Woolies have recently caught plenty of flak online in the wake of the listeriosis scare (sorry Constantia moms, it’s true), but now it’s Pick n Pay who are putting out flames.

According to a recent story on the Sowetan, a reporter was shocked to find that a Pretoria building “houses both a mortuary and a food storage facility for a local Pick n Pay store”.

Isaac Mahlangu was not impressed, with this below via EWN:

[He] exposed how the retailer’s branch in Rayton shares a building with a morgue. He goes on to describe how the food is separated from bodies only by a four-metre wall.

The food stored there includes soft drinks and cooking oil. Mahlangu says that he received a tip-off from community members.

“On Friday we decided to head out and when we got to Rayton we were really surprised to see this one structure behind Rayton Park Mall and the doors were opened.

“You could see food that was stored in that storeroom and just behind it, a mortuary, all under one roof.”

As the shock and outrage grew, Pick n Pay were forced to issue a denial, offering a short statement to the Sowetan:

“No goods stored in this building belong, or have ever belonged, to Pick n Pay. Items stored in this building belong to the garage shop close to the building,” Pick n Pay spokesman Tamra Veley said.

Mahlangu isn’t really buying it, and he outlines a number of discrepancies he found when he returned to the site:

Following strong denials by Pick n Pay that any of the food stored in the facility that shared premises with a mortuary was sold at its Rayton franchise store, Sowetan revisited the area yesterday.

After noticing from the street that the storage facility seemed empty, Sowetan journalist Isaac Mahlangu went inside the building to be greeted by empty shelves and a wet cement smell.

There were about five workers in blue overalls mixing cement and moving bricks as they sealed open spaces between the roof and the walls.

When asked when the building was emptied, they responded that they found it empty in the morning.

After taking photographs of the empty shelves, Mahlangu was summoned to Da Silva’s offices by two men who initially demanded he delete the pictures from his phone.

After about 10 minutes in one of the Pick n Pay offices where Da Silva disputed the story, Mahlangu was allowed to leave.

He smelled a rat and he went for the jugular – good work, Isaac. Seems like someone was hard at work in between your first and second visit, right?

It’s not a good look for Pick n Pay, and maybe they should have asked us first. Look, if you want us to hook you up with some space, then let us chat to our friends at Stor-Age.

We can even wangle you 50% off your first month, although they’d probably prefer it if you didn’t store food there.

It’s not just Pretoria that is covered, because they have facilities right around the country:

Gardens, Tokai, Claremont, Sea Point, Westlake and more – tick.

You can also cancel at any time, as the storage contract runs month to month, and new customers moving in will get FREE use of a Stor-Age van for one trip.

Just to be clear, we said van – not hearse.

[sources:ewn&sowetan]