Supermarket Issue

faolteam

I had an issue about a month ago , we were eating grapes that I bought and to the horror of one of the people there was a  small pen knife in the grapes open as they were eating the grapes ,

Im not sure how or why unless the store were using the knife to cut the grapes

l reported this to the store and was assured by the manager he would get back to me  took the barcode of the grapes over a month later of numerous times calling him  in and reporting to there Head office as these shops are for franchised out who said they were escalating it to the shop as I couldn’t get through on phone

The Shop in question has now become silent,
and really thought they would have got back apologized and left it at that even though this  could have been quite serious , which is very disappointing,

Do I report it now seems now it’s a health and safety issue or food standards authority be interested in your thoughts,

faolteam

..

MarkR

There was a pen knife in a bag of grapes? Was it a sealed bag? To be honest I'd think score, free pen knife. I suppose if he knife was open, someone could have been cut. You would always wash fruit like that before eating anyway.

In short, you were unhappy with an item sold to you. Are you looking for an exchange, or replacement?

faolteam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058425449/supermarket-issue

Ah the kids opened them up they were in a bag, it’s not the sort of thing now that should be really in a bag of anything, unless I’m wrong here, this is more now about the way the shop has gone silent.

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123853558#Comment_123853558

Please won’t someone think of the kids.

What do iou want from the shop?

Is it compensation for the risk?

Do you want them to say they did a deep investigation and have found the owner of the knife in the vineyard in France and had him flogged?

Do you want them to betg your forgiveness?

Doodah7

The thread smells of compo for the 'stress and trauma'. Your kids probably haven't slept since they opened the grapes with the horror. Probably has put them off grapes for life.

pickneary

In fairness folks the shop has not exactly been very cooperative here , the op bought these items, not a knife.

elperello

There was a "foreign body" in the bag of grapes.

The nature of the "foreign body" is immaterial.

It shouldn't be present in the bag of grapes end of story.

The store should offer an apology and perhaps some gesture like a voucher as compensation.

faolteam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123853707#Comment_123853707

God you must have a good nose,

It’s Amazing what replies you get here, never mentioned compo ,

Thanks Doodah7 , someone on the same wavelength ,just a simple apology would have been suffice but to not even get a reply, you live and learn.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123853878#Comment_123853878

Mention it on one of their social media platforms and they will respond fairly quick if you want an apology.

Orban6

Meanwhile there's a poor slave somewhere who's still wondering where he left his work penknife.

torrevieja

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123853893#Comment_123853893

Always one

Orban6

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123853945#Comment_123853945

Try counting.

MarkR

It's not worth the effort of chasing the store at this stage. If you want an emailed apology and probably a ten euro voucher, email the head office of the company with the details.

Deeec

Ok you are entitled to a refund and that's really all. Unless you actually believe that the shop put the penknife in the grapes on purpose - which is very unlikely. In all likelihood it came to their premises like that. There is no need for them to give you an apology or anything over above the refund.

Go to the shop get your refund and forget about it.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123853558#Comment_123853558

why not add in the "could have been a vulnerable old person" to the mix. - Sure why not?, it would allow you turn the "affected" rhetoric up by a dozen notches.

It was blade from the when they pick the grapes. Not ideal, but hell, crap happens from time to time. That's life.

Assuming you have basic parenting skills, the children that just so happened to open the bag (did the bag really need 2 or more children to open it?) would know the knife is not suitable for eating.

pickneary

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123860518#Comment_123860518

keyboard warriors have arrived 🥷🏽🥷🏽🥷🏽

Peregrinus

Do I report it now seems now it’s a health and safety issue or food standards authority be interested in your thoughts,

What has changed since the incident occurred? If it wasn't a health and safety issue when it happened, why has it since become one? If you didn't report to to food standards at the time, why would you report it now?

What you're pissed off about, not unreasonably, is poor customer service. When you reported the matter, the shop should have responded with "Really sorry, this shouldn't have happened. We do try our best to ensure the proper handling and packaging of the produce we sell, and we'll look into this and try to find out what went wrong. Here's a credit note for the cost of the grapes and, here, have this box of choccies".

