City
Dupont & Christie Loblaws Closes Early, Remains Mum
On Saturday, a bunch of us got together to flavour trip on fresh lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, cherry tomatoes, and brussel sprouts. Then a crazy friend of mine gave me the most insane birthday cake ever. All of the above fruits & veggies and meat sins were purchased exclusively at the Loblaws at Dupont & Christie. I know... anyone who is silly enough (i.e self-disrespecting enough) to eat a cake made out of bacon and ground beef is asking for trouble. We joked to that effect. We ate. We enjoyed. All sixteen of us gluttons.
This evening a concerned reader named Scott gave us word that the very same Loblaws was abruptly shut down by Toronto Public Health (TPH) today. This is a grocery store that has passed 10 consecutive Dinesafe inspections. I decided to get in the car with my crazy friend and go check it out.
We and others were greeted by locked doors and an official TPH "closed" sign on the door, but nothing more. Nothing to indicate the reason for the closure, and nothing to ease my mind. That seems kind of unfair, and somewhat irresponsible.
"This establishment is closed by order of the Medical Officer of Health" reads the sign greeting surprised customers, who observe a flurry of activity beyond the glass. Workers are busy cleaning surfaces, mopping, and tossing food products into large, clear plastic bags (mostly fresh foods like baked goods). Everyone wants to know what's going on, but there's no indication. I want to know if my fifteen guests ate something bad or just something gross. Either way, it's disconcerting.
I motioned to a group of employees beyond the glass, appearing to be all winterized and prepared to go home. One employee pointed at the sign but none were willing to come out to speak or attempt to explain things any further. People continued to stop at the doors, many trying to understand why it was closed. Strangers talked about what it might be. An elderly man seemed to be certain it's roaches. No one knows.
We stick around for a couple of minutes, watching workers inside cleaning.
Searching Twitter finds paiige, who seems to support the theory that it was bugs of some sort, after seeing fumigation crews on the scene: "Loblaws at dupont and christie is, according to doorgirl "closed...i can't tell you why." um, the 4 Orkin trucks in parking lot say it all"
Should we be forced to speculate? Does the fact that there is no explanation from TPH mean that there's no threat of illness? Should Twitter REALLY be my best source of public health information right now?
UPDATE: January 27th, 2009, 10:05am.
I just spoke with store manager Lucia Mann. She was court, and brushed me off, telling me that she's "unable to say anything at this time" regarding the store closure. She told me to go to "prloblaws.ca" for information on the closure, but that domain/URL does not exist. Searching the Loblaw site for press releases yielded a press release page and a customer announcements page, neither of which contains mention of the Dupont and Christie store closure. The Loblaws site (note that there are a Loblaw AND Loblaws site) also has no information.
I called Loblaw's head office in Brampton and left a voicemail with their public relations department at 10:15am. Awaiting official explanation...
UPDATE: 11:19am:
Dinesafe has updated their page and the many infractions are now posted for public viewing. Included are crucial failures: to control rodents, to maintain proper refrigeration temperatures, and to prevent food contamination. They've also been hit with a bylaw infraction for failing to "produce valid food handler's certificate."
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The sign on the door is red, posted in plain sight and says CLOSED. Seems like an honest outfit to me.
Sarcasm aside, the Toronto Public Health website is a huge letdown. Why is it when I click on News Releases I get a rundown of their PR moves that amount to self-promotion? Where's the up to date list of places I shouldn't go or that are reopening.
Odd that real news sites can't seem cram enough horrifying tales into a single column but the public HEALTH website's news section contains absolutely nothing negative.
Curious to see what info is available from Dinesafe tomorrow. ;)
If it was something serious they would have shut down on the spot and booted everyone out.
The city's dine safe site shows this location has never had any issues in the past but the site hasn't been updated yet w/the latest inspection yet.
The counter being cleaned is one of the ones in the front by the door; it looks like the area where they prepare the pre-cooked food. The garbage being thrown out is by those new sketchy "pre-cooked" food counters in front of the Seafood counter.
If there is an infestation, it's most likely in those areas. This is pretty evident because the store has been testing a few models for that section over the past couple of months.
My guess, still waiting to be confirmed, is that the new counters between the fruit & the seafood counters weren't kept at the right refrigeration levels, which caused the relatively normal infestation to congregate there.
