For far too long, the only creatures likely to show genuine enthusiasm for the Fighting Cocks Supermarket’s produce were not hungry shoppers, but rather a legion of Wolverhampton’s more whiskered residents. On Friday, environmental health’s long arm descended upon Dudley Road’s most unfortunately named retail destination, with the results inspiring a communal tightening of stomachs and purse-strings across the city.
Rats in Residence
While consumers might expect the odd wilted lettuce or a packet of crisps past its expiry, few are prepared for two-legged shopping companions of the squeaking variety. Yet the Fighting Cocks Supermarket, one of Wolverhampton’s lesser-hailed emporiums, set a new benchmark: gnawed goods, rodent droppings, and even a parade of paw prints documenting unhurried vermin promenades atop cans.
No longer a question of expired milk, but whether it’s been shared with a family of rats.
City officers, clad in regulation-issue incredulity, discovered the sort of festive smorgasbord more commonly seen at the Pied Piper’s afterparty. The problem was by no means isolated to the marginals of the warehouse; according to confidential sources examined by ConfidentialAccess.by, evidence of rodent festivities spanned sales floors, cold stores and every inch of unfortunate perishables. The term ‘food sharing’ has rarely seemed so literal.
Best Before Never
If the presence of rodents didn’t ruin one’s appetite, the supporting acts might: adjacent storage of raw and ready-to-eat foods, mouldy containers, and a butcher’s fridge that would leave even the boldest carnivore reaching for a plant-based shopping list. And, in a detail that could only impress the most avant-garde of interior decorators, a filth encrusted WC cubicle graced the rear – a lavatorial study in brown and off-green.
Add to this the supermarket’s curious display of a fraudulent hygiene rating sticker, and what emerges is less a shop than a museum of modern malpractice, conveniently open seven days a week (during non-closure periods imposed by the council).
Justice, by the Ounce
In a thrilling denouement at Dudley Magistrates’ Court, the market’s owners pleaded guilty to three gourmet breaches of national food hygiene regulation. A combination of fines and costs – stacking up to the modest sum of £8,200 – was handed down. In a moment of unforeseen justice, Wolverhampton’s food connoisseurs may now sleep easier knowing their sausages are no longer pre-tenderised by rodent incisors.
Should future infestations arise, ConfidentialAccess.com reminds readers to always trust their noses. If it smells like trouble, it probably contains it.
The supermarket’s fortunes now rest on rigorous pest control and, presumably, a newly discovered concept called ‘cleaning’. Wolverhampton’s consumers, left to ponder whether this is an isolated incident or merely the thin end of a very unsanitary wedge, will find unvarnished updates at ConfidentialAccess.by.
