More Updates (Shoprite)

Shoprite in the Oxford Street Mall has completed its attempt to do something about its fly problem. The plastic sheets covering the refrigerated shelves have been pulled down (that really did look awkward and I'm guessing was awkward for shoppers too) and the flies really are just roaming free (on the fruits, veges, in your face, etc.).

Shopping there really just makes me feel like I'm in some local open space market with flies flying on the food and in your face. Maybe that's the kind of feel Shoprite wants its shoppers to have (we are in Ghana after all). Well then in that case, feeling more than achieved (they just need a dumpster next to some of the food, maybe an open gutter too) and I'll complain till I'm blue in the face (not sure that's possible, I'm African and got skin to show for that) and nothing really will be done about it.

Thinking up a copy line for Shoprite (they just might need a different one for their Ghana shops). That should make sense, I'm supposed to have a Master's Degree in PR and Advertising (though the advertising bit seems to have fallen away somewhere. that's what happens when you don't practice what you learnt).

So here goes (after completing school how many years ago and not doing anything advertising related since)... Drum roll...
"Low prices, a local feel, the Shoprite way"
And I'm thinking for the television and print ads, when the "a local feel" bit comes up, pictures of flies and roaches can be shown. For the radio ad, the sound of flies and roaches can be played. Of course no one knows what the fly or the roach says, but if someone was able to figure out what the fox says, well, we can come up with what the roach and the fly say too.

So? Do I have a shot in the advertising industry?
If not, in my defense, I wasn't given a brief, "tweaa".

Updates (Shoprite)

No, I don't have a personal vendetta against Shoprite.
You know how people choose to ignore others who do wrong things because they just don't care about them and punish those they care about because they want them to learn and do the right thing?
I actually enjoy shopping at Shoprite (minus the cockroaches and flies of course). So, if the wrong thing keeps going on at Shoprite and I keep mum about it, that just means I gave up on them, realised they have no interest in changing their life and I have stopped shopping there.

Yes, I do still shop at Shoprite (that really is how I'm able to get pictures and stories etc.).
No, I don't go to Shoprite purposefully to snoop around. I go there to shop (I presume like everyone else there) and then I see something, so I write about it mainly because I want things to change not because I dislike the shop or the owners (don't even know who owns Shoprite).

So yesterday, after my post (way after my post), I had to get a bottle of wine so I headed on to Shoprite at the Oxford Street Mall. I enter the shop at about 2 minutes to 9pm (the shop closes at 9pm). I get my bottle of wine, I'm about to pay for it and then something catches my eye. Naturally I move to get a closer look. All the refrigerated shelves that stocked raw vegetables and yoghurt and other stuff I can't remember had been covered with plastic sheets from top to bottom. I had never seen anything of the sort ever. There were spaces in between the plastic sheets I guess so customers can reach to pick up stuff from the shelves. The covered shelves included the last picture I put up with the fly.

Of course I wanted to take a picture of this especially since I am not 100% sure my explanation makes total sense, but before I could get my camera (phone really) out, one security guard approached me and said I should hurry up and leave because the shop was closed (thought they were supposed to be patient and cater to all customers that make it in before closing time). As the guy wouldn't move until I made a move to pay for the bottle of wine in hand, I couldn't take any pictures :(

I am not absolutely sure what the plastic sheets are supposed to do, but I'm guessing to somehow protect the raw food from flies. How? I'm guessing again that the plastic sheets, which were actually very thick (I felt them) would keep most of the cold air in thus keeping flies out (I imagine flies dislike cold). Interestingly, I look to the regular shelves directly opposite the plastic sheet enclosed refrigerated shelves, and there sits a fly (at 9pm) on a tin of canned fruit.

So, yes, Shoprite in the Oxford Street Mall is doing something about its fly problem. As to how effective this something is, well...

Shoprite! Like Seriously?

Almost feel like adding "duh!" to that.
The shop I've been going on and on about for the last couple of weeks is Shoprite (for those who haven't already guessed). In Mightier Than The Sword II I go on about the Accra Mall branch of Shoprite being infested wit cockroaches and in Mightier Than The Sword III (this post comes with pictures too), it is about the Oxford Street Mall branch of Shoprite being invaded by flies. I have never been to the Weija branch of Shoprite (don't want to imagine what I'd find there).

Sometime last week, I visited Shoprite at the Oxford Street Mall and guess what? I had my very own personal shopper that stuck (literally) with me throughout my shopping experience at Shoprite. There were times my personal shopper hovered above me, other times my personal shopper led the way, but most of the time my personal shopper stuck to my shopping cart. Sad thing is my personal shopper was kind of camera shy and disappeared anytime I took my camera out. Interesting thing is there were other personal shoppers around (looking for clients I guess) and I managed to get one on camera before it disappeared.

