Woman Found Phone in Bag of Chips

[snopes]

A Wisconsin woman said she discovered a Nokia cell phone inside a bag of Clancy's Ripple Potato Chips that she purchased at an Aldi store.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/03/...1931236132961/

[Beejtronic]

I read this as "Woman found in Bag of Chips." I wasn't sure what to think.

[mags]

"You kind of don't want chips for a while" after this sort of incident, she said.

My gosh, it's not like it was a finger or a dead frog. It's bad that it got past the QC checks, but it's an item that isn't likely to be banned among line workers because of the health risk. Whoever dropped it into the line probably didn't realize they did, or where the heck their phone had gone.

[Pseudo_Croat]

Hey, think of it as the prize in a cereal box.

- Pseudo "aww, I can't have nice things" Croat

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by mags

My gosh, it's not like it was a finger or a dead frog. It's bad that it got past the QC checks, but it's an item that isn't likely to be banned among line workers because of the health risk. Whoever dropped it into the line probably didn't realize they did, or where the heck their phone had gone.

At my many jobs (in the food industry) mobile phones have been banned amongst line workers* when working on the production line, along with a range of other personal items you might not think of. You can bring that stuff into work, but you leave it in your locker and don't bring it into the production area.

The reason for this, if you think it is harsh, is that people are working in close proximity to heavy machinery. You certainly don't want someone distracted on the phone run down by a forklift truck, or as I have personally observed (though distracted by his own stupidity not a mobile phone) have their fingers dragged under the end guard of a conveyor belt. It really isn't good for the employee, and if you want to get callous, it isn't good for the company - when the fire brigade managed to free what was left of finger mans hand from the machinery, they'd pretty much destroyed a £22,000 piece of equipment.

Natch rules are there to be broken as someone once said. It's easy to catch the obvious things, like someone defying the rules on jewellery, but a small phone in the pocket, not so much.

*Since the rise of affordable mobile phones - when they were still the size of a brick and a very expensive yuppy accessory, then they weren't written into the rules.

[blinkingblythe]

If I get a free fone in my bag of chips, I hope it's an Android or at least a Treo 650. Seriously, the big concern here is what kind of bacteria may be lingering on that fone scince they typicaly go everywhere the owner does and germs get transfered to it from whatever the owner touches in those places.

[blucanary]

My first reaction was that the production line would kick it out as being too heavy. Then I noticed it was bought at an Aldi, they generally sell food seconds right? Damaged cans and packages that fail QC but are still edible?

[Crius of CoH]

Originally Posted by blucanary

My first reaction was that the production line would kick it out as being too heavy. Then I noticed it was bought at an Aldi, they generally sell food seconds right? Damaged cans and packages that fail QC but are still edible?

Not that I've seen here; it's largely brands from "far away" - brands not found in the other, local/regional/national supermarket chains. IIRC (and I probably do not), Aldi's stuff is largely European and Canadian in origin. I don't think I've seen anything that looks even remotely damaged, nor have I seen suspicious expiration dates. I will look closer, though, just to make sure. In the interest of investigative reporting.

The Wiki entry supports the "not scratch & dent" supposition.

[blucanary]

Originally Posted by Crius of CoH

Not that I've seen here; it's largely brands from "far away" - brands not found in the other, local/regional/national supermarket chains. IIRC (and I probably do not), Aldi's stuff is largely European and Canadian in origin. I don't think I've seen anything that looks even remotely damaged, nor have I seen suspicious expiration dates. I will look closer, though, just to make sure. In the interest of investigative reporting.

The Wiki entry supports the "not scratch & dent" supposition.

I guess I was mixing it up in my head with another store. I've only been in an Aldi once. My bad.

[purpleiguana]

Originally Posted by mags

My gosh, it's not like it was a finger or a dead frog.

Be that as it may... I'd just as soon not have one in my food.

[Andrew of Ware]

The cynic in me makes me think that the woman could just put the phone in the bag and then claim she found it there. Why, I do not know. If it had a chip in it (is this the same as a SIM card?) would it contain details of the owner? If so then they should be able to work out where the phone entered the bag.

