the worst thing I've EVER seen in a supermarket

[grasswire]

I'm going to name names here! Yuck-o!

At the Oak Grove Fred Meyer (Kroger) in Milwaukie Oregon. At the fish counter.

Two whole "fresh" salmon laid out on ice. So old that the skin was shriveled in great folds, obviously separated from the flesh underneath. So old that the head end was starting to dry up with decay.

I noticed them on Tuesday with disgust. And when I went back on Saturday, they were STILL THERE! Offensive and stinky! I could smell ammonia from ten feet away.

I asked to speak to the store manager. I pointed them out and said I didn't think they reflected well on the store.

Gah! I can't get that horrible sight out of my mind.

What's the worst thing you've seen in a supermarket?

[Callalily]

1. I was at the deli counter

waiting for my turn. You know, law states that they must wear gloves when handling food, and the counter person certainly was in compliance. Well, the counter person just finished with a patron and it was my turn, and as she was walking over to me she took her hands to the back of her neck and stroked her neck. No attempt to change her gloves.

I just walked away.

[Lorien]

9. I saw one sneeze into her gloves and not change them

[Orrex]

33. That's why that law is stupid

The gloves get every bit as filthy as their hands, but with the added illusion of sanitation because, you know, they're gloves.

I love the ones who blow into the gloves to open them and make them easier to slide onto their hands.


I'm not complaining about this from an outsider's perspective, either; I worked in food service for about 15 years, so I know whereof I speak.

Yuck!

[cwydro]

2. I was standing at the checkout as my groceries were added up

and the bagger began DIGGING in his ear. OMG, I almost barfed.

[Roon]

3. A bin full of frozen sheep heads

You could see their open eyes and everything...very creepy.

[progressoid]

29. Sheep heads halved

In a market in Spain. Apparently for those on a budget. Or if you're just going to make half the recipe only need half a head.

edit: Actually I'm not sure they were sheep heads. Could have been goats I suppose.

[targetpractice]

4. My first part-time job in 1981 was working in the meat dept at a supermarket...

I quit for ethical reasons, because of things I was asked to do.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

5. Live in Germany

full on pigs heads, baby pigs dead as door nails lying in the butchers counter, dead ducks hanging from hooks, sheep and pig
lungs, marinated in liquid, lots of tongue of all four footed animals. I've never seen any eyeballs. Why not?

[Petrushka]

6. That's one for the Health Department inspector!

[grasswire]

8. yeah, I intend to call the health dept

....because other fish filets in the same case are turning brown. Brown white fish! Something's very wrong there. No other store in this chain has this problem.

[tigereye]

25. sounds like they either know nothing about fish, or don't care...

[MountainLaurel]

7. Store in Natchez, MS

There was a display of pork rinds larger than the entire produce department. It probably was about 20 feet long.

[baldguy]

10. You need a Wegmans

http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Catego...

They didn't clean it up special for the photos. That's what it looks like every day!

[TommyO]

11. I was lucky enough to live near a Wegmans for many years

Now, I'm about 31 miles away from the closest Wegmans (Ocean, NJ), and I make the trip just to get there. I load the cooler up with ice packs, and make sure I have plenty of reusable bags before making the trip!

Edited to add: Yes, the meat, seafood, prepared foods, and other service counters are that good looking!

[TommyO]

12. Hmm, Wegmans just happens to have a picture of the store I used to shop at

Bethlehem, PA

[Hawkeye-X]

34. I liked Wegman's in Rochester NY

When I was a student there...

[hedgehog]

15. Now I don't feel so bad about driving 15 miles to Wegman's!

I fill up the cart in the produce and organic section. BTW - does your Wegman's have Hartmann's old world sausage yet?

http://www.hartmannssausage.com/home.asp

[TommyO]

27. I don't know if they have them, I'll check next time

Any recommendations?

[HopeHoops]

14. We got a Wegmans about two years ago. I've been in there twice.

I have no use for a store where you need a fucking tram to get from the produce to the dairy section. It takes WAY too long to shop in there.

I live within walking distance of a Giant - same problem. Plus, both are more expensive than my local family-owned grocery store and it has a better selection! Instead of wide swaths of the same product, the small store has a bunch of DIFFERENT products in a fraction of the space.

Part of the problem, at least with Giant, is that they really don't sell any products - they sell space. I've had this discussion with the manager at Giant. If a vendor is willing to pay more for a space on the shelves, it doesn't matter how popular the other product had been - out it goes and in comes the new. That's where they make their money. They really don't care how much of the product moves. Kind of a sick business model, but apparently it works.

[grasswire]

17. ah, very interesting

Because the profit margin is so low on groceries, it's more profitable to sell shelf space to suppliers!

Got it.

That's why my protests when something disappears mean nothing to them.

