3 minute read
Retail Randoms
by 55 North
BEFORE YOU GO
ONE FOOT IN THE KESGRAVE
It wasn’t that long ago – 3 November to be precise – that Tesco last graced Retail Randoms, when the public gave it pelters for displaying cardboard cutouts of fruit and veg in a failed bid to cover up empty shelves.
Now it’s getting clobbered once again, this time by the good people of Kesgrave which, we’re at great pains to point out, is a small town slightly to the right of Ipswich on the map.
Kesgravians were outraged to discover the supermarket giant had stuck up a huge poster proudly boasting it was “serving Ipwich’s shoppers a little better every day”.
Ms Marsh, a member of the Kesgrave Community Facebook group, asked: “Why does the new fascia at Kesgrave Tesco say serving Ipswich shoppers?”
“I don’t expect many people travel from Ipswich to do their weekly shop there,” she added, without offering any explanation as to why not.
Tesco, which must be used to this sort of thing by now, duly apologised and promised to update the offending artwork.
Between cardboard carrots and replacement posters, its printing supplier must be doing a roaring trade
THE COLD-BLOODED TRUTH
What with the Omicron coronavirus variant running rampant, the last thing beleaguered Britons – especially reptile owners – need is yet another reason to have to wash their hands.
But here we have one. The Food Standards Agency, along with every other public health watchdog under the feeble December sun, has warned of an outbreak of human salmonellosis linked to frozen mice used to feed snakes and other animals and birds.
The FSA is instructing those who have a supply of the affected frozen mice to return them to the place of purchase so they can be carefully disposed of. As well as the product recall, it advises everyone to wash their hands thoroughly with warm soapy water every time they handle and feed frozen mice to their pets.
This outbreak is a bit more of a slow burner than Omicron, with almost 900 cases of Salmonella poisoning occurring since the outbreak was first reported… in 2015.
The story raises a couple of questions. First, why has the FSA waited six years to issue a warning?
More importantly, given that snakes are incapable of maintaining a constant body temperature, isn’t feeding them frozen mice a bit cold-blooded?
