Blog

Recalling a solution

August 9, 2011 by Lisa Biank Fasig — Director, JZMcBride and Associates

The giant meat supplier Cargill has just delivered 36 million more reasons why we should buy our perishable foods from local farmers. And that can make business pretty challenging for national supermarket chains.

The agribusiness, whose full name is Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., on Aug. 3 announced the voluntary recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey due to possible contamination from Salmonella. The turkeys were processed in Arkansas, but the ground meat was shipped to such major chains as Kroger Co. and Safeway, under roughly 30 different names, varieties and sizes.

The retailers' meat solution? They have to go through the process of notifying millions of shoppers. Kroger, for instance, sells some of that turkey under its in-house label at stores across 26 states.

Kroger, which is the nation's largest supermarket chain with about 2,500 locations, wasted no time getting in front of the problem. By the morning of Aug. 4 it sent out a clearly worded release directing customers to a recall website and toll-free phone number.

The retailer also is taking the proactive step of contacting shoppers, likely relying on information supplied through its loyalty program:

"Kroger has removed affected items from store shelves and initiated its customer recall notification system. Customers who may have purchased the affected products will receive register receipt messages and/or automated phone calls. Kroger is also placing signs in stores in meat departments."

It's great that such swift measures are in place. It's great that loyalty programs can be used to deliver more than discounts.

But it also is a shame that companies must have such swift measure in place. If meat needs a solution, this isn't it.

About Lisa Biank Fasig

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