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| - Well, here it is 5 years after I wrote that glowing review of the "new" Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens. The store is definitely more expensive than others, but it was a particular incident that has me switching stores.
This past Spring I bought a bag of Carrousel green beans from them and when I got home and took some out to cook, I found a large sewing needle penetrating one bean at right angles. I describe it like that because it's hard to imagine it was accidental. Because it was so obvious, no one was hurt. Got in touch immediately with the manager of the store, who didn't sound terribly concerned but said he'd file a complaint with the packaging people.
Packaging people came about a month later to collect the now shrivelled little bean with its daggered heart. It was another 6 weeks until they got back to me with the lab report saying no harmful substances were on the needle. I guess I felt further relieved that not only did I escape a broken tooth and/or a tongue prick, but poisoning too.
Back to the Loblaws manager, who had dropped out of the scene since the complaint was made to the packing company, even though he was CC'd on all correspondence. I wrote and asked for an apology at the very least, since none had been offered at any point. Silence.
A company the size of Loblaws must realize that no offer of an apology for selling a product with a sharp needle embedded in it, no matter how accidental or inadvertent, is going to lose them a customer. And so it is. I've taken my $200 weekly food bill elsewhere, and had the pleasant surprise of finding their competitors are actually cheaper. And they might even apologize for such an egregious oversight were it to occur. Who knows?
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