Anyway, if you look closely at the pictures, you'll see that the deli section isn't cleaned out, but the seafood counter is. While this is a serious issue, I'm not freaking out just yet and I bought food from the Seafood counter, which I ate last night, on Sunday.
I have a call into Joe Mihevc, my local counsellor (and the local counsellor for the store). I'll post any details I get from him when I get the call back.
After working in a grocery store for 10 years - one that was NEVER shut down - and seeing mice and bugs all over the place, I dread the thought of how bad this must have really been
Even worse - I went to the Sobey's along the street because the Lablaws was closed and the girl at the register said "Geez, they should close this place down too". That's reassuring!
I was also going after work for milk and bread and was about to step inside and then my bus came so I hopped on. I was very close to getting an inside scoop.
My co worker called 20 later to say it was closed down and people were inside and he wanted to know if I was in there. I was shocked!
so probably just rats or roaches or summin.
Here is what is listed on the dinesafe site:
http://www.toronto.ca/fooddisclosure/index.htm
INADEQUATE FOOD TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4C (40F) or colder.
FAILURE TO PROTECT FOOD FROM CONTAMINATION
Operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated
Operator fail to use proper procedure(s) to ensure food safety
IMPROPER MAINTENANCE / SANITATION OF NON-FOOD CONTACT SURFACES / EQUIPMENT
Operator fail to provide accurate indicating thermometer(s)
Operator fail to properly maintain rooms
Operator fail to properly wash surfaces in rooms
IMPROPER STORAGE / REMOVAL OF WASTE
Operator fail to properly remove solid waste
Operator fail to sanitize garbage containers as required
INADEQUATE PEST CONTROL
Operator fail to provide adequate pest control
CONDITION(S) FOR CLOSURE
Operator fail to prevent a rodent infestation
FAILURE TO ENSURE / PROVIDE FOR PROPER EMPLOYEE HYGIENE / HANDWASHING
Use basin other than for hand washing of employees O. Reg 562/90 Sec. 20(2)
BY-LAW #574-2000 INFRACTIONS
Fail to produce valid food handler's certificate - Muncipal Code Chapter 545 Sec. 5G(17)(c)
There you Go!
http://app.toronto.ca/food2/DineSafeMain?userRequest=view_history&;ESTABLISHMENT_ID=9009033
One way or another the reason it was closed will come out, but now Loblaws as a company has to explain the delay on top of it. All because someone at the managerial level can't figure out what to do.
If Loblaws is open again later this afternoon, I'll pop by and take a look.
The first rat I ever saw in Toronto was meandering down an aisle of the Lakeshore Loblaws, in the middle of the afternoon. A big feller, too.
I'm going to toss out anything I purchased that may have been affected by this so two peppers and some sliced deli meat. All in all about $6 loss to me.
Funny, I don't see any BlogTO reference. Perhaps another writer beat this one to the punch?
The thing I find most interesting is the failure to dispose of solid waste properly one, last couple times I've been in Loblaws there were PA announcements about the compactor being "open". Talked to a contact there who will remain nameless and they said this is a newish policy, implemented to curb "shrinkage" aka employee theft. Apparently it was an open secret that a lot of produce was going out the back door, and directly into restaurant kitchens and mom & pop vegetable stands/chinatown granny stands but it was difficult to prove anything since the claim would be made that "it was bad and we put it in the compactor" so now the compactor is only open certain hours, everything that goes is logged.
If I was you I would be more concerned about getting impregnated with roach eggs through osmosis.
...and no, I'm not affiliated with Loblaws or any food industry establishment, big or small...
If I recently bought some Porterhouses from the meat section, I'd like to know whether I should toss them (and the $30) into the garbage (or bring them back for a refund), or cook them up for my wife and two kids.
Yes, a mouse problem isn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but in a grocery store there could be other very serious things contaminating the food.
So, yes, people deserve the right to know if their porterhouses are contaminated with E-coli or if their lettuce was nibbled on by a furry little mouse, because only THEN can they decide that their food is safe to eat or that they have to throw $50 worth of groceries away.
Other shady things I noticed while working there:
-rotten meat on floors of cooler shared with hot meals dept. and organic milk dept.
-pigeons roaming/pooping freely in backroom
-dairy products sitting out of coolers for hours (due to space contraints and neglect)
-broken freezers left unchecked for days
-employees smoking in back room
-employees not washing hands when exiting washroom
maybe then you can all realize that if you walk two blocks south to fiesta, you dont have to support a "chain" that apparently no one likes and get a much better product
DUH
I have had many concerns about this store over the past few years, especially since they began making all of these changes to the store. An example would be the prepared food section in the front by the produce department. There are all of these horribly unappetizing looking foods out in the open and ready for purchase!?!
