WASHINGTON — The staff at Safeway on Alabama Avenue in Southeast Washington D.C. kicked out a very upset Ward 7 resident on Sunday, she said, after she noticed nearly every bag of clams on sale at the seafood counter had several open clams inside.
She said she snapped photos, while the manager called security.
Shoppers Wednesday evening said they were disgusted when they heard about the incident - open clams are an indication they are dead and should not be consumed.
“That’s gross, that’s terrible,” said James Payne, outside the store. "They shouldn’t be open period, until you open them."
Another man said the very idea made his stomach turn.
“That just makes me a little sick to my stomach,” added Robert Boaz, “the last thing you want to smell in a grocery store is dead seafood and that would definitely smell.”
Boaz lives in Temple Hills and the Safeway in question is on his way home. Payne lives in Ward 8.
"This is all I got!” he said. Both men recalled a WUSA9 report from August 2017, in which a surprise inspection by Councilmember Vince Gray turned up spoiled meat at the Safeway off Minnesota Avenue in NE, moldy produce and long lines here on Alabama Avenue.
Those two Safeways are the only two grocery stores serving 70,000 people in Ward 7. The area is considered is a food desert.
Safeway executives didn’t have much to say to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Councilmember Gray in 2017, but shoppers said the store straightened up, for a little while at least.
"There’s still a lot of times they don’t have what I need, or they have what I need but it’s not great quality,” Boaz said.
Payne said Safeway should do a better job making sure their staff were trained when it comes to "knowing what's good and what's not."
A corporate spokesperson for Safeway agreed the clams should not have made it to store shelves. She said the manager spoke to the woman who snapped the pictures and apologized about Sunday’s incident. The spokesperson said they will now “double down on protocol to make sure all the seafood meets their high quality of standards and food safety."