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There's a news story in today's New York Times that sounds like it was taken from the pages of Les Miserables. In the Victor Hugo novel, Jean Valjean is jailed for stealing bread to feed his starving sister and her family.
Whole Foods fired an employee for misconduct when the employee, Ralph Reese, retrieved a tuna fish sandwich out of the trash. The story might not be as dramatic as Hugo's, but Reese is fighting the ruling with the same passion that Jean Valjean had for constantly escaping from prison.
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There are numerous causes of food poisoning from restaurants, however the most common are through improperly cooked, prepared or handled food. Bacterial food poisoning can cause the sufferer to become extremely ill or, in severe cases, can even cause death.
I also am boycotting wholefoods. We used to have a great local organic market here in a few locations. Then Hellfoods bought them out and they ruined it. Way less local organic produce, way less local products, less sales, higher prices, they took away customer appreciation day, they added more plastic disposable containers and they stopped buying produce from our local organic produce distributors, and instead are importing from US distributors. Arrgh!!
They also bring in US staff for the higher paid senior positions. Wages that would have gone to a Canadian now go to someone from the US. This is happening at all the stores that they took over here. It sucks. I can no longer shop there.
Sorry Tiger to hear about that. That is criminal and they should be sued for this. I will help you get the word out! NO MORE WHOLEFOODS shopping!!!! I really think they are a prejudice discriminatory store. If you are black or any other color I wouldn't set foot inside this store. Ever!!
Wholefoods detained me and my family and accused us of stealing, they searched me and my wife and kids and we were found innocent. Even on video camera there was no probable cause to support the false accusation. A huge embarrassing moment. The police refused to write a police report, so I called 911 to get another cop to come out and write it. The store cop arrested me for trespassing, but never, not once did he ever tell me to leave the property. I went to jail and am waiting to fight a criminal trespassing charge. Talk about covering up a crime scene. I will never shop at wholefoods again or buy anything from them and I will tell everyone to avoid this store. Please pass the word on...
Hey, how about firing the mgr., dept. head or team leader (whatever he or she is called) in the previous dept. where this person allowed this employee in question and I am sure many, many others to take home or eat or both, food discarded for sale to the public? Lets look up that person who was in violation and set the standard for this employee thinking this was fine to do, if his previous dept. head in the previous dept. allowed this conduct and said it was fine to do!!!
Wholefoods has a lot more to worry about than a headline about tuna sandwich, with the nationwide poor insurance plans they are now being offering to employees who have worked for them 5 yrs. or less. High deductibles like $1450.00 to $1600.00 a year, not for a family but one person. This is they way they have sought to cut corners because their expensive foods and prices are not doing so well in this poor economy. Punish the employees unlucky enough to be hired at the 5 yr. mark or less. God forbid they offer real sales weekly that compete with non organically grown foods or even their non organic food could be much more competitive with other food chains such as Trader Joes and the rest that are not organic at all or have very small organic depts. Nope, stick to the those working only for 5 yrs. or less.
Once again i must defend WFMI for the firing of the would be hero employee. It is a liability issue. The policy is clear and listed in a booklet that all employees have to acknowledge that they received before they can start work. That worthless customer would turn around and sue the company. Don't get me wrong I would like to see him in stocks in the parking lot, but the law suit could be far more expensive than a bag of groceries.
Whole Foods has got into trouble for firing employees before. About three months ago, a man snatched a women's purse in the parking lot and an employee ran him down and recovered the purse. Instead of patting him on the back, Whole Foods fired him for touching a customer.
Knowing how poor and salacious reporting is these days at most papers around the United States I imagine these are only half the facts if that much. People are hilarious when they make snap judgments about shopping at Whole Foods on this one case.
Sorry Faith, but the headline reads "retrieved a tuna fish sandwich out of the trash". Food businesses simply can't afford that kind of press.
Alright I admit that I didn't read the article, sorry I'm too busy. What I will say though is that I'm not going to blame Whole Foods as a company for having a policy that protects its business and customers. This case appears to be the result of very BAD management at one store. I happen to live in the real world, and sorry I don�t blame corporations for individual and isolated incompetence, unless of course it�s the CEO.
I should know better than to post comments/waste my time on blogs with inflammatory and inaccurate headlines. Lesson learned, good day.
Sorry Faith, but the headline reads "retrieved a tuna fish sandwich out of the trash". Food businesses simply can't afford that kind of press.
Alright I admit that I didn't read the article, sorry I'm too busy. What I will say though is that I'm not going to blame Whole Foods as a company for having a policy that protects its business and customers. This case appears to be the result of very BAD management at one store. I happen to live in the real world, and sorry I don�t blame corporations for individual and isolated incompetence, unless of course it�s the CEO.
I should know better than to post comments/waste my time on blogs with inflammatory and inaccurate headlines. Lesson learned, good day.
Yeah, I'm wondering how many people actually go and read the linked article when shit like this comes up for discussion. I took it to a message board I'm on after seeing it here, and the same kind of discussion popped up about the liability thing.
First off, the guy had worked there for TWO YEARS. And in his previous deparment, his supervisor allowed the employees to take home damaged product/eat damaged product. So in his new department, he sets aside one of 30 sandwiches he's told to throw away, and then when asked why he set it aside, he was honest and told the supervisor that he planned on eating it. The supervisor threw it in the trash in response. The guy did not then fish it out of the trash.
And he got fired 2 days later.
Yeeaaahhh...that makes sense. ::rolls eyes::
They had an ulterior motive to firing him. They didn't get away with it. I don't like them anymore because of this, and will be buying my buffalo from McGonigle's from now on, dammit.
Just to clarify, per the linked article the employee did NOT dig the sandwich out of the trash. He set a sandwich aside for himself before discarding the rest of the food, and he had done it plenty of times in the past for a different supervisor.
Don't get me wrong--I understand Whole Foods' policy here. I'm just saying at the very least he deserved a warning.
I have to agree with Jim. In the food business you've got to be cleaner than clean, and if your employees don't support that they've no business signing an employment contract with you. Would you be happy that you're baby dies of food poisoning just because an employee at your trusted super market thinks it's a good idea to root around in the bins? I support Whole Foods 100% on this approach, and wouldn�t shop there if they behaved differently.
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