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Q: Was I wrong?
My first question.
The other day at Carrefour I watched the "butcher" throwing short ribs onto the stack. As one fell off onto the floor, he climbed out from behind the counter and proceeded to put it back in the stack. He saw that I was watching and he just didn't care. Maybe it was the way he smugly looked at me, as if daring me to do something about it, that got me to complain to the store manager. Should I have just walked away? Should I expect a foreign owned store to have non-Chinese standards?
10 years 51 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
What did the store manager say to your complaint.
I actually don't know if it is relevant to complain. I mean the hygiene standards are so low anyway that it would not change how I treat food in the process from raw to cooked, had I known it had been on the floor. There is probably almost 100% certainty that the shoes that has walked the part of the floor where the piece was dropped, has not long time before stepping there, stepped in droppings from cats, birds, dogs or people.
Scandinavian:
could someone slowly explain to me what is wrong with my answer since it gets two downvotes ?
GuilinRaf:
Dont worry about the thumbs down. Those are the wumaos who are punishing you for saying something remotely negative about the Middle Kingdom. Or it could be someone simply does not like you and downvotes you
Anyway, here is upvote no 3 to compensate!
wagon:
The manager said she would "look into it. " I could come back next week to find out the result. You know, typical Chinese non-responsive garbage.
Bring this up with the management. Carrefour has generally been a very clean place for me to shop. This kind of thing is unacceptable. If the management does nothing, bring it up with the foreign management.
If you want to give him another chance, don't demand that he's fired. Demand that the particular butcher stops doing that.
JustinF:
Sorry, but Carrefour isn't a clean place. Have you ever been there near the closing hours? There are mice running under shelves and cockroaches and black aphids in the dried grains and other bulk food in transparent boxes. The cockroaches were in a few stores in different cities in China. Look closely when you buy there, don't just blindly trust Carrefour and Walmart just because they are well-known brands.
Scandinavian:
I would say, CarreFour, compared to the others is just on par. In our town, I would say Jusco is a bit ahead.
Hulk:
CarreFour in your town may be unclean... but in my old town, it was squeaky clean. I've been there a few times during closing hours, since the wife and I wanted to find something to cook before everything closed.
Walmart was better than the one here as well. I guess experiences really do vary from store to store.
JustinF:
It's not just in my city. I've been to several Carrefours all over Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Tianjin, Wuhan. I am sure that you are already aware that :
-they spray bleach on the chicken breasts on display in the poultry section.
-they turn off the large seafood freezers at night and turn them back on in the morning, which would lead to serious bacterial growth.
-people pick up nuts (in the transparent containers), put them in the palm of their hand (full of bacteria) and put back the bits they don't want
-i saw the cockroaches and other bugs in several cities
-roasted meat that was unsold is put in plastic bags and reheated the next day
-kids peeing next to raw food stalls. I saw a lady in a Shanghai Carrefour who made her kid pee just under the meat stalls, used a tissue to wipe the kid and used that same tissue to wipe her fingers, threw that tissue on the floor and started to check pieces of meat with her bare hands
I think you seriously need to pay a closer look at hygiene in supermarkets like Carrefour or Walmart
No, you weren't wrong at all to complain. No, you shouldn't have just walked away. Good for you!
yes, you were right to complain. many people trust foreign supermarkets. the disgusting staff should not turn it in to a regular chinese shop. if they want be disguting when handling foods then they should go work in a chinese supermarket. you should also forward the complaint up the regional headquarters and the home office. the chinese mngr would probably just put on a show
Hulk:
Answer of the day.
Many foreign-owned supermarkets are popular because Chinese people expect them to be clean and safe. A good example is METRO. Have you ever been there? It's all about accountability and cleanliness.
I would have done the same. You can't be wrong about it. It's a public health seucrity issue. Anyway, only because dirtiness it's a culture in China, it doesn't mean you are wrong about something they are used with.. Not at all! You know, I doubt the manager told the butcher anything at all. What did the manager say, anyway?
Of course you were correct to point it out to the manager, such pressure only helps build better standards, but personally I treat all fresh foods like they've been sold to me off the arse-end of a flatulent rhino, I wash them thoroughly. When I was 19 I worked in Sainsbury's in North London, a supermarket known for its very high standards, but behind the scenes me and my mates would have slinging matches with slabs of meat and play football with cabbages, all moments before putting them on the shelves.
Purely from a food safety perspective, the risks associated with this incident are probably quite low. I presume the ribs are fresh, uncooked. Most consumers will wash and then prepare them.
There are undoubtedly much greater areas of concern related to the sale of open, prepared product such as cooked meat and chicken. In a Chinese retail environment, I bet most of the staff overlook the hygiene requirements and do not wash their hands before beginning work let alone applying bactericidal sanitizer.
There is, however, another issue. That is to do with standard working ethics. If people would not accept this kind of behaviour in their own homes, then it is unreasonable to expect them to accept this kind of behaviour from goods that they would choose to buy and consume. The retail manager should understand this and act upon it. His role is to promote sales on behalf of his employer.
So basically, you were perfectly justified in bringing the incident to his attention because it is his job to deal with it.
wagon:
"That is to do with standard working ethics"
This. Combined with the miserable customer service, sometimes you (I) just boil over.
Just do what you thought was best for you. If you thought the smug look made gave you an uncomfortable feeling than you did the right thing.
I have a bone to pick with Carrefour:
I never buy meat there, it's not pre-packed & I don't want to eat the meat which has been "felt" by many hands. Picking up meat chunks that fly in different directions while being chopped is a normal practice there.
I saw expensive salami which I was going to buy when I saw it was covered with mold. I told the salesperson, but she just put it back on the shelf.
I bought two coconuts & both were bad.
Trying to shop for fresh vegetables in the afternoon is a wild goose chase.
Scandinavian:
yes, you want to join the grandparents pre-lunch shopping team if you want something that can actually be eaten.
