Giant Food and the Baltimore City Health Department expect to meet Tuesday to discuss the mouse infestation that closed a North Baltimore store for several hours Friday, officials said.
The Giant store in the Rotunda in Hampden was back in business this weekend after health inspectors shut it down at about 3:30 p.m. Friday, when customers discovered mice in the store and called the city?s 311 hotline.
Inspectors got there and confirmed the rodent reports, spotting enough that they closed the store for more than eight hours of cleaning. By early evening, shoppers walking through the Rotunda?s glass doors found a shutter pulled halfway down over the grocery store entrance ? well before normal closing time.
“There were some mice in the produce area, dead mice, some mouse droppings, as well as a fly infestation in the bakery area,” said Josh Sharfstein, of the Health Department.
Things seemed back to normal Sunday morning in the store, with cookies and fresh bread on display at the bakery and customers weighed down with blue grocery bags in the parking lot.
“We corrected the deficiencies right away,” Giant Food spokesperson Jamie Miller said. The store had more than 50 workers clean the building Friday night and Saturday. “Providing safe and sanitary conditions for our customers and associates is our No. 1 priority,” Miller said.
Still, some customers Sunday said they were disturbed by the closure.
“I don?t have a rodent problem in my house” and it shouldn?t be acceptable in a grocery store either, said Maisha Mitchell, who bought meat for a barbecue at a different grocery store and only got packaged goods at Giant.
“I?m a little leery,” said a Roland Park resident who has been shopping at the Rotunda for about 40 years and gave her name as M. Koch. But noting that she likes the Giant employees and goes to the store for all her food, Koch said, “They have it all cleaned up. ? I?m sure it?s fine.”
