A B&M store in Gorton, UK has been closed down by health inspectors due to a reported rodent infestation. The discount shop has also been prevented from selling food products following its closure.
According to The Mirror UK, Manchester City Council asked customers to leave the store on June 30. Once the shop was cleared, the health inspectors ordered the staff to throw away food products from the stockroom, which is the alleged source of the infestation.
The mice infestation has been noticeable to the store workers, who have made a rather dark joke about the effects of the rodents on the food items.
"The staff joke about saying it's only a matter of time until somebody dies eating the food," one anonymous worker said. "Myself, I have personally seen food opened by the mice and eaten."
A spokesman for B&M made a statement on Manchester Evening News.
"We are co-operating fully with the Environmental Health who have identified an issue in the last 24 hours only," the spokesman said. "As a pre-cautionary measure, we regularly use third party pest control specialists and all previous reports in the last month did not identify any specific issues.
"We are taking immediate action with this isolated incident to provide further preventative pest control measures," he concluded.
The Gorton B&M store was reopened on July 1, however there were signs telling customers that the food items were not for sale for the next 24 hours. The order has been extended as the store continues to resolve the infestation problem.
Another B&M store was in the news last June. A CCTV camera caught a woman casually squatting to defecate in the clothing section, before covering up her feces and continuing to shop. The B&M staff called in the police, who are currently investigating the incident.
