Auckland woman’s groceries delivered with bites taken out of them, animal poo on bags

Auckland mum of three Jodi Ringo has complained to Woolworths over the state her groceries were delivered in. Photos / Jodi Ringo

An Auckland mum of three was “appalled” to see what appeared to be bite marks in her groceries and animal poo on the paper bags they were delivered in.

Jodi Ringo has been ordering her groceries from Woolworths’ Northwest branch in Westgate since she and her family moved from Hamilton to Waimauku in March this year and says that “almost every week”, many of the items in her delivery seem to be less than fresh.

“I have had bread and loaves expiring the day it’s been delivered, cracked eggs, brown and slimy green beans and grapes, dried and splitting courgettes, and a variety of rotten fruit,” she tells the Herald.

But this week brought “the last straw”, when she was shocked to find what she believes to be rodent bites in a loaf of Molenberg bread.

“My order arrived this morning and as usual I brought it all inside. As I was unpacking my groceries, I saw the bread that I had ordered had rips on the packaging,” she recalls.

“Looking closer, I saw that a big hole had been eaten out of the loaf by possibly a rodent of some sort. I also noticed that there was animal poo on the shopping bags. I was absolutely appalled.”

Ringo repacked the bags and put them back outside her front door.

She then called the NorthWest Woolworths branch and spoke to its manager, asking that someone return to collect the groceries, reporting the issue to the supermarket’s head office on their health and safety line, including the images.

Half an hour later, she received an email response from a spokesperson apologising for the inconvenience and offering her a $3 refund for the loaf of bread and $10 in compensation.

“I really expected more than an email response from them, especially considering all that is going on with the rodent issues they are currently having,” she says.

Ringo is a mum to three daughters and works from home as a self-employed software developer.

“It’s just crazy busy. So the minute I drop them off [at school], it’s come home and work until it’s time to pick them up. So I have to get delivery, I don’t have hours to drive all the way to the shop and then come all the way back every week.”

Bite marks could be seen in a loaf of bread delivered to Ringo's home. Photo / Jodi Ringo

Ringo says she typically orders her groceries on Monday evening and gets them delivered around 10.30am on Tuesday. Because she works from home, she brings them inside and unpacks them as soon as they’re delivered.

“I don’t know if it always comes from the Northwest one, but I assume it does because it’s from my closest [Woolworths],” she says.

“I specify, because you can add a note when you do an online order, I always say, ‘pick fruits and veg that aren’t rotten’. You assume that when people are picking stuff for you, they’re going to be picking things that they would pick themselves, but I don’t know - sometimes people don’t really care.

“I just think about how much other stuff I’ve ordered over these four months that I’ve been ordering - how much stuff has then been in contact with some other kind of rodent? And fresh produce that I feed my kids, you know, it’s just disappointing.”

Originally from South Africa, Ringo says, “Coming to New Zealand, you know, a first-world country, you don’t expect something like that. It’s disappointing - you think that you can trust the supermarkets to give you fresh, healthy food that you pay so much for.”

The mum of three has raised a separate case with the supermarket over the quality of her groceries, to which she is awaiting a response.

Ringo says she regularly receives rotten fruit and vegetables in her supermarket order. Photo / Jodi Ringo

She says she will now “definitely” get her groceries elsewhere. “It sucks because I’m used to all of the brands and stuff that I got from Woolworths.

“I cannot take that risk again just now. What if my kids get sick? You hear stories like this all the time.”

A spokesperson for Woolworths New Zealand told the Herald they could not comment on individual cases as pest management was part of their standard business operations.

“We’re sorry to hear about this customer’s experience and are glad our store team were able to help resolve it for them.

“Pests are something that every food business has to manage and we take that responsibility seriously. Every one of our stores has a comprehensive pest management programme and we work with Rentokil to implement them.”

In February this year, several Woolworths branches made headlines for their pest problems, when the Herald’s reporting revealed rats, mice and pigeons had been spotted in stores around the country.

In April, a mouse was spotted in the cereal aisle in Woolworths’ Pukekohe South store, leaving one customer feeling as if “she was gonna be sick”.