Over 100 rodent droppings in one cooler alone is too many, says the Chicago Department of Public Heath… and so the Lincoln Park Whole Foods has been closed until the management can eliminate the infestation. Ick.
The Chicago Tribune says:
We have another walk-through tomorrow morning, and obviously we’re working around the clock,” Kate Klotz, Whole Foods’ Midwest regional public relations specialist, told The Stew on Thursday. Klotz said they hope to have the store re-opened by tomorrow afternoon but that’s not definite.
The inspection that resulted in the closing was a follow-up inspection. Inspectors found mouse feces all over the premises as well as a dead mouse on a glueboard trap.
Mice, supermarkets and food safety [Chicago Tribune](Thanks, Dena!)
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Most grocery stores actually have a rodent problem. With so much food in one small area, it’s like a smorgasbord for the little buggers. Also, very few WF locations have someone there with the lights on 24/7 which means plenty of time for the little buggers to explore.
My girlfriend is a supervisor at a Whole Foods and her store is tearing out their bulk food section because it’s like a giant “mice welcome” sign. They can’t use poison traps, and snap traps are just a bad idea with customers poking around. Part of my gf’s job is actually to clean the registers and she says that they always have to vacuum out mouse droppings because they’ll go in after little tiny bits and pieces that fall down through the scanner and the seams around it.
Of course, customers are flipping out that bulk is going, but I personally would rather buy it prepackaged than find out that isn’t a grain of fancy brown rice…
And I wonder what percentage of the people freaking out about this actually think to wash the lids of canned foods before they open them. You never know what bacteria is lurking on the OUTSIDE (which is suddenly inside when you use your crusty can opener and let the lid fall in).
Mice are pretty good at gnawing through most materials. Not much you can do about them getting in a grocery store. Mice and rats are determined enough to find any avenue of entry. Humans are really the only animal that gets easily discouraged.
The problem is Whole Foods being “organic” won’t use pesticides.
In Whole Foods defense they were organic free range rodent turds.
@psychocellochica:
I avoid bulk like the plague, same with salad bars. There are just too many fellow humans who have no concept of hygiene or proper food handling.
@MeredithK02: Well, I used to really like carob. Thanks…
@RabbitDinner: My cat would love nothing more than a few mice showing up. I think the stuffed ones are boring him a little. Still the idea of presenting me with a real dead rodent (as opposed to being presented with a stuffed not real rodent, which happens alot) is nothing something I really want.
@psychocellochica: Bulk bins are disgusting. In the town I did my undergrad in, there was a great little organic foods store. I LOVED the bins, until I saw a person eat out of it. Never again!
What I want to know, is what would the acceptable amount of rodent poo be, exactly?
@sleze69:
CARBON!? OH NO! NO MORE ORGANIC FOOD FOR ME, THINK OF MY CARBON FOOTPRINT!
@modenastradale:
[dictionary.reference.com]
organic
1517, “serving as an organ or instrument,” from L. organicus, from Gk. organikos “of or pertaining to an organ,” from organon “instrument” (see organ). Sense of “from organized living beings” is first recorded 1778 (earlier this sense was in organical, c.1450). Meaning “free from pesticides and fertilizers” first attested 1942.
See, “free from pesticides and fertilizers” cannot actually predate pesticides and fertilizers.
That’s a shame. I’ve been to this particular Whole Foods, and it was one of the nicer grocery stores I’ve been to. I think Chicago (like most cities?) has a tremendous rat problem so it doesn’t surprise me that they’re getting mice in the store. Having had a mouse problem in my home, it seems the only thing one can do, if not to use poison, is to plug up all possible mouse entry points (and those suckers are small!) and not leave any food out. Or, Whole Foods could try leaving a bunch of jar-and-coin traps around the store.
Whole Foods’ name is quite appropriate. Instead of one piece of rat shit, you get all of the rat shit. All 100+ pieces of it. Thus ‘All Foods’ would be a better name for the store but ‘Whole Foods’ sounds better. I wonder how many consultants it took to come up with that one! And by the way, waterboard the remaining rats!
I don’t know about other Whole Foods, but the one I go to (world headquarters in Austin, TX) is definitely very clean and very nice inside. Of course, it is the world headquarters, so it had better be clean and well managed :p
@A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: and you bought this pet on purpose?
