This has been a pretty good thread so far.
The only thing I'm thinking about now is that when you get one bad report about one place, then people say they will never go here or there or purchase that food again, how do we know other places aren't doing the exact same thing to save money.

In the end, it's all business and everyone is trying to rake in as much money as possible. Drop some food, wash it a bit, as long as it still looks sellable and doesn't kill anyone (most cases, doesn't even make people sick), then why dump it and waste a sale. Of course I don't support this and find it disgusting, but I'm pretty sure many many places we have been to or eat at do this. It only takes one bad staff to do it.

And just because a place is higher quality or have higher paid starff doesn't necessarily mean they will behave any better. In the end, it could be the actual boss that's saying, "wtf, just pick it up and wash it and its good to go." And no staff is gonna go against the boss' decision unless he wants to potentially lose his job over some customer he doesn't even know of.

There are some pretty bad extremes where you might get a really fked up car from the lot because some dink slammed the transmission around and the car lasts two weeks after leaving the lot, but then if your sportscar was being filled with regular octane prior to purchase, you may not have caught it on the test drive, and then once you own it and use up all the regular octane, you will never notice and then the dealer got away with saving some money. A bunch of you guys may have already been a victim, but obviously too late if you didn't catch it prior to purchase. And hard to prove anyway.

So, back to my point, I'm not supporting any of this stuff. I've never been in these "serve the customer" type work before, so I don't have any personal experience of watching what kinda crap goes on behind doors. But I've already long suspected things, and after reading this interesting thread, it just confirms a lot of my suspicion. But it's not gonna stop me from shopping at places, like Superstore for example, because I'm pretty sure it's the same thing going on at Save-On-Foods, or Safeway, etc. Like I said, it only takes one retard in the staff to mess things up, it could happen anywhere. I've been shopping at those places for a decade and I haven't been sick from those places directly, so I think it's okay.

Anyway, this thread is interesting. Keep the stories coming. :)

I've seen rats running around in the store.

nasty

Good to know, I guess I wont be taking my SE-R there for regular maintenance

LOL which department did he work in? cause his name sounds a bit familiar hah

the whole warehouse had issues with them (they're in a new one nowii believe) the sidney store had issues with them when we expanded, they all came from the pantry and the fish and chip place next door that got torn down.

QFT I've heard of farms losing their certification just from replacing a fencepost or two with pressure treated lumber. (your soil gets tested before and to maintain certification)

... you do realize that the main reason farmers use pesticides, growth hormones and other shit like that is to increase their profits?

I remember a TV series did a comparison on a few organic food vs non-organic food.

Test result was that, the organic food doesn't have much if any pesticides or chemical, but MILLIONS TIMES more bacterias on them.
The doctor and lab suggest the non-organic food is much safer for human consumption than its organic counterpart.

Farmer didn't use chemical or hormones just for profit, they use it to kill or repel insects and bacteria, and make the food taste better at a cheaper price.

^ thats the same one I saw, and was trying to referance but was too tired to remember.

You do realize farmers are in a business to make money and not do things for free?
To say the main reason farmers use pesticides and growth hormones to increase profits is like saying fire is hot, or cows go moo.
But do you know why farmers do this? Whenever an insect eats some of the leaves of a veggy, guess what? They throw it away. No retail store will sell that lettuce that has been eaten by bugs. Same thing, no consumer will buy a lettuce that has been eaten by bugs.

When you look back from a consumer point of view, it makes plenty of sense. Farmers try cross-breeding different varieties of vegetables to get the best of everything. For example, veggy A is very tasty but looks like crap and has a poor yeild. Veggy B looks good and has a good yeild but taste like crap. By cross breeding and taking the good parts, they can produce a veggy that looks good, taste good, and has good yeilds.
One example of this is the peaches and cream corn. White corn is the sweetest while people think of corn as being yellow.

