Walmart observations

[veteran+]

Argumentum ad hominem is not the greatest way to make a point.

Critique the Words not the Person is a better way.

Just a friendly suggestion

[ClownLoach]

No reason to act dumb with the cry face! Next time just make the FIRST post with ALL the information (rather than waiting until a couple days later) and it won't sound like you were making them waste a pound or more of product for one or two pieces that might have been contaminated!

What is going on with you and your tone lately?

It's not cool

I posted based on what this person said (that they went to a deli and made them throw out perfectly good food because they forgot to put down a piece of paper).

The way it was posted, it sounded like they were being forced to throw away an entire order of meat, for no good reason.

Then, later on he says oh, they only did three or four slices.

Then, when making another post to someone else adds what is above "take an inventory of how many slices are disposed of with a face that looks to be laughing/crying at the same time.

All I said was that IF the ORIGINAL post was made clear, this would never have been a problem, thus any issue is with the person who can't make thing clear to begin with, then things they should "laugh/cry" about the topic to others that have NOTHING to do with the issue.

I have no issue otherwise, nor with you, unless you also post something that makes no sense (which I didn't see)

This is going to descend into personal attacks, but here goes.

One of the things I'm working on personally is finishing my BA degree so I can escape from the retail industry. I am a few weeks away from graduation, which has been a tough journey.

Along the way, one of the most useful bits of advice I've been given by a professor is that I over communicate when I write. Less is more. Summary not specifics.

This is not a court of law, this is not a research project, this is a bulletin board. I'm not going to waste my time writing a twenty paragraph essay in minute detail for you. The relevance is the same, that they operate with unsanitary practices causing me to have to correct them and start over. That's the issue whether they threw away a little bit of the order, whole thing etc. is irrelevant because this was about the negligence of the store who obviously promotes employees without training them and puts them in charge of one of the most dangerous departments they could possibly be in, where raw chickens are loaded into the oven off the next table over from a meat slicer that they obviously don't know how to use or clean. A restaurant in San Diego had a food poisoning issue that apparently went on for at least a couple of weeks before being closed and aside from many people hospitalized one just passed away a couple of days ago; since the outbreak cannot be traced back to any one food consumed it is obvious that the root cause of the outbreak is sanitation. My sister went to a restaurant about ten years ago in Las Vegas that famously had the same issue and was shut down, but by sister was so sick that she nearly died and was in a hospital for nearly two months and lost her job, had to drop out of college, and basically lost everything because some idiot thought it would be fine to let untrained employees handle foods. Sure she got a meager insurance settlement but the damage is immeasurable and it was all due to the same circumstances of food poisoning caused by failure to sanitize and handle food properly instead of a contaminated ingredient.

So yeah, I take the issue pretty god damned seriously and I don't take well to the meaningless nitpicking of ancellary details that lack relevance. The food was contaminated and I refused to take it, and I shockingly had to coach an employee on how to safely use machinery based on the giant poster three feet away from the machine. Who cares how much was thrown out. The relevance is about the same as "well the car had a flat tire that was leaking slowly" and deciding it was relevant to go measure the air pressure. The tire is flat. Who cares about the air pressure. Same for you and measuring food waste.

[storewanderer]

I'll say it again anytime we see food prepared in a manner we are not comfortable with, we should not consume it, and should not pay for it. What the store does with it is the store's problem.

The store was supposed to properly train its employees. It didn't, so now it has extra food waste. And probably a ton of other extra food waste due to sloppy handling processes in the back prep area, poor rotation, not following preparation forecasts, etc. That lunchmeat throw away is a drop in the bucket to the amount of food waste that occurs in a deli with poorly trained staff.

[mjhale]

I was at one of the Walmart stores local to me this morning. It is a mid-sized Supercenter that was built as a relocation of a discount store that opened in the early 1990s. The store has a deli counter with display case and slicers. I wanted to see what the Dietz and Watson selection was, if any. They had about a dozen items. American cheese, swiss and a few different kinds of meat, mostly variations of turkey and chicken. What I found interesting was that the clerk at the deli counter would not fresh slice the Dietz and Watson American Cheese that I was looking to get even though they had a hunk of it in the case. She referred me to a coffin type cooler case that had pre-pack packages of each of the Dietz and Watson products that were in the case. These packages were obviously done off site as they were pre-sealed like a zip lock bag of pepperoni or sliced cheese in the dairy case would be packed. The cheese tasted fine. The price was about $1.00 less per pound than Safeway. I guess this is one way to reduce labor, training and the possibility of contamination if meat and cheese was cut in store. The coffin case did have some of the Prima Della items pre-packed as well. As I was leaving the deli area, I wondered why Walmart even has a deli counter if they aren't going to slice anything fresh. Maybe this was a one-off instance as I have had cheese sliced at the deli counter at a different area Walmart. Then again if Walmart just had pre-pack available and rotated as needed it might sell okay since you don't have to deal with any potential sanitation or other issues at the deli counter itself.