Totally exhausted. Lemme catch 40 winks before getting back to work (if I'm able to catch some yoghurt too, all the better)

Seriously? Shoprite? You want your customers to shop while swotting flies too? Really? Maybe you should just relocate your shops to some stalls in any of our local markets (seems that will be more appropriate looking at the setting you want for your Ghana shops). Reminds me of this time when I was a kid. I wanted a box of cornflakes and my mum got some for me from a shop somewhere in Makola Market. She got back home and carefully opened the box because she kept hearing these curious sounds coming out of the box. Inside the box were two tiny mice that had drilled holes into the plastic bag containing the cornflakes. My mom carefully resealed the box with tape and returned it to the storekeeper the next morning. The storekeeper apologised and refunded my mum's money. Bottom line, one should not be surprised with such an encounter when shopping at Makola Market, but one should be very annoyed when having to encounter flies while shopping in a mall.

I just don't get it. Is it that flies don't exist in the originating country of Shoprite? In that case shouldn't Shoprite have conducted some market research before setting up shop in Ghana? Aren't their Ghana shops managed by Ghanaians who know the problems we have in Ghana?

There are so many food establishments on this same Oxford Street and you don't exactly see these being invaded by flies (unless the problem exits there too and it is very well hidden. in that case, bravo). How are these food outlets able to deal with this fly problem and why won't Shoprite manage theirs?

I have seen kenkey being sold by the roadside (by a gutter of course) where the fried fish is in a glass display case and in serving a customer, the kenkey seller inevitably lets a fly into the display case and closes it. Now, the fly is trapped in the display case with all that yummy fish.
Shoprite, don't be fooled by your many display cases where you keep your cooked food.

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but let there never be a time when we fail to protest".

Mightier Than The Sword III

In Mightier Than The Sword II, I mentioned how a foreign retail and fast food company in Ghana was infested with cockroaches. I also mentioned the company has three shops in Ghana with the latest barely a month old (now, it should be about two months old). I reported how for the love of consuming food that wasn't cockroach infested, I'd decided to ditch this shop and try out this company's new shop (hoping cockroaches hadn't yet discovered it).

To the best of my knowledge (and my ever curious eyes), cockroaches have not discovered the new shop (yet). The cockroaches got beaten to this discovery by the flies. Found this out two days before Christmas.

Flies around food really is no news in Ghana (not much of a big deal). It's something we see over here everyday especially since there appears to be this desire to sell and buy food next to open gutters. Thing is, when some of us do not have that desire and choose to walk into a shop (totally away from any gutter, open or otherwise) and spend good money there, we don't expect to get what we can get cheaper and more conveniently by the gutter (especially when the shop is located in a mall).

The other reason I am writing about this is, you should see this shop. It's got cleaners moving around all the time (I almost got knocked over by one cleaner who was in too much of a hurry to mop the floor right under my feet). One would definitely think if a fly made its way into this shop, their over zealous cleaners will spot it instantly and get rid of it before a curious shopper (yours truly) saw it. Interesting thing is, I stood by the display case (which I should add is refrigerated) for more than 10 minutes, taking pictures etc. and still no cleaner. Yes the fly looked immobilised (possibly by the cold) and I saw it next to covered food, but trust me, even if I had seen the fly next to packaged tissue, I'd still have been disgusted (who said it wasn't done with the open food anyways and was just taking a break cooling off). The sight of a fly (even though I am very Ghanaian) is not one I want to contend with. How is cholera spread again? And typhoid fever? And leprosy (yes, leprosy)? Flies are interesting like that and can carry parasites and diseases transferring them from one point to another. Show me an open gutter or a pile of rubbish, and I'll show you at least one fly.

Oh? Why are these sweet looking cakes covered? I could do with some dessert. Well, let me just cool off for now. Hearty lunch I just had - said the fly

I didn't do this in Mightier Than The Sword II, but I'll do it here.

Apple juice for me now, will have a bit of doughnut later - said the cockroach with a sweet tooth

I should add that two days before New Year's day, I went to the first shop (the cockroach infested one) and I did not spot a single cockroach (at least not in the part of the shop I was in). Hopefully a permanent solution has been found to that situation.
What's that saying again though? "Once bitten, twice..." (I am very shy).

Mightier Than The Sword II

A foreign retail and fast food company in Ghana was as at three weeks ago infested with cockroaches.