@thelushie: our regular grocery store used to have a bulk bin section, the only thing I ever bought there was kitty litter, people always let their kids run around unsupervised and I just know their nasty little fingers were in the bin…
Its hilarious that this is Chicago’s flagship Whole Foods, the first one in the city. I was even in that plaza that day it first closed at the Best Buy next door buying a mini fridge. I passed by it and didnt even realize that it was closed! Oh man, I’d rather get my rat dropping-exposed food from the ethnic grocery store down the street!
I think it’s improved but the Whole Foods in Palatine, IL (northwest suburbs) used to have a seafood counter that I hated to walk past – stank of fish. I’m not sure what it was, but “fresh” wasn’t one of the terms I’d have applied.
This was the case for probably over a year; we never bought food in there anyway – just some kind of “natural” shampoo that my wife favored.
Poo is organic is it not? So what’s the problem??
I used to work at a Whole Foods and we had a mouse/rat problem as well. We used Mice Cubes (which are small clear humane traps) at our store, however — which are pathetically ineffective. They would release the rodents in some field away from the store, but when you have large quantities of food, mice and such are always going to be a problem. This is why all product is supposed to be stored with a decent clearance off the ground.
Oh, the nostalgia of zeroing out $20/lb cheese because some mouse had crawled into the case and gnawed halfway through the slice . . . Even though I saw personally the little teethmarks in the cheese, it never dissuaded me from buying it myself. I just made sure I wrapped up my own.
I can’t say that I’m a “fan” of Whole Foods, but I also don’t think that rodent problems are a unique syndrome of Whole Foodism or organic grocery stores.
. . . although Mice Cubes really are lame when there’s a big old hunk of cheese RIGHT THERE to munch on.
Ah, that branch is all full of yuppies anyway. Definitely the worst branch in all of Chicago, IMHO. Ashland and Belmont FTW-bulk herbs and spices kick ass.
It truth…I’d still rather eat rat shit all day that any of the weird toxic chemicals in your average hot pocket or mcgarbage gaudily packaged horrorshow. If you eat rat shit, you know it’s bad right away. Chemicals taste great when you eat them, but they build up gradually, and bam, down the line you find yourself diseased, bankrupt..and then dead. Like most Americans nowadays it seems.
Seriously, if you read around a little bit, you will realize that no human society in history has lived with as high a rate of chronic disease than we do. You don’t really know the meaning of “Whole Paycheck” until you get a hospital bill.
@timsgm1418: Well he was just so cute. And he doesn’t smell, so there’s that.
But they’re organic!
FRIDAY 11AM CDT. IS THIS LOCATION BACK OPEN AGAIN?
Bleh, shopped there a few times back in the day. Pardon me while I throw away my lunch.
@peggyhill:
Still closed ([www.chicagotribune.com]).
I worked in the food service industry for a major chain before doing an Internet business the last 12 years. I will tell you they screwed up. There is no manager who would let this happen under any circumstances. A plant or restaurant manager is accountable to a disaster like this, and the person in charge let this happen. You don’t even find one trace of a rat before you call in a company who will guarantee to fix it.
The person, the manager in charge, whoever it is there, let this go and let it happen. let me tell you a thing about the food service industry. 90 percent of restaurants fail within the first year, it takes five years of working for pennies on the dollar to make the initial investment back, typically five years on any place.
For them to allow rats in their business is the kiss of death for any food service establishment. To recover from a local business of being a rat farm will take years. This is something you cannot let go. If you do, you’re screwed.
Oprah is not amused.
I worked there for 5 years, ALWAYS had rats and mice they nibbled on the fancy cheese and deli food, beware of the bulk food section the mice eat through the bags. I saw quite a few roaches, the sewer would back up in the deli department a lot and fire exits blocked. Finally they got caught.Just think of all the money they lost!That is all they really care about anyway, PROFIT before all else. Truly is the “food hole”..
i worked there for 5 years always had mice eating the cheese and the mice would eat throught the bags of bulk products as well. The sewage would back up fairly regularly in the cheese, meat and deli departments.
Thats why it is the food hole..If only the customers could see the back areas sometime, just filthy!! Fire exits blocked!! Truly the classic FOOD HOLE!( Don’t believe their propaganda. They do not care about anything but money and making a profit.
@DePaulBlueDemon: they use regular pest control..nothing natural about it