April 5, 2007

A little too natural

From the Kansas City Star:
Wild Oats closes for cleanup
The Wild Oats Natural Marketplace in Mission has voluntarily closed after a television news report found mice droppings in the grocery.

A spokeswoman for Wild Oats confirmed that the store at 5101 Johnson Drive temporarily closed Tuesday to make some “small renovations.”

“There’s just been some information out there that we needed to do some cleaning up,” said Krista Coleman, spokeswoman for the Boulder, Colo.-based chain.

She said the store would reopen as soon as it could make sure “things are safe and clean.”

Coleman acknowledged that there were claims about a rodent problem but declined to comment on their veracity.

Tipped off by a Wild Oats shopper, KCTV, Channel 5, took a hidden camera into the store and found mouse droppings in the baby food aisle.

Jay and Deena Malone of Mission alerted the television station after going to Wild Oats to shop for dog food on Saturday. They notified a store manager and later the television station, Jay Malone said.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture, which inspects grocery stores, responded to the television news report by sending an inspector to Wild Oats on Tuesday, said Lisa Taylor, the agency’s spokeswoman.

Taylor said she could not reveal the results of the latest inspection report because the matter is pending.

This week’s complaint about rodent droppings at the Wild Oats store in Mission wasn’t the first one, according to Agriculture Department records.

In September, the state inspected Wild Oats in response to a complaint about rodent droppings, records show.

At that time, inspectors found that the “rodent challenge” was being “dealt with professionally.”
Those aren't raisins in your bulk cerial... Posted by DaveH at April 5, 2007 10:57 AM
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