Wht can we do about the flies at my store? Whenever I go on lunch I usually would buy my lunch from the deli. I went back to the deli and there were so many flies buzzing around the food. Some would land on the food but the employees dont care, they would just fan the flies away and keep serving. Same with bakery. We have a casing of bagels, muffins, donuts etc. and flies would get into the casings. We also have fruit flies really bad.
Avoid buying prepared unwrapped food from those departments until it is remedied.
The store manager and co managers should be told. Several times if need be. They are the only person that can do something about cleanliness and an exterminator if necessary. Are the departments close to the meat department, produce or an exterior door? They could be coming from a rotting piece of meat/fruit shoved under a shelf or table.
Fly traps look tacky to customers in my opinion.
Only problem is if you call the health department afterwards, you will be suspect as the snitch.
I avoid buying frozen foods from my store. I have seen the frozen pallets left on the floor too long for my taste while the stocker is running the register or wandering off and talking in other departments.
Our store's doughnut case used to have at least three wandering flies trapped inside the clear doors landing on all of the doughnuts, yuck! IDK what changed, but they're gone now.
Flies, gnats, moths, etc are all sanitation problems. U leave any sugar coated, over ripe, rotting, aged food out it will create an insect and rodent problem. Once u have the problem it will take a lot of cleaning and disinfecting to get rid of it. I'm talking total cleaning, sanitizing all cases, prep table , floors, and ESPECIALLY the drains! For you, your coworkers, and customers health you should contact your local Board of Health. They will come in and do an inspection and write up the health issues. This in turn will mandate that something is done and done fully/correctly. The mgmt looks at the deli and produce with a blind eye when it comes to issues like this because it would take a lot of manpower/hours to fix an issue like this..plus if the same working practices are continued then the issue will be right back. You will not be a Snitch , you will be a Whistleblower- so report it and lay low-in the long run everyone will benefit from your concern. Never tell anyone you did it because those that created the problem along with your snake mgmt will be mad it was exposed.It's the right thing to do.
Pester your store director about the pest problem. That's a sanitation issue if they decide not to do anything about it. We had a ton of flies in our backroom because of all the opened damaged goods that would be left back there. Our store director finally buckled down and got one of those electric fly zippers that zap them if they fly into the light. Barely any of those bastard flies flying back there now.