[HopeHoops]

18. Exactly. Who needs six feet of Cheerios on the shelf?

It isn't about the products. The last time I was in Giant, I found six brands of hot sauce and ten brands of BBQ sauce. My family-owned store has at least 25 brands of hot sauce and about 20 brands of BBQ sauce - in FAR LESS SPACE! What good does it do to have six columns of the same variety of Tabasco when one will do? It is all about what the vendors are willing to pay for shelf space at the big box stores, and sadly, Wegman's has become one. Giant has been for many years, as has Safeway.

[Wapsie B]

19. And those shelving fees, slotting fees, whatever the market calls them these days is where

the real money is at. That's why you can work as a manager at a Fareway store in Podunk, Iowa and make 200-250k a year easy.

[HopeHoops]

20. SLOTTING FEES! YES! Thank you - THAT's what they are called!

I'd forgotten the term. I think "shelving fees" makes more sense, but hey, I didn't come up with the term.

[Bombero1956]

13. Halloween candy

and Halloween costume crap on August 23rd. What the hell is the damn rush?

[Patiod]

16. Fell in a puddle of.....(sniff, sniff)....vodka?

So I'm shopping after work, wearing a skirt and moderate heels. Slipped in a puddle in front of the meat department, landed on my ass with my leg underneath me.

Fortunately, I was okay, but before I could even stand up, they were there with a questionnaire, trying to get me to absolve the store of any liability. As they were going through the questions, I realized that the puddle was VODKA. From my position, I could see a broken bottle under one of the freezer cases.

"I think that's your problem," I said, pointing to the broken bottle under the case.

"It is yours?"

"No, it's not mine! I didn't even see it until I slipped and fell in it". I stood up, told them they were probably going to be safe, because a) I'm okay and b) if I'm not okay, I have decent health insurance.

But I suggested they mop up the vodka before someone who is either greedy or uninsured comes along, falls, and REALLY hurts themself. And I told them that if the police stopped me on the way home and ran me in because my clothes reeked of vodka, I was calling them up and getting them to bail me out of jail.

[Deep13]

21. Besides the customers?

When I was in college I worked at a grocery store deli counter. We were selling this balogna that was exceptionally low quality. It was usually 70 cents a pound, but that week it was on sale for 90 cents/lb. Yeah, you read it right. Anyway, the stuff was so greasy and disgusting that we were using slices of it to stick the signs on the wall. Every week, the deli manager drew signs to attach to the wall behind the counter with that week's sale items. Usually we used tape. That week, we used the balogna. One customer asked me if the stuff was any good and I said, "It's holding the signs up." She chuckled, so I took down a sign an showed her.

[dembotoz]

22. my first job was taking inventory-primarily in food stores

you would have to count all the cans and pull down the facing and count stuff.

You would not believe what was in the back--swollen cans, boxes that had been there 2 label changes ago....
bags with holes in them.....

fun job
did not last real long

[AngryOldDem]

23. Green/gray meat...

...at Kroger.

[deoxyribonuclease]

24. Rotting durians

The smell is indescribably horrible.

[Arkansas Granny]

28. UGH! They smell bad enough when they are fresh. I can't imagine what they must smell like rotting.

[tigereye]

26. selling mostly moldy strawberries for 4 dollars a pack, I guess

Another good reason to buy local and not stuff that has to sit in the truck for days.

[LibDemAlways]

30. I once accidentally backed into a pig's head sticking out of

the meat counter. Jumped several feet in the air when I realized what the hell I had done.

[astral]

31. We had a Fred Meyer here . . .

(well, I guess we still do) and I was starting to like dropping by the soup bar and getting the plain ol' canned chili b/c it was nice and hot and a little spicy, and they had REAL SOUR CREAM and REAL RAW CHOPPED ONIONS there to put on top! Now that's a nice instant meal, for me!

Well, one day I dropped in and there were no onions in the onion bowl and the sour cream looked like it had been kinda left there and forgotten for awhile . . . . and I go to that store regularly out of habit, so day by day I saw the same bowl of what used to be sour cream sit there uncovered and harden and crack and just . . . . well, continue to SIT there.

For over seven days, I swear, and finally they took it away. But no more sour cream and onions were ever put out again to have with the nice canned chili.

! >> sigh << !

[wickerwoman]

32. In the US:

Rat tracks in the dust on top of a peanut butter lid.

In China (the premier league of disgusting supermarkets):

Buying a live eel and having the vendor kill it by whacking it on the (filthy) floor and stepping on its head.

[tabbycat31]

35. a rat running across the floor

[PJPhreak]

36. This...

Nuff said.

[montanto]

37. Cockroaches walking on prepared food

in a heated case.

After I had eaten.

Some of that food.

[TrogL]

38. A whole pallet of cartons of moldy Mandarin oranges

People were picking through the cartons looking for the one or two good oranges.