Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Sayonara salmonella

Josh and I are planning a dinner party this Friday night for the last night of Channukah. We're having the family and Lisa, Craig and the girls over. Anyways, we like to get things done early, so we did our shopping earlier in the week.

Tonight, as Josh was reading the Canadian Jewish News, he stumbled over this article and tore down the stairs. Lo and behold, we had THAT cream cheese with THAT date and THAT UPC code. We nearly plotzed.

We packed up the disease-ridden cream cheese in question with the newspaper article and went back to the grocery store. We went to the customer service counter and told them about the cream cheese. The clerk looked at the article, looked at the cream cheese and was about to ring it up. Umm, we don't want to BUY it, we wanted to return it.

We asked to see the manager. The clerk didn't want to exchange the cream cheese we had and give us new ones because we didn't have the bill.

The manager ambled down the stairs and we re-told the story. She told us that she knew about the cream cheese and that the story was actually out a little while ago. She then looked at us and said "Did you buy it here?"

It was REALLY tempting to say "no, we're part of a great cream cheese conspiracy and we walk around from grocery store to grocery store trying to return rancid cream cheese. You're onto us, lady!"

We told her that we bought it there and she said "ok, straight exchange". Fine, great. The clerk took the original cream cheese from us and was going to put it back on the shelf. The manager told her "no, it has to be destroyed".

So we went back to the shelf to pick up our new cream cheese and guess what we saw? An entire shelf full of the 'bad' cream cheese. SAME cream cheese, SAME date, SAME UPC code. We went back to the counter and told them that it was still sitting there and asked to see the manager again. This time we had to wait a few minutes because she was on the phone.

She didn't come down the stairs and Josh actually ended up talking to her on the phone. Josh told her that it was still sitting on the shelf and that she would "deal with it shortly".

Well, that wasn't good enough. I mean, we don't want anyone getting sick because of the manager's apathy or laziness.

We found the manager in charge of stocking the shelves. We showed him the article and pointed out the entire shelf of cream cheese. He told us that "it was a new shipment" and that even though it has the same date, it's not the affected product. He understood our worry and said "instead of making excuses, I'm going to personally take all of them off the shelf and call the company in the morning".

As we were talking to him, wouldn't you know that a clerk walked by with the two affected cream cheeses (from our fridge) and placed them back on the shelf. Oh yes, he did.

We didn't take the second manager at his word, seeing as what just took place. We stood there and watched them remove ALL the cream cheese in question.

So, what do you like with your salmonella-laced cream cheese?

7 comments:

Snowflowers Mum said...

that is TRULY disgusting and abhorent that they didn't think it was of extreme importance to remove the CC immediately! gugh.

Journeywoman said...

Good for you! That is so scary that the manager didn't yell at the people who were going to put out your cream cheese!

I thought America had cornered the market on chutzpah!

Anonymous said...

I would be done shopping there. End of story.

MeriAnne said...

Wow!!! That rates right up there with our Sizzler story. We went there for dinner one night and mid way though eating my salad from the salad bar I came across a very tough piece of lettuce when to my horror I discovered it was not lettuce, but rather a latex glove. We brought it to the attention of our server and then waited almost 40 minutes for the manager to come to our table. Oh wait, the manager only came after we sat there for 40 minutes not eating and demanded that we see him. His response was almost a horrifying as finding the glove. He could have cared less. Didn't even offer to refund the price of our meal. Needless to say we will never eat at any Sizzler again and I very carefully examine salad bars before eating.

Sam said...

I prefer mine with a toilet, a bucket and a lawsuit!

YIKES!!!!! I drive my family nuts because I ALWAYS check the dates on food - even at someone else's house! Yes, I'm rude, but alive.

Michele said...

That is pretty scary but disgusting. I'm wondering if they put it back on the shelf when you left. Maybe you should get the media involved in this one so this store is put on notice to do the right thing every time.

Air Fryer Recipes said...

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