Over the past few weeks I have begun to buy my produce elsewhere because I really hadn't been impressed with the way they have it displayed now. This store's direction with respect to marketing and design have left me boggled for many months now. The closure of the store does not surprise me in the least.
Forgot to mention that I have my Advanced.fst certification which is more than can be said of the Loblaw's employees!!
For shame Torstar.
Oh this is too funny..and we shop there all the time. LOL
Complaint Reported.
Having been in this business for 25 years I am more than familiar with the ins and outs of the health department, but more importantly I know what has to be in place to run a clean & safe store. A "situation" that caused TPH to close the store did not develop over night, nor can you chalk it up to running s food store in the downtown area. I've been running a food store downtown for 25 years.
My big-picture concern as a consumer is corporate policy & oversight.
I will be taking my grocery dollars to Fiest Farms this weekend.
Shame on you loblaws... you guys knew all along and did nothing. What if someone got seriously sick? I think its time to get tough on the negligent companies that care only about the almighty dollar, and very little about the customer & their well-being.
http://micro.newswire.ca/release.cgi?rkey=1701273289&;view=62151-0&Start=0
As somebody said a few posts ago - of course "they" are mortified. Selling food to people is a very serious business. This store, though, has had major problems for a long time and the company is now reaping the rewards of its lack of oversight. Has anyone been to the No Frills at St. Clair & Oakwood recently? Good grief - it's one of the most disgusting food stores on the planet and has been for years. There are no plans to clean it up because supposedly the real estate is up for redevelopment. I've lived in the neighborhood for 14 years and it's been up for redevelopment as long as I've been around. And I'm only familiar with the stores that are in my neighborhood - multiply this by all the neighbourhoods in the city. Loblaw as a brand/chain has major explaining to do.
The St. Clair market became my main store as a result.
It's the reality of the business. It's not limited to this single Loblaw's store or the chain in general. If once mouse, or one roach was sufficient to shut down shop in this city, I would safely say a good 60-70% of the shops would be closed down.
Having worked in the industry, all I can say is WASH everything, peel everything else, don't go for anything in bulk, no prepared foods, careful with anything that is out in open air, check packaging for holes, check the corners of your chocolate wrappers, cook everything thoroughly...I can go on!!
Unless you raised it, fed it, killed it, cultivated it & prepared it yourself, you never really know what's in it and how many unwashed hands have touched it!
Take for insistence the holidays they are busy and give out a lot of hours. But, this is just to deal with the large volume of customers not cleaning. Come January, the hours are cut, bare minimum staff. Again, cleaning is not a priority. It never is. SALES ARE.
I know for a fact that the company and management knew there was a problem. They JUST DIDN'T WANT TO SPEND THE MONEY. It makes them look bad to the head office. Now they will be closed for several days and lose tens of thousands of dollars in sales and they deserve it. But after all of this media hype dies down, it will go back the way it was. You'll see. They haven't learned there lesson.
Oh...one person here mentioned that things were a mess during the renos last year. yeah they were. So much so that the crews left huge holes where the mice came in because on one gave a dame to supervise the work.
With regard to Loblaw store @ Dupont I bought cooked rice and bbq'd chicken legs at the Deli that is at the entrance on Friday night and had no stomach problems. I too have found that the store at times doesn't have enough stock on hand and would notify customer service or I'd ask for a rain check. I noticed the changes in the produce section and I dislike them. I thought the store was well-kept but I had no idea that mice and other vermin was in the store.
When my elderly mom fell in front of the fresh fish area due to a wet floor a staff person called repeatedly to inquire on how she was from head office. The store had also called an ambulance for her but she refused it and walked back home.
Over the past months the store has had odd hours because of renovations. Their sign stated they closed at 11 PM but they would boot you at 10.
After reading all the comments thus far I am appalled that a grocery store of the image caliber of Loblaw, and not No-Frills,
values penny-pinching rather than cleanliness. The vermin has been seen since early January and the staff were notified but it was not until TPH was notified that the store is now dealing with the public image and getting down to deal with the problem. When I notice a mouse in my house I set out glue traps until I catch it and dispose of it. The manager must be pretty incompetent to not have dealt with this when it was brought to the attention of customer service. Needless to say, I can't believe the staff at this Loblaw is blind and dumb.
