Chopper AdvantEdge card and get a primarily positive response.

“Once in a while someone will say they’d rather not have their privacy invaded,” Mona Golub, vice president at Price Chopper said. “But, we’ve had hundreds of people respond and say ‘thank you, if I didn’t get that call I wouldn’t have known I bought the product.’”

What do you think? Should grocery stores tell you if you bought a recalled product, or would you rather find out through news reports? Tell us below!