A marketing expert is questioning Woolworths' response to a rodent outbreak in two of its Countdown supermarkets.
Since Saturday, January 19 rats have been found at Countdown Dunedin South supermarket - which closed for pest control work last week due to an ongoing rodent outbreak.
To make matters worse, a video also emerged this week of a mouse in the deli section of Countdown Eastgate in Christchurch.
But, despite multiple requests for interviews by Newshub and AM, Woolworths has declined in lieu of written statements.
Bodo Lang, a marketing analytics professor at Massey University, described the situation as "outrageous" and believed customers could boycott stores.
"I think the logical reaction for consumers would be disgust," Prof Lang explained to AM.
Research showed media coverage such as this doesn't help companies, he said.
"If this was a publicly listed company, their share prices would be tumbling."
Prof Lang said customer numbers would likely decline for the interim.
"People would be rightly concerned about the issues of food safety - but we're also creatures of habit so if that type of supermarket's the closest to you... then eventually I think we will fall back into old habits."
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He argued Woolworths should've front-footed the issue.
"There are certain steps to crisis management and I can't see them followed that clearly here," Prof Lang said.
In a statement on Tuesday, Woolworths director of stores thanked customers "for their understanding" as its Countdown Dunedin South store remained closed.
"We can confirm there were two rodent captures in Countdown Dunedin South in the last 24 hours. We believe that all entry/exit sites have been sealed over the weekend.
"Having a safe and hygienic store is incredibly important to us and we have agreed with New Zealand Food Safety... that we will keep the store closed until there has been a 48-hour period with no captures in the store.
"We would like to apologise for any distress and inconvenience this issue is causing our community. We continue to work closely with New Zealand Food Safety and Renotokil, and will provide regular updates as needed."
On the Eastgate mouse sighting, Stockill said an investigation was ongoing.
"As part of our investigation, we found that the sighting was escalated and that two contaminated bowls were immediately removed from the deli and contents destroyed. However, our central Food Safety team was not immediately notified to advise on further actions, which would have been to dispose of all food in the deli and to clean and sanitise all surfaces that may have been contaminated.
"This is unacceptable and we are conducting retraining at Countdown Eastgate."