[Crius of CoH]

Originally Posted by blucanary

I guess I was mixing it up in my head with another store. I've only been in an Aldi once. My bad.

Eh, it's what I thought when I first heard about Aldi's opening a store here; it's generally tough for any kind of store in the USA to offer substantial discounts without it being "inferior quality" merch.

Though a couple of the foods I've purchased from Aldi I will never eat again; they were just awful. Stuff that tasted like it had sat for a long, hot summer inside a plastics factory before being packaged. Bleagh! Most of the stuff is just fine, however.

[Richard W]

Even my parents shop at Lidl now (not Aldi, but only because there isn't one in their town... I assume it would be similar). Lidl for the bargains, which depend on their current stock, plus a few things that are always dependable and cheap; Sainsbury's for the staples (including crates of wine, duck breasts etc.); Waitrose for the posh bits. I don't know exactly how Lidl / Aldi gets its savings - presentation is an obvious one; things are still in the cardboard boxes with the fronts torn off - but it's not by selling things that are obviously poor quality.

(eta) Like blucanary said, you'd have thought the weight of the phone might be an issue. I couldn't find a convenient table, but Nokia phone specs are on their page there - the lightest I looked at was 80g and the heaviest 100g. (I only looked at a small sample). In a 150g bag of crisps, there could quite possibly still be enough crisps in it to hide the phone and look normal, even within the QA weight limits. 150g is a large bag, but this would hardly happen with a 30g individual pack anyway - you'd notice as soon as you picked it up. The larger bags are generally inflated with nitrogen so the phone's contours wouldn't show. Amazing that modern phones weigh significantly less than a packet of crisps, really.

[Andrew of Ware]

In addition, Richard, I read the article in the OP as indicating that the bag was one of a multi-pack.

she opened one of the bags of chips she purchased

Of course, she might have bought several individual bags, but if it was one in a pack of - say - ten bags, then that would disguise the weight even more.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Even my parents shop at Lidl now (not Aldi, but only because there isn't one in their town... I assume it would be similar). Lidl for the bargains, which depend on their current stock, plus a few things that are always dependable and cheap; Sainsbury's for the staples (including crates of wine, duck breasts etc.); Waitrose for the posh bits. I don't know exactly how Lidl / Aldi gets its savings - presentation is an obvious one; things are still in the cardboard boxes with the fronts torn off - but it's not by selling things that are obviously poor quality.

(eta) Like blucanary said, you'd have thought the weight of the phone might be an issue. I couldn't find a convenient table, but Nokia phone specs are on their page there - the lightest I looked at was 80g and the heaviest 100g. (I only looked at a small sample). In a 150g bag of crisps, there could quite possibly still be enough crisps in it to hide the phone and look normal, even within the QA weight limits. 150g is a large bag, but this would hardly happen with a 30g individual pack anyway - you'd notice as soon as you picked it up. The larger bags are generally inflated with nitrogen so the phone's contours wouldn't show. Amazing that modern phones weigh significantly less than a packet of crisps, really.

As well as presentation, and spending less on advertising I believe Aldi /Lidl/Netto and the like source a lot of their product which is from suppliers/brands that are not recognised in the country of the store. Or possibly not recognised anywhere. It's good stuff, but no-one knows the company that made it.

It's actually surprising how much leverage supermarkets have. I've been at the supply end, where my companies were forced to sell stuff to supermarkets at a loss, because of the prestiege of saying "we sell to (I won't name the biggest supermarket bastards in the trade, but I loathe them) then every other supermarket says "You supply X company, we'll buy from you too.

In the same way, the discount stores will stock Monseur Le Petomain's (MLP) baked beans. They are as good as Heinz, but the MLP company hasn't got it's name out. So most of the premium retailes won't stock them. Lidl type stores get an amazing deal because MLP can't sell them elsewhere, and hope that enough will be sold, eaten and enjoyed by consumers that they will someday become a premiere brand