As for the bacteria on the produce, this is why everything needs to be washed before being consumed. Produce is grown in the outdoors in soil, regardless if it is grown locally or in the US.

I just refuse to eat any veggies from China, but that's just me. :thumbsup:

not all stores did that. i worked at 2 different stores (transfer) and only once did i ever see the ice machine being cleaned out, and that was because we had a super neat freak who worked there (and i only ever saw her do it once).

ask for the pastries in the front of the case, they are usually the freshest. some pastries are said to be good for 3 days, they will be put at the back of the case to be sold first.

decaf drip coffee.. coffee is good for an hour since it's attached to a warmer, but some of the people who are lazy would let the decaf sit for 2 hours, rather than brewing another pot. the worst thing i saw was a girl who pour the 'expired' coffee into a metal pitcher and reheated the coffee using the steaming wands from the espresso bar.

oh yea, and be nice when it's 6am, not everyone is a morning person. i knew people who would give people decaf instead of caffeinated coffee and vice versa.

other than that, starbucks had some pretty strict rules with sanitation and food safety, the store i worked for anyway.

i also worked at a cell phn company call centre. customers seem to think that by yelling at us over they phone, they could get whatever they wanted. just remember, the nicer you are, the more willing csr's are to get the job done right and fast.

i know a few people who had some pretty irate customers. they would write down customer's personal info and do stuff to get back at those customers. one of my coworkers used to prank call the customer with those soundboards over and over again until the customer broke down and started begging for them to stop. the customer just about cried.

i also know a few people who had some nice customers and without the customer's knowledge, they gave them LOTS of discounts and a freebies on their account.

Do NOT, DO not, eat at Pink Pearl.

i need not give any reasons other than the fact that my buddy works for Orkin and has to visit that place twice a month.

EW EW EW EW EW. WTF. EW.

I thought he was there to eat some Har Gao's and Siu Mai's.

I worked at whitespot. triple o sauce was just mayo and some prepackaged relish, which they usually put wayyyy to much on, were talking 3 shots of mayo on the bottom with 2 scoops of relish and 2 shots on top....way too much. Everything there was basically pre made, and i never felt like it was anywhere near the quality of say cactus club or earls. Most of the employees where older east indian ladies some didnt know much english, and i wasent aloud a 2 week holiday after working there for 2 years. I hated working there, and if your thinking of applying dont bother. Oh ya and i only got paid 8.50, and trust me with all the stress and annyoing co- workers its not nearly work it.

- city workers do more work then you actually think
- garbage men will take bribes from anyone
- saying "i work for the city of [enter city name here], can you cut me a deal" in the city you say you work in,usually gets you 10-20% discount...small individual owned shops usually...ex..paint shops, hardware stores, deli's...

Yeah I know that and I know it's pretty obvious, but I was just pointing that out to the guy who made it sound like he thought that pesticides/etc. are used only to make the food healthier. The main benefit to consumers is that the food is going be cheaper and sometimes not spoil as quickly. I'm no organic food freak or anything, but if given the choice between beef that has or hasn't been injected with growth hormones, I'll choose the latter.

hey which one did you work at? the one I worked at had lots of old east indian ladies in the kitchen too lol

yumm crystal shrip dumplings


so I need toknow why not to eat at the pink pearl I've been really wanting to go there for some dim sum

After reading all the other crap in this thread, 2 hour old coffee bothers you? wtf?

Does he actually catch any vermin in their traps though? Not saying PP's the cleanest, but just because someone hires Orkin regularly, doesn't mean the place has a problem. For example, I know for a fact that Holt Renfrew downtown also has an Orkin guy come over regularly and set rat/insect traps everywhere in the back rooms, but the employee I talked to said it's more of a preventative thing.

do u even know the employee? if not he will obviously say that;)

is there a particular reason someone would bribe a garbage man to begin with...?
i mean it makes sense to bribe cops and other government officials, but what can you possibly need from a garbage man that warrants bribery?

^LOL i was wondering the same thing