One thing I miss constantly about the Southern land of Canada is the never ending supply of fresh produce. This was a long, hard winter filled with withered peppers, rubbery, half rotted potatoes, tomatoes, you name it, it wasn’t so fresh. I know a few people who have worked in grocery stores and I am pretty sure that most of the fresh produce on the shelves at YK groceries stores would have been pitched in the bin in other groceries in Canada. Like the trooper that I am, I dealt with this, cutting off the mouldy bits, throwing out much more produce than I ever had before in my life as everything seemed to go from “OK looking” to “inedible” in 2 days of being in the fridge. I get it, I live in the North and I obviously cannot expect to purchase the same level of quality produce that I would expect to readily purchase a 12 hour drive south of here. Ok. Fine.
Recently, with the closure of the MacKenzie River crossing, the selection and quality at the grocery stores here in town has really gone from bad to worse. In the past few weeks, I have purchased bad chicken, bad milk and cheese in addition to the usual half rotted and withered fruits and veg. While I couldn’t do anything about the chicken or milk, when my nice $12 chunk of Gouda turned to white fuzz after one week in my fridge, my hubby very nicely returned it to Co op for me. This was the third package of expensive-ish cheese that I was going to have to trash that had been purchased in the past few months.
Interestingly, the deli produce manager was present at the customer service counter when it was being returned. When she noticed what Hubby was returning, she was apparently horrified but aware of “this problem”. Oh. OK. She further elaborated that some of their fromage comes pre-packaged but others come in wheels which they have to slice themselves. This is where the problem begins. Their packaging system involves wrapping the hunk on cheese in plastic wrap and heat sealing it shut with a heat gun. The heat of the gun triggers mould production in the cheese and they end up losing about 1/3rd of the cheese from every wheel they package.
Now, I am not a scientist, nor do I pretend to be one on the weekends, however, that just doesn’t seem normal to me. The first mystery which I cannot crack regarding this is, has the technology of vacuum sealing not come to Yellowknife yet? Why do they continue to heat seal this product when they clearly are losing revenue by subjecting the cheese to a detrimental heat sealing process? The second issue I have with this is, do they not understand the nature of mould on food? Yes, you see the mould on the surface of the item, however it also has little mould roots that reach down through the food item. To safely eliminate bad mould from cheese, it is recommended that 2 centimeters be cut off from around the fuzz. Obviously this packaging process is triggering mould production and I think they need to stop doing this!
So, the deli manager nicely suggested that we “go see her” when we go to the deli section at Co op from now on and she will “get us some good stuff”.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think this is an acceptable practice? Cause, I am not feeling that it is so great. I would like to see the grocers in this town step up and start improving practices to better their service and products for this community!
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5 comments:
I totally understand, as we get our groceries from Yellowknife, and I'm sure that they send us their crap...so you can imagine what it looks like when it gets to us!!! I don't think it is acceptable at all, there should be no reason at all that we can not get good quality produce/meat etc. but the standards just aren't there...unfortunately, it does become one of those 'living in the north' things you just put up with! But I tell you, it makes grocery shopping a whole new fun experience when you go back down south!!!!
Natalie, this is a perfect example of the "southern culture."
The first issue "southerners" have with life in Yk is the lack of customer service. Once they get customer service, the problem then is the quality of the products. Once those two "needs?/wants?" are fulfilled, the "need?/want?" then becomes consistency.
The reality is that it is not in Yk's capacity to fulfill those needs/wants. Unlike a high densely populated area, there is not a large pool of employess to pick from, nor a multitude of suppliers who are located in the next town. So getting things to Yk takes more time.
So Yk lacks in quality and consistency, not because they won't do that for their customer, but rather because they can't. Customer service on the other hand is a normal part of doing business and it is clear to me that Yk won't strive for that. How sad is that?
So where does the hot gun fit into all this? I don't know. My guess is the manager does not realize what's going on or know how to fix it. Like I said, there isn't a big pool of employees to pick from. Sometimes, simply getting to on time daily gets you the top job.
I find that the best way to get things my way is to speak to the decision maker. Usually that person is the owner or store manager.
Anyhow...thanks for the tip about not buying cheese from that store.
Lindsay, Oh the things we do for our hubbies, eh? Let's hope our next postings are somewhere very much South of 60!
Jason, That is an award winning reply! You as usual are right on the money. I really do understand and was prepared for the lack of fresh produce however this whole stupid cheese thing just blows my mind. They are aware of the problem and instead of fixing it, they keep doing the same old thing. Hm, I just may write a letter to their manager! I would definitely avoid any cheeses that have saran like wrapping, those products have been package in store.
Hey Natalie,
I asked some people at work about their cheesy experience. They have the same prob. Their solution? Buy Kraft cheese.
Wow, thanks for that update. I purchased the same types of cheese from Extra Foods, it was vacuum sealed and I have had no problems at all.
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