But poor customer service is not a health and safety issue.

Yoshimi79

Maybe the pen knife was grape flavour

pjdarcy

No harm, no foul. Let it go, OP, and move on with your life.

oneweb

Fùcking hell, the obnoxiousness of some people who use boards these days, cranky muppets. How about if you've got nothing useful to say, just move on and fester in your own misery? Bunch of sour grapes.

Very simply, this is something that shouldn't have happened. Food safety standards exist for a reason, as do - thankfully - processes for reporting failures when they happen.

Regardless whether this happened at the vinyard, shipping process, warehouse, packing plant, distribution centre, store shelves, checkout or delivery driver stage, it's (as someone already pointed out) a foreign body in a food product.

The ultimate aim of reporting such an event isn't to make sure someone, somewhere gets a bollocking; it's to help make sure it doesn't happen again - ultimately that processes are improved up through the chain of supply - be that at a store manager or farmer. There is accountability at every level, even the end consumer, who in this case has reported the issue to the store. The store manager should then deal with it by - at the very least - acknowledging your concern. This doesn't have to be an admission of fault, but at least reassuring that it'll be looked into... and coming back with something like "no idea how that happened, we'll improve our processes" (even if they don't follow through on the latter).

Hopefully you've made note of the timeframes involved, have a photo of the item that was found - ideally as it was found (which often isn't possible; the vulnerability of who found it isn't really relevant), the product's packaging including batch number and best before/use by date, and kept copies & dates of emails/messages/letters/phone calls you've made.

Then lodge your concern with the Food Safety Authority. Add that you haven't received an acknowledgement/response from the retailer in a reasonable timeframe, and perhaps that you feel they haven't taken the occurrence seriously.

https://www.fsai.ie/makeitbetter

If all that comes out this is staff training in your local supermarket on the provision & use of approved knives/box cutters, that'll at least leave a less sharp taste in everyone's mouth.

magicbastarder

Many years ago (the guts of 40 or so) my mother found a blade in a sliced pan, from Johnson Mooney O'Brien. She reported it (probably to quinnsworth) and someone drove out from the bakery to apologise in person. I can't remember if there was any gift or similar.

It was one of the blades used to sliced the pans, which had broken.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123863032#Comment_123863032

methinks the keyboard warrior was in the first post.#

Minor issue - and not a need to whine on social media about it. Move on

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058425449/supermarket-issue

let it go!!!!

torrevieja

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123863203#Comment_123863203

Absolutely agree with you some obnoxiousness characters here , the op has every right to ask if u don’t like it don’t comment the op hasn’t mentioned anything in a while since.

mondeoman72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123863219#Comment_123863219

Many years ago you didnt have people suing for all sorts of crap. Now it's the wild west.

Orban6

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123863203#Comment_123863203

Total overreaction!

The offending item was found in the packaging, not the food, so no need to report it to the FSAI.

It can reasonably be presumed that the penknife got there in the packaging stage,

almost certainly in the country of origin, so not likely to be in the local supermarket.

So no need to expect that your local supermarket is going to train their staff in the "provision & use of approved knives/box cutters". (did you swallow a h&s manual?).

Down off that high horse now.

I agree that the supermarket should engage with the OP on this though.

John_Rambo

I had something similar last year. I called the company that made the products to give them a heads up and they sent a van out to collect it, they apologised, thanked us for alerting them to the problem, replaced the product and gave us a couple more for free. As @pjdarcy said, No harm, no foul, move on.

magicbastarder

that appears not to be overly similar in that they seemed to actually take it seriously and sent someone out to your house.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123866817#Comment_123866817

Yeah, better off contacting the producer and give them a heads up rather than the supermarket. The supermarket will most likely do nothing regarding the customer but use it as leverage against the supplier to extort cheaper prices.

endofrainbow

Those poor kids will be traumatised for life. Make sure you sue for pain and suffering in your law suit.