the refrigerated items may not have been
salvagable-—the store where I work does not
try to determine how long something may or
may not have been out of the cooler.
if it is abandoned, at any point in the store,
it is “defected” out of the system-—the store
eats the loss-—
That makes it even more disgusting. Such waste, tho understandable under the circumstances. Maybe we should stop self-service and go back to telling the shopkeeper having control, with us saying we want a quart of milk (or whatever).