Three weeks ago because I haven't been to the shop in three weeks and I am trying to make this report as accurate as possible (just in case the situation has been contained).

A couple of months ago, I went into this shop (I shop there a lot. makes sense after all their tagline does boast of them having the lowest prices) to buy drinks. On the drinks aisle, I saw a couple of cockroaches on the shelves. For some reason I wrote this off. I guess mainly because I felt all the drinks are sealed (as if the Berlin Wall separates the drinks aisle from the cooked food).

A couple of weeks after that, again in the drinks aisle, I saw some cockroaches and wrote that off as well. The only thought I had in my head was "ewwwwww... yuck!". Then a week later, I'm buying apples in this shop and there, on the floor, I see some cockroaches. For some reason I think that's okay since the cockroaches weren't on the apples. Besides, in my head, apples can be washed before eating. Sad thing is the apples are not too far from the cooked food.

Three weeks ago, I walk into this same shop with a friend and he wants to check out the pastries. We move to the baked food section and my friend taps me on the shoulder and points at something. I look, and there, on what I'd like to call a doughnut (not sure exactly what it is) with chocolate topping was a cockroach frolicking in the chocolate. My first instinct was to scream "Cockroach! Cockroach!", but I didn't give in to my first instinct. Last thing I wanted was to start a panic and possibly a stampede (I could get hurt in that). So, I calmly call one of the attendants in the baked food section and I draw her attention to what I'd just seen. She takes the tray on which the cockroach was on out of the display case and I walk away. Too disgusted to get any pastries, my friend and I make our way to the drinks aisle where I tell another shop attendant what I'd just seen. He then goes like "Hmmmmm... These cockroaches. We sprayed the shop not too long ago too".
"What? You sprayed the shop with all the food in it? You sprayed the shop with everything still in it? What stopped the cockroaches from going to hide behind some appliance or inside some suitcase?" - that was me thinking inside my head.

My friend and I get our drinks and leave the shop. Outside the shop, we bump into another friend, tell her what we'd just seen, and she tells us how she bought two glass jars from this shop, gets home, takes them out of their packaging only for one to fall apart. Apparently it was so cracked and the only thing holding it together was its packaging. Then she tells us of how she once went into this same shop to buy cheese only for her to realise the type of cheese she wanted was mouldy (and this was early in the morning). She asks if I got pictures, and me of all people who likes to drive and take pictures had none.

I went back into the shop determined to get some pictures, and fortunately, I didn't have to make it all the way to the baked food section (I was still traumatised from the first time). I got on camera a cockroach snacking (I guess) on a bruised apple. Just to show the cockroach was not dead, I took a video, which shows the antennae of the cockroach moving periodically. I looked for and showed the pictures to a manager on duty in the shop at the time.

To anyone who thinks I'm making a big fuss about nothing, well...,
"Cockroaches are nocturnal insects. They prefer to live and feed in the dark, so a cockroach seen during the day is a possible sign of infestation". Mind you, this shop is very brightly lit and it even has air conditioning on all the time it's open.
"Aside the disgust felt at encountering cockroaches, they can trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks in humans. Cockroaches are capable of mechanically transmitting disease organisms such as the bacteria that cause food poisoning, and are known to spread 33 different kinds of bacteria, six parasitic worms and at least seven other kinds of human pathogens." "Cockroaches carry diseases such as salmonella and diphtheria and cause symptoms of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Cockroaches pose a risk to health as a matter of hygiene." - picked this from some websites.

This retail and fast food company sells cooked food, baked food, processed and packaged foods, kitchen ware, hardware, appliances, cosmetics, toiletry, toys and a variety of other things. The company does not originate from Ghana and I recently had the opportunity to visit the country this company originated from (this was after my discovery of the cockroach infestation). My curiosity (because I didn't buy anything there during my visit) had me visiting one of the shops in this originating country and I saw not a single cockroach (maybe cockroaches don't exist in that country).

The company I believe has three of its shops in Accra with the latest one barely a month old. I discovered the infestation in its very first shop set up in Ghana. I have since my last visit there three weeks ago not been to this particular shop. For love of my life, I chose last week to try out its less than a month old shop in Accra. I would much rather shop there until cockroaches discover there, then I'll move elsewhere. Hopefully, they don't transfer stuff from their first shop to this new one.

P.S. I left out the pictures. The story alone disgusts me enough without having to see the pictures. I deliberately left out the name of the company, but I'm sure anyone who knows it will get it from my description. The pictures will be too clear a giveaway of which company it is. I'm still thinking about whether or not to use them. For now, the pictures together with the video are in a safe place (almost sounds like I'm hiding something from the mafia :D).