Duh!

Good Lord, people are stupid!

Toronto Public Health has closed the Avenue Rd. and Lawrence location of upscale grocery store Pusateri’s due to poor sanitation and pest infestation.

Pusateri’s general manager John Mastroianni, however, said the store was closed for “general maintenance.”

“It’s not rodents,” Mastroianni said, repeatedly insisting that the issue was equipment related and “general maintenance.”

The inspection arose as a result of a public complaint, she said adding the pest infestation included rats as well as cockroaches.

“It was evident there was poor sanitary conditions and infestation of both rats and cockroaches,” she said.

A statement from Pusateri’s said staff hoped to have the store up and running again within a couple of days. In the meantime, their two other stores are still open for business.

“We regret that this situation has occurred and we want to ensure our loyal customers and friends that we are diligently working on rectifying this situation. We will continue to provide the high quality products and service that we are known for,” said Ida Pusateri, vice-president of Pusateri's Fine Foods.

The statement said a small portion of the storage area and walk-in coolers as well as "hard-to-reach and obscure locations" seem to have been infested by pests, which may have been missed as a result of human error during our ongoing routine maintenance.

Meanwhile, staff inside the store Thursday afternoon could be seen cleaning and scrubbing shelves, before returning the gourmet cookies and biscotti to their places.

Mastroianni said the store receives food shipments from hundreds of suppliers from all over the world and pest control is carried out regularly.  Mastrioanni said there was no issue with the store's food safety, and exterminators were going to work around the clock until the store is reinspected and reopened.  "We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers," he said.  Mastroianni said it was the first time a Pusateri's has been closed due to pests.

“I'm surprised,” said Rod, who would not give his last name and was planning to shop at Pusateri’s for the first time on Thursday afternoon. “It doesn't quite fit the image, does it?”

Sam, a regular Pusateri's customer, said he is going to think twice about shopping at the Avenue Rd. and Lawrence location.  

"It would be the last place I would expect this at," he said. "I'm shocked."

Good grief people...we share this planet with all manner of creatures.   Do you really believe that you can keep Mother Nature at bay all the time?  

How stupid.

Now...I am not one for insects and rodents crawling all over my food, but I do accept that they are going to be somewhere in the vicinity of me.

Let's not get overly precious here!