Warning: This post is thoroughly disgusting.
So tonight, L and I ran to KROGER to pick up a few things for dinner. L said she had to pee, so I took her to the bathroom, which is right beside the pharmacy. I stopped to get a drink at the drinking fountain and sent L on ahead to go pee.
A minute later, when I walked into the bathroom, I could tell right away something was terribly wrong. There was an overwhelming stench of poop that was pretty much unbearable. I assumed someone didn’t flush. Yuck.
I walked to the big stall to see if that was where L was. When I looked inside, it was bad. It took a minute for my brain to register what I was seeing. There was poop rubbed all over the seat and the outside of the toilet bowl. LOTS of poop.
Then I realized the mud that was tracked all over the floor of the bathroom was NOT MUD. It was poop. Smeared everywhere on the floor. I started to freak out and discovered L finishing peeing in the middle stall which did not seem to be covered with poop on the actual bowl, but had poop all over the floor. The final stall also had poop rubbed all over the outside of the toilet.
I grabbed L and carried her to the sink to wash her and douse her in hand sanitizer. Then I went out to tell the pharmacy people what I found.
Imagine my surprise when they told me they already knew. Four people knew about this horror (they even told me the woman who did it has very bad Alzheimers) and not ONE OF THEM could be bothered to, I dont’ know, PUT A SIGN ON THE DOOR or maybe stop me from taking my small CHILD into a SHIT COVERED NIGHTMARE!!!!
WHAT THE EFFF????
Since they were clearly not giving a shit (!), I made them call the manager who didn’t know anything about it, even though the pharmacy said they already called him. I made him go in and look and he came and apologized and headed back to the front of the store. Again, WITHOUT PUTTING UP A SIGN or anything to stop people from going in.
I walked away stunned. I wandered around the freezer section and then back to the front of the store. When I got there, the manager was standing there with maybe 10 employees JOKING about the poop. He had handed a teenage boy a roll of paper towels WITH NO GLOVES and told him to go clean it up.
It then occurred to me that I had probably tracked poop on my shoes all around the store while they were all still sitting there joking about the poop being spread all around the STORE WHERE I BUY FOOD. Not even caring that my SMALL CHILD was contaminated in unspeakable ways IN THEIR FOOD STORE.
I mentioned to the woman working at the desk that I probably tracked POOP all around the freezer section and was she going to decontaminated that somehow? She said, “Oh, we clean the store ever day.”
WHAT THE HELL.
Worthington Ohio Kroger, you are now christened the POOP KROGER.
And Manager man whose name began with J?? You should be ashamed of the way you handled that situation. Seriously. PEOPLE BUY FOOD THERE. POOP SMEARING is not a laughing matter!
Have you considered reporting them to your local health department? I’m sure they prepare food there (in the deli and bakery) and would fall under the health department’s jurisdiction because of that.
I second the vote to call the health department… That’s… I am horrified all the way from the far coast…
I am calling the Health Dept tomorrow. It also occurred to me that the kid they sent to clean it up (without gloves) was also a checker or bagger. Ewww.
The Crosswoods one? I like(d) that Kroger because it is small. Shit…literally.
The one by Wilson Bridge road. I always like that one because it seemed so shiny and clean. Oh, the irony…
Eeew! This is making me glad I shop at Giant Eagle. On the other side of town.
I’ve had to deal with the poop smeared bathroom as a retail employee. We always definitely wore gloves and used bleach on that sort of thing and we weren’t even selling food! That’s just really inappropriate all around. I hope the Health Department does something!
EEEWWW!!!! awful, yucky! Call the health department!
Ewwwwwwwwwww … I bet the district manager from Kroger would be interested to know about your ordeal — they love to yell at underlings.
I’m not much of a Kroger shopper, and this lovely tale ensures I will NEVER shop in one. Ever. Again. Gross. If you forget to call the health department, I’ll do it for you.
I just realized I used to live right where you are mentioning! I went to grad school in that giant school, and lived in an apt on Hard Road, between Columbus, Dublin and Worthington! Small world. And eeeeeck! That’s disgusting with the grocery store. Definitely report them. Yikes. Guess you’ll never go there to buy food again.
I almost stopped in there yesterday on my way home! Dang. I can’t shop there any longer. Makes me think this isn’t the first time this happened the way the situation was handled. sick!!
This is disgusting beyond words. Oh please do a follow up with what the health dept said.
Seriously, horrid!
OMFG. Please please please tell me you called Franklin County Health Department. That is completely horrifying. Surely there are laws about how to deal with human excrement.
Call their home office. I cannot imagine that they will be happy to hear about it. Also, if they have a person who regularly does this– they need to follow her when she comes to the store or tell her/her family she is no longer allowed.
Seriously?!
This is kind of ironic because this guy I know from California got kicked out of a Kroger a few weeks ago because the manager insisted that his guide dog was going to poop all over the store. Some staff training for Kroger employees is obviously needed on both counts.
You are much more patient than I would have been. I would have called the health department with the store manager watching. I would have taken videos of the mess and the clueless kid they sent to clean it up.
I wish I had taken photos. I recently read a book about how people process a crisis or trauma and I honestly think that was how my brain was reacting. I saw it and despite evidence to the contrary (smell, location, rubbed on toiletness) I tried to rationalize that it was mud. THen, once it occurred to me what it was, All I could think about was getting L’s hands washed and getting out of there. Then, after I talked to the manager, I wandered around the store kind of dazed (aka Milling). It is weird to think about it, like it all happened in slow motion. I wish I had taken pictures because I would send them to the news. Blech.
omg this is disgusting! Yes, please call the health dept!
Update? I can’t sleep at night. Please tell me they nuked the Kroger back to the studs.
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