I once walked behind a group of elementary school students who were obviously being given a tour of our local supermarket. The tow guide explained that the produce section was at the beginning of the store next to the entrance doors because people enjoy walking in and seeing the colorful fruits,vegetables and flowers.
The tour guide did not mention the downside: When the produce goes bad, it smells horrible. And it’s more apt to happen next to a door that is constantly opening and closing, particularly in hot weather.
I’ve never smelled any foul odors at grocery stores in western PA, but when I lived in Philadelphia for a few years, one of the many unpleasant things was smelly grocery stores. Both Pathmark and Acme (pronounced AC-A-ME for some reason) smelled bad.
If they have to tell you it’s safe, it can’t have much else going for it. See also: Legal Sea Foods, I don’t care about its long and stellar reputation, that name sounds like they’re saying “well, our seafood isn’t all that tasty or fresh, but we technically passed our health inspections.”
Hee! The liquor store part of my local WD has a vomity smell. It didn’t seem a stretch to figure that some drunk might have come in and gotten sick. But after it smelling that way every time I went there (randomly, weeks apart) I realized it was the cardboard boxes :smack: Who knew cardboard smelled nasty?
Anyway, as other have said, there are many possibilities why a place that sells food would get a bad smell. But all of them ? :dubious:I think the OP has just discovered a new phobia / quirk
One time when it was particularly bad, I was waiting in line pretending it didn’t smell like a subway station and the woman waiting in front of me made a discrete phone call. She was very quiet but I was close enough to hear something like, “I swear to god, bro, it stinks like stale piss in here.”
Many grocery stores have a smaller HVAC unit just over the doors to provide a breeze of warmed or cooled air directly upon entering customers. I’d say that’s a good guess for where to start looking. Another would be failure to change the mop water. If they are starting at the back of the store and working their way forward, then by the time they get near the front door that water is just spreading stench and nastiness. And I can well imagine what a pain it would be to go back from that area to change it out.
The front of the store also has a bunch of counters and dividers - basically huge pieces of furniture that may never get moved or cleaned under.
There used to be a chain near here called Magruders. It was a much beloved smaller grocery chain, and we always went there before the holidays for specialty items like goose fat and filo dough. I would gladly have shopped there all the time except that their stores always had the same horrible smell. Every one of them. I think they used some sort of Wintergreen cleaning fluid, which dried down to a green-mold stench. People’s drug stores used to have that same smell. But it was stronger at Magruders and with a back-scent of rotten cabbage. Simply horrible. I was always half-holding my nose and running to get in and out of there.
Just ask anyone who’s worked at a grocery store. I used to work in the “drugstore” side of a supermarket, and the back room had a perpetual funk from all the cardboard. We never had any food back there to go bad, and didn’t even have a baler. It doesn’t take much moisture from rain, the inside of a truck being wet, or just Chicago-area summer humidity to make a few hundred cartons start to smell funny.
Re: Legal Seafood I’ve heard that the name was chosen to point out that all they sell was legally caught and obtained, as many seafood places will accept fish that were not. It was a choice to make a stand on principal. However I do agree with your take on how it could be taken.
The only time I’ve ever really noticed cardboard smelling a bit funky, and it’s pretty minor, nothing that’s going to waft too far away, is when it gets damp. But even then, it just (to me) smells like wet cardboard. Nothing overly offensive. Even when we have (literally) thousands of pounds of soaking wet cardboard out back (compacted bails, out in the rain), I’ve never really noticed any scent coming off them. But if there’s a hole in the bottom of the dumpster and it’s leaking across the parking lot, that’s an awful smell and one I’ll notice, and recognize from much further away than I’d prefer to.
Many years ago, I worked in an office that was across the street from a grocery store. We’d often walk over there to grab some lunch. One day I walked over with a woman who was a few months pregnant. As soon as we walked in the door she said “Oh my God, that smell… I think I’m going to be sick.”
I sniffed the air and said “All I smell is bread baking.”
I’ve had cardboard smell funky - from when I brought a case of wine on vacation in its box inside a cooler and then did not empty the box or the meltwater for a couple months. Took two rounds of bleach to get rid of the smell from the cooler and the cardboard just melted into the lawn.
I smell the funk odor at the Price Chopper supermarket near us. Other than that, most stores smell of stale cigarette smoke near the door because of the butt can they provide just outside the door.
Ironically, with supermarkets going big, and packing in fresh everything, from seafood, to flowers, to firewood and topsoil near the entrance, they have one heckuva time managing all that stuff.
That was probably Mother Nature’s way of letting her know that bread was not good for her, at least at that time.
Lots of people are completely puzzled as to how or why nobody noticed this. OK, the store WAS called “No Frills” but you’d think they would notice a human body decomposing in the building, especially because he worked there and was reported missing.
I used to work in the “drugstore” side of a supermarket, and the back room had a perpetual funk from all the cardboard. We never had any food back there to go bad, and didn’t even have a baler. It doesn’t take much moisture from rain, the inside of a truck being wet, or just Chicago-area summer humidity to make a few hundred cartons start to smell funny.