# Mild pitting: Canadian supermarket chain manages to choose motto that is both dumb and dangerous **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 19, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364 "2015-05-19T14:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/21 "2015-05-19T22:49:26Z")
Starting this thread has NOT been a worthwhile Canadian initiative. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/22 "2015-05-19T22:59:03Z")
The official slogan has been “Better Food For All” for a couple of years now, as per the Wikipedia link and some bags I have in my bag cupboard. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/23 "2015-05-20T03:01:27Z")
I’ve never seen a Sobey’s before. If I was visiting a friend or family member in Canada and saw a package of sausages in their fridge labeled like that, I would probably assume they were precooked. Even if I noticed that the legend “Ready to eat” was slightly closer to the store logo than to the instructions “Keep refrigerated,” I would probably think that it must refer to some sort of store brand of prepared, precooked deli items, since it would be inconceivable that a store would use a slogan like that in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/24 "2015-05-20T03:31:31Z")
You’d have to be pretty fucking stupid to confuse the store motto with cooking instructions though. Holy shit. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/25 "2015-05-20T03:54:43Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > You’d have to be pretty fucking stupid to confuse the store motto with cooking instructions though. Holy shit. Isn’t lucky, then, that NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN THE ENTIRE WORLD is “fucking stupid.” I’m with \*\*Whiskey Dickens \*\*on this one. I agree the risk that someone misunderstands the label, eats contaminated raw meat, gets very ill, and then they or their survivors sue Sobey’s, is small indeed. But the marketers who came up with this branding are stupid too, first because the possible misinterpretation apparently didn’t occur to them; and second because it would have been so easy, when the branding was being created, to make the motto “Ready to Serve You.” I think that’s less ambiguous, though if I were part of the marketing team in charge, I’d have done a few focus groups to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/26 "2015-05-20T04:03:29Z")
Well, there was never one case of confusion in Canada over the entire marketing campaign, so apparently we all knew the difference: every one of us, over and over for 10 years. I guess we’re not stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/27 "2015-05-20T04:22:44Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > I’ve never seen a Sobey’s before. If I was visiting a friend or family member in Canada and saw a package of sausages in their fridge labeled like that, I would probably assume they were precooked. Even if I noticed that the legend “Ready to eat” was slightly closer to the store logo than to the instructions “Keep refrigerated,” I would probably think that it must refer to some sort of store brand of prepared, precooked deli items, since it would be inconceivable that a store would use a slogan like that in the U.S. Go click the second link in the OP, then move to the very bottom and gaze in rapt wonder at the unavoidable impact of the phrase “Ready to Serve”. The ponder how such an outrage could possibly be bottled up for years on end before erupting in such a Krakatoa of stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/28 "2015-05-20T05:01:58Z")
Wash. Biol. Surv. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/29 "2015-05-20T06:12:55Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I guess we’re not stupid. Or maybe there _are_ a few stupid Canadians who ate uncooked Sobey’s meat. Perhaps they didn’t get sick. Perhaps they never traced their GI problems to their ill-advised consumption. Perhaps it just never occurred to them to make a fuss when they realized what had happened. Perhaps things were settled very quietly out of court and there was no media coverage. Or maybe all the stupid Canadians died of exposure a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/30 "2015-05-20T06:20:06Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > SOEBYS > Ready to Serve On an unrelated matter, except that it entails grocery stores and potential litigation and stuff, has Sobeys considered suing Soebys for infringing on their name? Or are Canadians too mellow for that? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/31 "2015-05-20T06:25:11Z")
I think the most likely reason is that even with sausage you can usually tell if it’s precooked or not. The specific set of circumstances required for someone to actually make a mistake because of this is pretty narrow: sausage that someone can’t tell is uncooked encountered by someone who didn’t purchase it and isn’t familiar with the store at all and who nevertheless decides to eat it without heating it up without anyone else noticing. I can easily imagine that that would be fairly unlikely to happen over ten years in a country with the population of Canada, even if Sobey’s is the largest supermarket chain in the country. In the U.S., it would be almost guaranteed. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/32 "2015-05-20T11:40:10Z")
Canadians are confident that the large ocean, Atlantic, between Sobeys and any Soebys, will mean confusion is unlikely! ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/33 "2015-05-20T11:47:44Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Or maybe there _are_ a few stupid Canadians who ate uncooked Sobey’s meat. Who gives a fuck. Stupid is as stupid does, lets all stop worrying about what the idiots of the world are doing, they are all stupid and will soon die out anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/34 "2015-05-20T12:38:10Z")
Humanity has been around for millions of years and we still have plenty of stupid left in the gene pool. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/35 "2015-05-20T13:08:08Z")
Wait until they combine with a Damon Knight story-turned _Twilight Zone_ episode. Then the motto could be: “READY TO SERVE…_Man!_” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/36 "2015-05-20T14:09:42Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Canadians are confident that the large ocean, Atlantic, between Sobeys and any Soebys, will mean confusion is unlikely! What about [Sobe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoBe) and why haven’t they sued GIECO over the gecko? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/37 "2015-05-20T14:36:32Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > For example, let’s say your senile mother lives with, a recent immigrant from your home country. She sees the words “Ready to serve” on the package without having ever seen the store, and she’s not real up to date on food labeling standards or modern cooking practices. Yup, those stupid immigrants from imaginationland. The ones who don’t exist. So these idiotic uncivilized hicks are so backwards they don’t know how to appropriately evaluate packaged meat but also don’t recognize raw meat or that maybe raw meat should be cooked? I call bullshit on that. People who have lived without western style supermarkets are more likely to know how to deal safely with raw meat than the rest of us. Honestly, if they’re so stupid they’ve somehow managed to reach adulthood without learning to recognize raw meat or cook or shop, they’re not going to be a caretaker in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/38 "2015-05-20T14:39:50Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > The ponder how such an outrage could possibly be bottled up for years on end before erupting in such a Krakatoa of stupidity. Mild pitting = outrage? The only one frothing at the mouth seems to be you. The rest of us are having a “…well, huh.” -type of discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/39 "2015-05-20T14:50:42Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Who gives a fuck. Stupid is as stupid does, lets all stop worrying about what the idiots of the world are doing, they are all stupid and will soon die out anyway. Oooh, edgy! \<---- Hot Topic is that way ---
**Author:** ![tonyfop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85f322/32.png) [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364/40 "2015-05-20T15:01:49Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Do you think you might, possibly, be able to work it out if you had just walked into a building that looked like [this](http://www.localandjust.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/sobeys.jpg)? Damn, those bricks look appetizing!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mild-pitting-canadian-supermarket-chain-manages-to-choose-motto-that-is-both-dumb-and-dangerous/720364.md?page=3)