When I visited the deli at the Sobey's at Shaw and Dupont two weeks ago I noticed a sewer smell and brought it to the attention of the server but she looked nonplussed. After reading about the vermin here I wonder what's up at that store's deli?
You need to pick up your phone and call public health on every place you know that's dirty.
Of course, doing nothing is easier - I recall seeing fruitflies at this location too when I visited sometime last fall - my last visit - and I didn't pick up any of the exposed baked goods after realizing the condition of the store. Not good to hear it got worse - glad they're putting a halt to it though!
I'd be curious to hear who has called in a comment on another store after realizing that the "huh, what was that" they saw is actually something worse.
City-wide health blitz!
1) Treatment of employees. Nobody that works in these stores cares about their job. They are treated like criminals and they get paid next to nothing. The pay issue is why there is a difference between urban stores and small town stores. $9 an hour means different things in Toronto than it does in lets say, Cobourg. Due to lack of job opportunities in smaller towns you might get some hard working people for that $9, and more importantly, those hard working people might stick around, work their way up the ladder and become hard working bosses that set good examples for the other works. In places like Toronto where jobs are plentiful (relatively), hard workers tend to jump ship much quicker when they are treated poorly. That means there tends to be high turnover where the only people who tend to stick around are the ones who couldn't care less about their job.
2) I'd be willing to bet that when regional and upper management sits down with store managers, the only thing they talk about are the numbers. The profits, the losses, the percentages, etc. When they go on store visits, I'd be willing to bet they're only looking to see how well the shelves are stocked and how busy the store seems. Otherwise I can't see how so many stores have skimped on cleanliness and overall quality. Or perhaps regional and upper management aren't even visiting stores. Conference calls perhaps? "Hey Bob, its Galen. Just wanted an update on this years numbers. Alright, okay, thanks, bye" Visit the damn stores and make sure they are up to quality and cleanliness standards. Especially now. Send out a memo to store managers stating that because of the recent closure of one of the stores, all stores will be visited and inspected thoroughly. You'd be surprised how much cleaner the stores get almost overnight.
These companies need to mouse proof their store every 4 months to prevent these type of situations from happening and not mouse proofing whenever they deem it necessary. So far no one has gotten sick yet from the fresh food and all food you are worried about, you can get a refund from these large corporations. People, these things happen, get it through your thick skull and stop being ignorant. Go cry to your boss next time you see a lot of bugs in your office in the Summer. Lets see if he or she will do anything and if he/she does, lets see if your company will do anything.
The last place I worked had a huge underground parking garage underneath with god knows what kind of creatures living in it. We had one mouse slip in through a loading bay door and it was dealt with <b>immediately</b>. And yes, it IS a neverending cycle. If you take away the traps and forget that there is a potential for mice to get in, then they WILL return. That is why it is so important to be vigilant about it.
Usually it comes down to a lack of concern on both the management and employees part. Beliving that it's a widespread problem that is unavoidable has a lot to do with it. It is most certainly avoidable and convincing yourself it isn't is only going to make things worse. Judging by the dinesafe report and the other problems listed on it, the employees most certainly aren't doing their job. Properly cleaning counters IS their job, properly storing food IS their job. All these things can attribute to vermin infestations.
Getting shut down like that is probably going to cost Loblaw's a lot more money than controlling the problem in the first place would have. In addition to dumping food, cleaning costs, extermination costs, and lost business from being shut down, they'll almost certainly lose customers to Sobey's and Fiesta Farms. Frankly, you should be angry at store management: it could end up costing the store jobs.
By the way, most rats and mice are nocturnal, so the ones that come out during the day are typically the weaker, smaller rats. Oh, and that you have a lot of them.
1) I went shopping there on Monday the 26th.
2) The place was open this morning (the 28th)
We are talking about the Loblaws on Dupont at Christie with the big old parking lot right?!?
Secondly, if you think that Whole Foods, especially one so close by, is immune to this sort of thing, you're only fooling yourself (at twice the cost, might I add).
Now of course I cannot explain the other issues in questions but you can see why the mice were abundant.
Anyway , this store will never be the same and I know the moral here and in other locations is gone and gone for good. Nice work ----. You should hold the right people accountable and I hope your stocks tank further.
<em>Editor's note: names have been removed from the above comment.</em>
-kate consumer