Kalimac's corner

Warning: bizarre and grotesque.

Grotesque 1: At a large Asian supermarket in San Jose, pork meat was delivered to the store by piling it high, unwrapped, in shopping carts from the Costco across the street and rolling it in the front door during business hours. A customer snapped photos of this and caused a Facebook uproar.

Bizarre 1: This was covered more extensively (above) in the Washington Post a continent away than locally, although there is a link to a local paper online article about it.

Bizarre 2: The customer posted this on FB as a warning not to seat children in those shopping carts rather than as an issue in meat delivery, although she added that she would only buy packaged foods from this market.

Grotesque 2: I wouldn't buy fresh meat from them anyway. I've been in other San Jose area outlets of this particular Asian supermarket chain, and the first thing that struck me was the rancid stench that hits you as you walk in the door. Other Asian markets I've been in are not like that.

Bizarre 3: Neither the market nor the delivery company will take responsibility for this strange delivery method, though both are eager to blame the guys who pushed the carts, who were fired as soon as the news came out. However, I can easily imagine them being low-level grunts who were never trained in sanitary procedures and who were ordered to do this by supervisors who expected their instructions to be obeyed without objection. In which case the responsibility would hardly be theirs.

Grotesque 3: The market has said they've discarded the meat. But there's no suggestion that they would have done so if it hadn't become a public scandal. Nor is there anything about cleaning and disinfecting the shopping carts.