The Fresh Grocer near campus is contesting reports of a court order requiring the store’s closure after multiple failed health inspections.
Fresh Grocer corporate spokeswoman Carly Spross said reports of a court order forcing the 40th and Walnut branch to close last Wednesday and Thursday are “entirely inaccurate.”
But Philadelphia Department of Public Health spokesman Jeff Moran, stood by statements Monday that the store was forced to close due to a court order following its failure of multiple health inspections.
“It was voluntary,” Spross said, referring to the closure. Spross confirmed, however, that the store closed to prepare for an anticipated health re-inspection because an unspecified number of health issues had been brought to its attention. Spross said the store requested the re-inspection.
“It’s a 24-hour store,” she said. “Since we opened nine years ago, we’ve been open over 3,200 days in a row, so we’re aware there were some issues to deal with. We felt that in order to get it 100 percent to where it needed to be, we needed to take some time with all hands on deck and tackle it.”
Spross said the order to close the store came from the CEO of Fresh Grocer. Although store managers typically walk with health inspectors throughout the store during an inspection, and health inspectors do not contact corporate offices, store managers do not have the authority to close down the store, Spross added.
Fresh Grocer store managers initially attributed the store’s closing to refrigeration problems that precipitated electrical malfunctions. When asked about the apparent discrepancy Sunday, store manager Doug Miller declined to comment.
“I don’t think it was an intentional misdirection by any means,” Spross said. She wrote in an e-mail that Fresh Grocer’s Executive Vice President Grant McLoughlin “confirmed that there were in fact mechanical/refrigeration issues that had to be addressed at the store, which is why one of our associates relayed that information upon questioning pertaining to the store’s voluntary closure.”
“They just tackled everything at once,” said Spross, referring to issues brought up in a previous health inspection and the electrical problems.
However, Moran reiterated Monday that on Feb. 17, an order for the store to shut down temporarily “was issued by Common Pleas Court.” He added that results of health inspections are not a matter of public record until 30 days have passed.
“The bottom line is, there was an inspection, there were issues, they were dealt with immediately and there are no issues right now anymore,” Spross said.
Wharton Professor of Legal Studies and Health Care Management Arnold Rosoff emphasized the importance of business traffic when it comes to food sanitation.
“Because the legal system is a pretty clunky tool and doesn’t offer much in the way of protection, the best protection is consumer information,” he said, adding that readily available results of health inspections would put pressure on public merchants to keep things clean.
