the whistleblower undercover in supermarkets

joannemc3

i will NEVER buy from the meat , deli or fish counters again urghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

joannemc3

oh or the ready meals again !!!!!!!!!!!!

SnowyOwl_2

I work in a supermarket, normally on the tills. However one morning when it wasn't busy I was sent to work in the bakery. Unfortunately I had a stinking streaming cold - runny nose, sore throat, coughing and a lot of sneezing. I told my own manager I thought it a bad idea to go to bakery but she said "it doesn't matter". When I got there the assistant (not the manager) tasked me with putting jam into the fresh donuts, and then sugaring them. I again said that I had a terrible cold and was sneezing etc, but she insisted I got on with the job. I couldn't control my sneezing though took care to move away from the donuts, sugar and jam and continually washed my hands. However I must have processed at least 200 donuts and put them in their boxes to be sold to the public. Eventually the dept manager sought me out and told me to go to grocery (handling boxes of cornflakes, ie still food but wrapped) as the baker had heard/seen me sneezing and told the manager what was going on. I really did try to take responsiblity for my illness and avoid fresh food but I was coerced into handling it when I was clearly unwell. BTW I would have gone home but the policy is that the first three days of any illness are unpaid, so stuff that I wasn't going to lose pay....

A practice that makes me want to puke is that when some staff members are loading the fridges they will stand on the fridge edge to reach higher shelves. I know everything in the fridges is wrapped but I'm sorry in my opinion that is besides the point and standing on the fridge edges is just plain dirty! The employer doesn't have enough of the proper things to stand on, and often we have to stand on crates, which again have food loaded into them.

Things on the reduced shelf sometimes have their "sell by" dates covered over. Usually it's boxed chocolate or tins rather than fresh things but it's a deliberate attempt to mislead the customer. The reason for such goings on is that the manager is trying to cut down on his department's losses. Staff are under pressure to cut down on items being reduced or thrown away.

The employer can't seem to recognise that "zero loss" will mean corners being cut and big compromises being made by managers.

Can you tell I've had a crap day at work, lol!?!

There's worse, but am too scared to tell ya!

bizzylizzy

Just watching it now - we will never buy another ready meal again! YUCK!!!!

(Just seen the bit with the loos in the ready meal factory, disgusting, and the workers weren't washing their hands or changing their boots - walking on wee/poo in the loos and then going back onto factory floor. Did you see the bucket going from floor into the sauce?)

It's getting worse I can't look- rats, maggots, mice etc. Horrible!

It's home cooking from now on, luckily OH is watching too so there won't be any arguments from him!

joannemc3

snowy owl

---

please tell all !!!!!!!!! hahahahah

RDA

I'm sure we've all seen the Tesco and Sainsbury employee meticulously checking through shelves of fresh produce and re-pricing those which are coming up to their sell-by date.

On occasions, I have seen dozens of packets of re-priced meat in the reduced price section of my local Tesco.

Is this the behaviour of an organisation that cuts the end of a piece of overdue beef ?

I think not.

They've got an awful lot to answer for, but this one just doesn't smell right. Oops.

System

MrJudi is a commerical electrician. He does refits for all the major supermarkets and what ive seen on this programme doesnt suprise me..... he has been telling me about it for years.

Ticklemouse

I once had a temporary job in a large Tesco, working on the chilled counters. I was meticulous about removing out of date stuff and stock rotation. It was amazing how much I removed each night when the other 2 full timers plus the day staff never seemed to find it!!

And the 30 mins out of the fridge/freezer? That's a laugh. And not washing hands after going to the loo - common practise by some (not by me I hasten to add)

bizzylizzy

So, no more ready meals but what about meat? We don't have a local butcher so the supermarkets are the only place to buy it. Perhaps we'll have to become self-sufficient vegetarians!

zorber

Believe it, These practices are common especially the temp checks i have seen it all being done, dont think these are ones off they happen all the time, these are not isolated. its all to do with cost cutting.