Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― There's one business that's definitely booming in this economy: dollar stores.

Sixty-five million Americans shop at them. Sales at many chains have shot up by about 10 percent in 2009.

But, as CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker explains, instead of a great deal, you may be bringing home some dollar store dangers.

One of 10 lighters bought at dollar stores in the Chicago area kept burning despite label instructions.

When told the lighter was defective and dangerous, a store employee said he didn't want to be put on television.

CBS 2 also found old medicine that you would not want to bring into your home. A Family Dollar children's painkiller expired in May 2009, but that medicine was bought on Aug. 26, three months after it expired.

CBS 2 also bought adult medicine that expired last June. Three days later at Big Lots, CBS 2 bought Anacin that should have been off the shelves six months ago. But that's not all CBS 2 found.

When asked why children's vitamins were sold on Aug. 29 that expired in March, an employee said he had to look into it. He had no idea.

"I think it's a public health risk for anybody to sell outdated drugs," Jim O'Donnel of Rush University Medical Center said.

The biggest risk, according to O'Donnell, is the unknown. He said at some point the ingredients in expired vitamins begin to deteriorate and can turn into different chemicals that could be harmful for children.

"I'm not sitting here saying that it will, I'm telling you I don't know ... and it's frightening," O'Donnell said.

What's also frightening is dollar stores selling older food, like microwavable soup with a best by date of last March; mustard that should have been off the shelves in January; ready-to-eat rice that expired in December 2008, and coffee that expired in October 2007.

Customers say it needs to stop.

In fact, all three stores CBS 2 shopped in and contacted did make sure their stores stopped selling the outdated products we found. And they stressed it is against store policies to sell any item that's outdated.

CBS 2 sent the lighter with problems back to the distributor and that company told CBS 2 they could not duplicate what was happening on camera.

CBS 2 also contacted some of the companies which make the products CBS 2 purchased.

The ones that responded told us their products shouldn't be sold past the date on the container, although in many cases the food is still safe to eat.

Here are the full statements from the stores:

Family Dollar: "At Family Dollar we buy top quality first-run goods and not short dated or close to expiration products, and it's our policy to sell those products within the freshness date shown on the packaging.

We regret the breakdown in the execution of our policy in the Chicago area and are taking immediate steps to correct the issue.

Any customers that may have purchased any outdated products can return those products to our stores and exchange them for fresh products.

It is Family Dollar's policy to ensure that all toys we sell meet or exceed government safety standards. Mattel, the manufacturer of the toy you identified, confirmed that the toy was designed for children age 9 and older, and therefore under federal law did not require a choking warning. Even though it's not required by law, it appears that the manufacturer of the other toy you identified placed the warning label on the packaging out of an abundance of caution."

Big Lots: "We are looking into the allegations in your story to verify that we had these 3 items for sale on august 29th when you purchased them. It will take us some time to do this.

Our policy on selling expired food or medications is quite clear. All such products are monitored on a daily basis and products that have expired are immediately marked out of stock and destroyed. We do not have any intention of selling these items to the public once their expiration or 'best sell by' dates have passed.

We are going through our stores in the greater Chicagoland area to insure that these items have been pulled from our shelves. Sales of these items have also been blocked in our register system. We want to reassure our customers that our intention is to NEVER sell outdated food or medications."

Dollar Tree: "Dollar Tree is committed to offering our customers fresh and safe products at all times. As a matter of company policy, we require that all items are removed from our shelves prior to the expiration date. It is also our policy to remove products from our stores prior to the 'Best if used by' date. Upon receipt of your email, stores were immediately reminded to remove all such products from their shelves, in accordance with company policy.

As a matter of clarification, 'Best if used by' dates are not expiration dates.

A link to the USDA web page that defines terms used in product labeling is shown below: 

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/food_product_dating/index.asp

As to the canned fruit, the date to which you referred was the production date, not the expiration date nor the 'Best if used by' date. The 'Best if used by' period on that item is three years from the production date, or December 1, 2009.

We are investigating the question regarding the lighter and will take appropriate action as warranted."

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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