Safeway playing it safe

Your friendly neighbourhood Canada Safeway is taking customer care one step further in light of the ever-expanding listeriosis outbreak and subsequent food recall.
The company’s stores have been diligently removing affected product from the shelves. But after the initial recall of only a few items, the list grew to 220 recalled products.
So to ensure their customers were aware of this fact, the company came up with a plan.
Owners of a Safeway Club card may receive an automated message phone call informing the consumer they have purchased a recalled item.
Based on the card purchases, Safeway tracked down effected shoppers and automated message phone calls have been made to people all over Canaada.
“We thought we should just be a little more pro-active,” explained David Ryzebol, the company’s vice-president of public affairs.
The theory is that as store staff scrambled to remove items listed in the second product recall, customers could likely have purchased these items while staff worked to remove them.
“We looked at data,” said Ryzebol explaining based on inventory and Safeway Club card records it was evident some of the recalled products had already been purchased.
“Just to be a little extra careful,” said Ryzebol, the pre-recorded message advises a recalled item has been purchased and should be either returned to the Safeway store at which it was purchased or thrown out.
Adding there are not a lot of people effected who will receive messages, Ryzebol said most people have been very appreciative of the extra courtesy provided by Safeway.
The situation with what has been a deadly listeriosis outbreak for some unfolds further by the day.
When asked what the potential cost of this recall to his company may be, Ryzebol hesitated to speculate.
He said only that, “This is probably the most expensive recall we’ve ever experienced.”
The listeriosis outbreak originated in a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.
There are 10 confirmed deaths caused by listeriosis in Ontario. Another seven deaths in Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and Saskatchewan are suspected to be related.
In addition to the deaths, there have been 26 confirmed cases of the outbreak in Canada and 14 other possible cases are under investigation.
Recalled items carry an establishment number of 97B.