[storewanderer]

I was at one of the Walmart stores local to me this morning. It is a mid-sized Supercenter that was built as a relocation of a discount store that opened in the early 1990s. The store has a deli counter with display case and slicers. I wanted to see what the Dietz and Watson selection was, if any. They had about a dozen items. American cheese, swiss and a few different kinds of meat, mostly variations of turkey and chicken. What I found interesting was that the clerk at the deli counter would not fresh slice the Dietz and Watson American Cheese that I was looking to get even though they had a hunk of it in the case. She referred me to a coffin type cooler case that had pre-pack packages of each of the Dietz and Watson products that were in the case. These packages were obviously done off site as they were pre-sealed like a zip lock bag of pepperoni or sliced cheese in the dairy case would be packed. The cheese tasted fine. The price was about $1.00 less per pound than Safeway. I guess this is one way to reduce labor, training and the possibility of contamination if meat and cheese was cut in store. The coffin case did have some of the Prima Della items pre-packed as well. As I was leaving the deli area, I wondered why Walmart even has a deli counter if they aren't going to slice anything fresh. Maybe this was a one-off instance as I have had cheese sliced at the deli counter at a different area Walmart. Then again if Walmart just had pre-pack available and rotated as needed it might sell okay since you don't have to deal with any potential sanitation or other issues at the deli counter itself.

There is no Dietz & Watson in Wal Marts in my area but I have been watching people getting sliced to order lunchmeat at the locations here in recent weeks. I am curious if they do not slice cheese to order, I am going to look into that. That would be a stupid policy. I have been noticing some of the store delis look a lot better than others- full cases, etc. Others have cases that are only partially filled and just full of open spaces/gaps.

The pre-pack Prima Della is not sliced in the store.

[ClownLoach]

I was at one of the Walmart stores local to me this morning. It is a mid-sized Supercenter that was built as a relocation of a discount store that opened in the early 1990s. The store has a deli counter with display case and slicers. I wanted to see what the Dietz and Watson selection was, if any. They had about a dozen items. American cheese, swiss and a few different kinds of meat, mostly variations of turkey and chicken. What I found interesting was that the clerk at the deli counter would not fresh slice the Dietz and Watson American Cheese that I was looking to get even though they had a hunk of it in the case. She referred me to a coffin type cooler case that had pre-pack packages of each of the Dietz and Watson products that were in the case. These packages were obviously done off site as they were pre-sealed like a zip lock bag of pepperoni or sliced cheese in the dairy case would be packed. The cheese tasted fine. The price was about $1.00 less per pound than Safeway. I guess this is one way to reduce labor, training and the possibility of contamination if meat and cheese was cut in store. The coffin case did have some of the Prima Della items pre-packed as well. As I was leaving the deli area, I wondered why Walmart even has a deli counter if they aren't going to slice anything fresh. Maybe this was a one-off instance as I have had cheese sliced at the deli counter at a different area Walmart. Then again if Walmart just had pre-pack available and rotated as needed it might sell okay since you don't have to deal with any potential sanitation or other issues at the deli counter itself.

There is no Dietz & Watson in Wal Marts in my area but I have been watching people getting sliced to order lunchmeat at the locations here in recent weeks. I am curious if they do not slice cheese to order, I am going to look into that. That would be a stupid policy. I have been noticing some of the store delis look a lot better than others- full cases, etc. Others have cases that are only partially filled and just full of open spaces/gaps.

The pre-pack Prima Della is not sliced in the store.

Since the remodel completion (which isn't really complete), Walmart in Temecula has removed all Dietz and Watson product from the deli case. There are a few packaged salami and other such items left still but the line is otherwise no longer at their deli. It's all Prima Della and Sara Lee. Yeech. Other than that the store looks as good as it did Grand Opening a couple of months ago, really impressed with their standards despite how busy it is.

