Friday, July 13, 2007

Disgusting Restrooms -Unhelpful Employees - Burke Village Center Giant - Store #0757

Okay, we all know that public rest rooms are awful. However, my family had the worst, most disgusting experience at a grocery store. Giant Food in Burke VA on Burke Road and Burke Lake Road had the most disgusting restrooms I have witnessed in a long time.The ladies room had toilet paper and paper towels all over the floor. The floors looked like they had not been mopped in months. The handicap toilet was full of toilet paper and other stuff and the rests room smelled like urine and other things that had been sitting for months. This was the better of the two rest rooms. The men's room was another story completely. There was human feces on the floor in addition to other unidentifiable liquids. The feces had been noticeably stepped in and tracked out of the rest room into the food store.
Okay, so the restrooms were horrible and you would think that an employee of that store would be mortified and embarrassed that a customer would witness this...however, that was not the case. When we informed that service desk employee, Fatima, that the restrooms were horrible and described that scene, she said there was nothing she could do because the one who cleans the restrooms does not come in until the morning. This was 7 pm on Tuesday evening. I proceeded to raise my voice, purposefully, and say how "unhealthy it was to have that disgusting restroom in a grocery store where you sell food items...and employees have to use the same restroom then take care of my food items or stock shelves etc...it is so disgusting. Why not close the restrooms...make them out of order until they can be cleaned properly.
My poor husband had to take my 4 year old daughter (who was about to wet her pants) into that feces decorated men's room because the ladies room was being used by someone who obviously needed to sit for a while. If the ladies room had two functioning toilets it would have been better than the men's room...but unfortunately that was not the case.
Now, my question is...what is the issue here? Is it an employee who is too lazy to clean the restroom, too uneducated to realize that telling a customer that "there is nothing she can do" is maybe...BAD FOR BUSINESS...or is it a bigger issue all together...Giant Food used to be a great place to work (I worked there years ago) and shop (all my life)...however, it was taken over by a large company that is no longer located in the Washington Area and they keep cutting hours of the employees. Quality and Value that had made Giant THE grocery store of the Washington area, is being replaced with self checkout and excuses. There used to be service clerks who helped you put your bags in the car...that has been replaced by cart corrals in the parking lot and employees who are cart retrievers.
The personalism that Giant had spent 50 years building up in this area....is gone with the death of their president Israel Cohen...and the sale of the stocks of the company to a large corporation...it is a real shame.
I am offended by the unprofessionalism and lack of urgency by your associate about this completely disgusting issue. I have emailed my friends and family with the link to my blog so they will not shop at that Giant again...that Giant was also one of the stores featured in a recent newscast in the Washington area related to bad meat being returned by a customer, then placed back on the shelf for sale. Something needs to be done to solve these issues whether it is at the store level or higher.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK. It's off my shopping list.

Anonymous said...

Yikes, me too! I used to shop there all the time - no longer

Anonymous said...

That is unforgivable customer service! Thanks for the heads up (no pun intended). Yes, Giant has gone downhill since Ahold's takeover. Such a shame. Kings Park Giant always has manager trainees working. Rockville Giant (tax-free groceries!) continues to provide excellent service.

Anonymous said...

I worked in the Real Estate Department of Giant for 20 years and I am totally disgusted with this. Giant used to be a great place to work and shop, but that changed when Izzy retired. He expected the stores to be clean, the food to be fresh and the customers were always right. From what I have seen when visiting the Washington area this is not the case now. I'm very upset that my grandchildren had to be subjected to something so disgusting. I will probably never shop at a Giant Food store again.