'Like rotten bodies': Strange smell at newly refurbished supermarket is talk of this South Staffordshire village
Residents in a South Staffordshire village have been speculating on social media about the cause of the strange smell at the Nisa supermarket at the Texaco petrol station in the village.
The School Road shop in Wombourne reopened under the Nisa brand in June, after the previous Co-op supermarket closed in May.
Customer Nick Little, who lives in Cannock, said: "I smelled it, disgusting smell like rotten bodies."
Fiona Braiden said: "The smell takes your breath away. Only got some milk. Didn’t fancy getting anything else, won’t be going back."
Resident Anne Haywood said she had spoken to a member of staff about the problem.
"They’ve been told it is something to do with the air conditioning in there and hopefully will be sorted soon."
However, other people in the village have speculated that it may be more to do with milk bottles that had been incorrectly stored.
Martin Fiddler said: "They stored milk on its side in the chiller cabinets and inevitably some of it leaked down and behind the cabinets and has now gone rancid.
Hannah Clark added: "I’m not going back in until it’s fixed. Took everything I had not to be sick."
Mrs Clark added that she had received a response from Nisa head office customer services, which had been provided by the shop management team.
It said: "We want to assure you that we’ve taken this matter very seriously."
The statement said two pest control inspections had been carried out last week, and no problems found, and checks had also been carried out to the air conditioning system.
The problem was eventually traced to chiller drainage systems, and the problem had been dealt with.
"We had the visit from local council people this morning and they have left satisfied," the statement said.
"Our back-up chiller wasn't working - which is fixed now - so staff put milk behind the products in shop chiller for time being and there was not milk leaking."
Co-op Wholesale, which operates the Nisa brand, the shop itself and South Staffordshire Council were all contacted for comment.
