I took E to Whole Foods this morning to get some specialty baking ingredients so I can bake him some milk-free, egg-free goodies. He had a cold over the weekend but seemed pretty much better today. But while he was sitting in the cart he started coughing really hard and then threw up his breakfast all over his clothes, his shoes, the floor, my shoes, and (by an impressive feat of agility) my hair. It was gross.
I was pretty stunned but then quickly started stripping E out of his wet clothes. The lady who worked in the section we were in (an older, grandmotherly type) was nice and brought a bunch of clean rags and stuff so I could clean E up. But then after I got E cleaned up the lady brought me more rags and plastic bags and a pair of plastic gloves. She was friendly about it but I distinctly caught the drift that she expected me to clean up the puke myself. I think the situation was that if I didn’t do it then she would have to do it herself.
And because I’m not good with confrontation I wrangled a shirtless pathetic-looking E with one hand while sopping up the puke with the rags. I kept expecting her to tell me not to worry about it, that she would go get a mop or something but she just watched me clean it up. Customers kept almost walking into the puddle and I had to stop them myself. I was so embarrassed! I just wanted to get out of there and get E home. I know no one likes to clean up a mess and it was my child who had made the mess, but it would have been really helpful if she had went and got a mop so I could focus on taking care of E.
When we got to the car I put his spare jacket on him and he seemed to be feeling better. But then he threw up again all over himself and his carseat. I didn’t have any more extra clothes so I just mopped it up the best I could and then kept driving. Once we got on the freeway he felt asleep, wet with puke and clutching a toy in his hand. Sad stuff.
He’s doing better now and napping, but I’m still a little peeved over the whole thing. We have a health food store fairly close to my house but I had wanted to go to Whole Foods to browse because it’s a lot bigger. But I don’t see myself making that drive again anytime soon. Bleh.
***Update 9/16/09***
I emailed the store and got a nice response from the manager. Details here.
seriously. That is really awful. I like to think I would have left and let her deal with it, but I'm sure I'd have cleaned it up too.
Job aside, where's her sense of community? If I ever see someone in distress (especially a mom), I feel compelled to help in whatever way I can. Sorry you had to deal with that alone.
Way sadder than your facebook version. Poor you and poor little E (clutching his toy…*sniff*). Customer service experiences like that leave such a bad taste in your mouth (really, I couldn't think of another phrase), I don't blame you for not wanting to go back. Hope both of you are feeling better soon.
Whole Foods can do better than this. It's yucky that someone's kid threw up in their store, but that woman really should have taken over the reins as an employee. I would shoot them a brief e-mail expressing your (heck, my!) disappointment at their staff's lack of professionalism. If you don't write it, I'll do it for you!!
I would tell a store manager or something. My guess is that isn't really what a PR person would recommend they do. I have had mishaps in plenty of stores and never once had to clean up the mess. Clean up on aisle 9? right? At the very least she could have let you borrow the mop. That's just gross to think your supposed to clean up with paper towels and a bag.
Also this story made me think of this: http://www.slate.com/id/2226927/
Thanks for all of your support! I wasn't sure if I was overreacting so it means a lot to me.
I just sent them an email about it (thanks for the recommendation, Julia). I'll let you guys know if they respond.
I would recommend you talk to a manager about the incident. I don't think there's any defensible excuse for the woman's behavior. Maybe she didn't want to clean up the puke — but that's kind of (presumably) what she's paid to do. Clean up stuff at the store, even if it's baby puke.
Furthermore, if you have to clean up the puke while trying to manage a half-dressed vomit-covered wriggly toddler, I think that you're the one with the legitimate complaint here, not the employee.