Smart pigeon latest pest to plague apologetic Woolworths
Woolworths has apologised for the pest problems revealed at some of its supermarkets after recent Herald reports highlighted rats, mice, and pigeons plaguing their stores, sparking food safety and hygiene concerns.
Four Woolworths supermarkets have made headlines in the past few weeks after rodents and birds were spotted in stores.
“We . . . apologise to our customers for the distress or inconvenience these reports may have caused,” the company said in a statement yesterday. “We take food safety and pest control seriously.
“Pests are a common challenge in food environments, especially in the warm summer months. While it is normal for them to attempt to enter food premises, it’s our responsibility to do everything possible to keep them out and remove them if they do.”
The issue was first revealed last month when a photograph of a rat sitting in the delicatessen at Dunedin South Countdown from November 2023 was published.
A store employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said “one or two” rats were first detected inside the store in October.
Since then, they had multiplied, leading to the store becoming “infested”, the employee said.
After the photograph was published, four rats were caught at the Dunedin store in three days. The store closed.
Pest controllers caught 13 rats at the supermarket the following weekend. The Ministry for Primary Industries recommended the store remain closed.
On February 7, a shopper at Christchurch’s Eastgate Countdown came forward with a video of a mouse in a salad at the delicatessen.
Both incidents prompted investigations by NZ Food Safety compliance officers from the Ministry of Primary Industries, as well as Woolworths.
Then Woolworths acknowledged a pigeon problem at its Grey Lynn supermarket in Auckland after a woman shared photographs of birds pecking at produce and roosting on shelves.
In the most recent example, a customer yesterday shared a photo of a pigeon eating from inside a nut and seed dispenser at Milford Woolworths, taken on February 1.
“It put its head inside the hole the whole way and began to push it, knowing that the nuts would eventually come out before eating it,” the customer said. “My mum thought it was disgusting, but the bird was pretty genius working out how to beat the system to reach the nuts. It knew how the dispenser worked.”
The customer said she had seen pigeons inside the Milford store a number of times and no longer wanted to buy nuts or seeds from the store not already packaged.
Woolworths New Zealand director of stores Jason Stockill said yesterday “recent events have highlighted that there are improvements we can make”.
“Supported by industry leaders in pest management, Rentokil, as well as NZ Food Safety, we have pest management plans in place in every one of our 194 stores across the country.
“However, what we have seen play out in the last couple of weeks is not acceptable to us or to our customers.”
He listed actions Woolworths was taking to make sure pest management processes were working, including senior leaders visiting all stores to remind teams of best practice.
“We are reviewing how we work with our pest control contractor, Rentokil, to ensure that pest management challenges are being appropriately escalated and addressed.”