TOKYO (TR) – A customer opened a boxed cake purchased from a 7-Eleven outlet in December only to find a half-eaten mess, news site Tantei File reported on Tuesday (Jan. 17).
The customer told Tantei File they purchased the box containing what turned out to be a half-eaten Christmas cake from a 7-Eleven store in DiverCity Tokyo Plaza in Koto Ward on Christmas Eve.
The customer contacted the store and was told to provide their address and name so a replacement cake can be delivered.
Soon afterward, the branch manager, the clerk who sold the customer the cake, and the regional director visited the customer’s home to deliver the replacement cake along with a refund, which the customer refused.
“I want the cause of this to be investigated without fail,” the customer demanded, to which they were told 7-Eleven would be unable to deal with the incident until after the weekend on December 26.
The victim contacted customer service at the convenience store chain’s Tokyo headquarters, and learned the branch failed to share information about the case with headquarters. An employee responded that they would check with the branch, and later confirmed the case would be investigated.
The customer visited the 7-Eleven branch after headquarters reported on the morning of December 26 that the cause was discovered: One of the workers partially ate a cake and stored it in a box inside a refrigerator before the store manager put the boxed cake on display without checking the contents.
‘This is the response by headquarters’
The victim told 7-Eleven they were unconvinced by the company’s delayed response and the deficiencies, only to be told, “This is the response by headquarters.”
“If you want to talk to media companies about this, then please, go ahead and speak to them, if that will make you feel better,” 7-eleven employees allegedly told the victim.
7-Eleven told Tantei File that it was a fact that a half-eaten cake was accidentally sold.
Staff are required to store their food and drinks separately from retail products, but “management sloppy because of a mistake at the branch,” the Nikkei Shimbun quoted 7-Eleven as saying (Jan. 17).
The incident has yet to be resolved. Progress is being made based on correspondence between 7-11 headquarters and the victim and not through the branch.