[storewanderer]

Since the remodel completion (which isn't really complete), Walmart in Temecula has removed all Dietz and Watson product from the deli case. There are a few packaged salami and other such items left still but the line is otherwise no longer at their deli. It's all Prima Della and Sara Lee. Yeech. Other than that the store looks as good as it did Grand Opening a couple of months ago, really impressed with their standards despite how busy it is.

That sure didn't take long.

Any idea why it got removed?

Doesn't Albertsons/Vons still handle D&W in SoCal? I wonder if they have an exclusive?

In AZ/Las Vegas Albertsons/Vons do not have D&W anymore. I don't understand why they quit carrying it in that division.

[ClownLoach]

Since the remodel completion (which isn't really complete), Walmart in Temecula has removed all Dietz and Watson product from the deli case. There are a few packaged salami and other such items left still but the line is otherwise no longer at their deli. It's all Prima Della and Sara Lee. Yeech. Other than that the store looks as good as it did Grand Opening a couple of months ago, really impressed with their standards despite how busy it is.

That sure didn't take long.

Any idea why it got removed?

Doesn't Albertsons/Vons still handle D&W in SoCal? I wonder if they have an exclusive?

In AZ/Las Vegas Albertsons/Vons do not have D&W anymore. I don't understand why they quit carrying it in that division.

Not sure. There was a deli worker with a line of customers so I didn't ask. The deli case looked so messy that I think it would have been more organized if one loaded it by throwing the meats and cheeses in from across the department blindfolded. I wouldn't eat anything out of that filthy case. This was odd since the rest of the store is still immaculate and very busy since the (majority of) the remodel was completed. If I was D&W and saw these conditions I would remove my product.

[ClownLoach]

Since the remodel completion (which isn't really complete), Walmart in Temecula has removed all Dietz and Watson product from the deli case. There are a few packaged salami and other such items left still but the line is otherwise no longer at their deli. It's all Prima Della and Sara Lee. Yeech. Other than that the store looks as good as it did Grand Opening a couple of months ago, really impressed with their standards despite how busy it is.

That sure didn't take long.

Any idea why it got removed?

Doesn't Albertsons/Vons still handle D&W in SoCal? I wonder if they have an exclusive?

In AZ/Las Vegas Albertsons/Vons do not have D&W anymore. I don't understand why they quit carrying it in that division.

Not sure. There was a deli worker with a line of customers so I didn't ask. The deli case looked so messy that I think it would have been more organized if one loaded it by throwing the meats and cheeses in from across the department blindfolded. I wouldn't eat anything out of that filthy case. This was odd since the rest of the store is still immaculate and very busy since the (majority of) the remodel was completed. If I was D&W and saw these conditions I would remove my product.

I do think they had the product long before the remodel happened.

[storewanderer]

Since the remodel completion (which isn't really complete), Walmart in Temecula has removed all Dietz and Watson product from the deli case. There are a few packaged salami and other such items left still but the line is otherwise no longer at their deli. It's all Prima Della and Sara Lee. Yeech. Other than that the store looks as good as it did Grand Opening a couple of months ago, really impressed with their standards despite how busy it is.

That sure didn't take long.

Any idea why it got removed?

Doesn't Albertsons/Vons still handle D&W in SoCal? I wonder if they have an exclusive?

In AZ/Las Vegas Albertsons/Vons do not have D&W anymore. I don't understand why they quit carrying it in that division.

Not sure. There was a deli worker with a line of customers so I didn't ask. The deli case looked so messy that I think it would have been more organized if one loaded it by throwing the meats and cheeses in from across the department blindfolded. I wouldn't eat anything out of that filthy case. This was odd since the rest of the store is still immaculate and very busy since the (majority of) the remodel was completed. If I was D&W and saw these conditions I would remove my product.

There are a couple of Wal Mart Delis in my area that look that way. There are others that look like any other supermarket deli. It is somewhat strange. I'm not interested in their standard lunchmeat but if they had D&W I'd buy from them. Their hot food area has a 1pc Chicken Strip/1 Side "snack" at a 2.48 price point or something that is an excellent value at this point in time.

I pulled the D&W locator up and the Wal Marts seem to just have limited prepack stuff there, like here. I see one Sprouts in Oceanside showing as having the D&W line. I also looked in AZ at the stores I saw it, and some show 8 SKUs which is more than typical but far from the full line. So I wonder if D&W service deli program is out the door at Wal Mart.

The D&W locator may not be entirely accurate because Corti Brothers in Sacramento has D&W (also has Boar's Head, Columbus, Molinari, and various in store made stuff) and isn't on the D&W locator. Unless it has disappeared from there in recent weeks too...