Business practices should any store selling food products

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Reference no: EM132250711

Case : River Valley Gourmet Shop

Professor Catherine Porter, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Background Information

Located in a popular New England resort town, the River Valley Gourmet Shop opened for business just three months ago. Its customers come through on vacation trips, stopping to purchase locally produced food items such as homemade breads and pastries, candy, jams and jellies, plus numerous other products both fresh and preserved. Sales are well ahead of projections for the period. To develop a mailing list and collect customers' reactions to the store, the owners ask all customers to sign a guest book, give their address, and comment about the store and the quality of its food items. This has led to a sizable list of names. The owners' policy is to feature products by local people (many whom they know personally) and others who live not far away. The owners initially sample each product to be sure that each one meets their high standards. Since the opening day, one of the store's most popular items has been an unusual vegetable relish preserved by the owners' friend Nancy Hawkins. Over 100 jars of this special item were sold over a span of three months. Inventory was low on the Hawkins relish so the owners went to her home to reorder and bring back more of the product. On her door they found an official notice: "This business has been closed due to Department of Health violations." Upon questioning Ms. Hawkins, they found that some jars of relish she'd sold to a local restaurant had been found to be contaminated with a strain of bacteria causing severe stomach cramps in people who ate even a small portion of the relish. The River Valley Gourmet owners were unprepared for this situation. They immediately thought of their own customers and the future of their business.

Discussion Questions

1. What ethical standards would you recommend the River Valley Gourmet owners adopt before opening their business? Should they maintain those same standards upon learning of the contaminated relish?

2. What appropriate business practices should any store selling food products consider to protect both the owners and the customers?

Reference no: EM132250711

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