FUMBLE – “IT’S NOT RODENTS!”

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: A textbook example of how NOT to handle crisis communications, courtesy of the good folks at swanky grocery chain Pusateri’s.  Public health inspectors following up on a tip inspected the company’s flagship Avenue Road store yesterday and shut the place down after finding evidence of rats and a cockroach infestation.  When asked by the Toronto Star why the store was closed, General Manager John Mastroianni said “general maintenance . . . equipment maintenance, that kind of thing,” later adding “It’s not rodents.” Only when confronted with confirmation by public health did company officials then fess up, pulling together a late-night news conference and calling it “one of the worst days in our lives.”  Well, it wouldn’t have been quite as bad had they been up front about the situation in the first place.  Pusateri’s had a chance to acknowledge the problem, to detail the corrective measures being taken, and to try and put it into perspective (i.e. all grocers face the possibility of this kind of thing, we have a pest control company that routinely takes preventative measures, etc.), but no: by issuing a bogus denial, they shredded their credibility right out of the gate.  Now, as they continue to clean the store and eradicate the bugs and rodents, any statements of progress and the inevitable clean bill of health will be viewed with a degree of skepticism they have brought upon themselves.  The cover-up is always worse than the crime.