EDITOR – This morning some of my clients and family told me they had no water; some of them live in Primrose and some in Bedfordview.
We called around to see where we could buy water to help out and for our own consumption.
I called Food Lovers Market and I spoke to Harry. I told him we needed 30 of their 5L purified water, Ozone Water of Life. He told us to collect the water at 11am. We called and booked another 30 bottles with Mallisa.
My fiance, Danny, arrived at Food Lovers Market early and he saw that the in-store purified water tanks were empty. Then he saw them bringing bottles from the back. He asked if they had another purifying tank in the back they said yes. Danny then went to see where the water was coming from and found a lady filling up bottles from a tap.
He confronted the manager, who told him he had no idea that his staff was doing that. I then called Miguel, who sold eight, 5L bottles at R10 each and a 30x 500ml at R1 each. He apologised for the inconvenience and Danny left very angry.
Harry then called me and told me the lady was filling up the bottles for Food Lovers’ own use, and that the lady filling up the bottles had received a warning for giving the bottles to us. Yet, when Danny arrived and asked for the water we had ordered, the manager said his staff was busy with it.
I asked why they were putting labels on the bottles if it’s for their own consumption. He told me the bottles come with labels. As you can see from the photos taken by my fiance, there is a roll of Ozone Water of Life labels lying on the plastic bottles.
I was told I could go get the water we had paid for tested, to check that it’s purified and what else do we want them to do? I told them it’s immoral and false advertising to sell water that said it’s purified when they are just filling it up from a tap. We took photos of the area where the bottles were being filled and it was not hygienic because there was a fly catcher hanging above the tap. It was dirty and there was rotten veg all over.
This is a store that makes a lot of money from the residents in the surrounding area and this is how they value and treat their customers. I find this disgusting and disputable. Plus they should be helping the community that supports them in their time of need, yet they take advantage of the situation. Unbelievable!
MARIA AND DANNY.
EDITOR’S COMMENT– Ms Mirella Gastaldi, the spokesperson for Food Lover’s Market, commented as follows:
After looking into the matter with the franchise at Stoneridge, we can confirm the following:
Mr Alex Panayi, the store manager, has confirmed that the store does not have a water purifying tank in the back area. The Food Lover’s Market staff member in question was quite confused with what the customer was asking as he [the customer] was quite upset at the time. In fact, she did not confirm that there was a purified water tank or source in the back area of the store. We strongly suspect this was a misunderstanding and, thus, a miscommunication on the part of the staff member who was feeling pressured at the time.
Food Lover’s Market Stoneridge uses the unpurified water from the outside taps to facilitate the water requirements for departments in the store, in the event of water cuts or shortages, which the store had experienced the day before.
These include back of house areas, as well as in-store departments. We use the same containers used at the purified water stations as a vessel to transport the water around the store to the various areas and this is done by the security staff. However, water from purification tanks is placed immediately from tank to floor for sale.
The water in the purified water tanks is normal tap water that has been through a reverse osmosis process. The water comes from a tap in the back-up area of the store by way of pipes and is forced through a filter at high pressure (the reverse osmosis process). The filter is kept in the back-up areas of the stores. Once it has been through the reverse osmosis process, the water then moves through a pipe system into the water tank on the store floor.
All 5-litre containers are labelled to save time, should we have an influx of customers requesting purified water. Rolls of labels are always accompanied with these bottles as they work in tandom – once again, for efficiency. However, it’s a waste of label usage when using these containers for front or back of houses purposes. For this reason, the staff member was attempting to take off the stickers and place it back on roll.
We would also like to confirm that the store manager on duty had explained to the customer that the water he was sold was definitely from the in-store water tank and the tanks were empty due to the water cuts experienced by the Stoneridge centre the day before. Further to that, the store manager offered for him to take the water and have it tested to allay any concerns he had. The customer then decided to purchase the water.
We are disappointed that the customer had a negative experience at one of our stores but would like to confirm that our process of dealing with the purified water tanks are separate to that of the in-store water usage. For health and safety reasons, customers are not permitted in our back of house or receiving areas. We have addressed this with the store manager as well as any shortcomings in maintaining a cleaner back of house.
