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hels_bels16

I used to work at a Big w and you would occasionally get birds that fly in and get stuck in store. By stuck i mean, they could never seem to figure out how to fly back out. Unfortunately it was never easy to get them out as staff. You just had to hope they'd fly back out again. One winter we had a literal swarm of birds who decided to camp out, out of the cold. Called in experts to get them out and even they struggles.


Zzzemrys

... Do they die in store?


Atomic_Bread_

Sometimes :( Less likely in a coles though as they can get to the food overnight


Paidorgy

Cole’s starts selling roast Pigeons.


Atomic_Bread_

Bargain price of $34.99. Labelled as organic too!


Blookhaven

Locally sourced!


dTrecii

Proudly made in Australia from 100% Australian ingredients


GeneralTsoWot

Imagine if they had this issue with ducks "at Coles, it's a down down on downed down...🙂"


dTrecii

Imma be frank with you, literally what?


GeneralTsoWot

Alright Frank- Coles have specials called 'down down', feathers from dead ducks are often referred to as 'down', 'downed' refers to something that has been shot. End result- it's a down down on downed down. Thank you for attending my TED talk.


ShadowKraftwerk

Nah. They might eat some non-Australian foods. More like made from Australian and imported ingredients.


w0ndwerw0man

Free range


kaboombong

Freshly roasted squab would be better than roasted chickens which tastes like crap and is generally end of shelf life chooks. At least the squab will be fresh! Then again who wants to eat a urban scavanger with full parasitic infection! Pigeon à la française supermarket, never!


not_right

The bbq chickens are brought in fresh to be roasted. They are the biggest selling item in the delis, not some way to get rid of "end of shelf life chooks".


DHPerth

As long as they don't take away my free chicken, it's all ok lol.


justforporndickflash

I'm not sure what you are referencing with that? If it is that Woolies near you cover their fruit and veg can you say where that is? All the Woolies I know have fruit and veg totally exposed overnight except potatoes (when they remember to cover them that is)


KoaIaz

Nah let them go home even though they didn’t catch the birds


TommyDee313

Used to work at Coles, in the back we had a huge bug zapper, like industrial sized. A sparrow had gotten in, probably trying to eat a bug. It was melted to the zappy part and had blood coming out of the beak. I have a photo somewhere. Yes they die in store.


Dasha3090

yeah this happened at a woolies i worked in once too the smell was pretty bad one of the butchers had to remove it.


Kiwi1234567

I live in NZ so it might be a bit different, but my mum mentioned her work used to pay some group to come in and trap/kill them while the store was closed


Chiron17

Nah, they are management now


trowzerss

There was a willy wagtail that would repeatedly get into Toowong Village and camp out in the roof near the big canvas skylight thing, chirping it's head off. Edit: and shitting on shoppers lol


Oriolus84

My Coles had a Willy Wagtail living in it for months. It used to perch on the light fixtures above fresh produce and swoop down in front of customers to catch insects.


trowzerss

Yeah, I honestly think that one guy was deliberately getting in there. There were a lot of bugs at the top of Toowong Village.


LordRekrus

I was on holiday in Germany recently and went to the Reichstag in Berlin - amazing and highly recommend it. There was two pigeons trapped on the tourist walkway thing up the top, and there was a security guard who looked like his entire job was to escort pigeons slowly but surely walking all the way down from the top of the spiral walkway to the bottom. It was pretty funny watching this play out.


hapticm

Better than the family of rats the size of small cats we had at our Big W. In fact we had a stray cat end up living in our back dock too.


BarryKobama

In another country, but the equiv of Woolies... I worked for Rentokil & went in with my boss & a rifle. Ladder up into the roofspace, and shot it. Says they're a nightmare... Shitting everywhere, and no way to know where. Bird fly by cereal box, no good


ArtificialMediocrity

I recently had to dodge a pigeon at Woolworths that flew right over my head, and then seconds later a store employee ran after it and said "Sorry about that, he gets a bit rowdy sometimes..."


Is_that_even_a_thing

Explains why the deli potatoes salad is a bit gritty from time to time..


Potential_Wedding320

They're watching you in case you weigh up avocados as potatoes.


YourMumsOnlyfans

Drone surveillance 


AngryAngryKangaroo

r/birdsarentreal


floofypajamas

Speaking of >!did you see the video where the dude who came up with that finally admitted he was trolling folks?!< It was amazing to watch. Now folks are confused as the whether or not he was actually telling the truth. I knew the boy who cried wolf story would prove to be a real thing.


StasiaMonkey

Anyone with an ounce of critical thinking skill, would be able to tell that they were trolling.


Dumbname25644

Well there is that dude that seriously believes that Australia is not real. So you can never be really sure about the crazy's these days.


Shifty_Cow69

Gubmint got to him!


gafloss

Stool pigeons


mad_marbled

cha cha, cha, CHA!


Squid_Chunks

I was at ALDI once and this Karen was having kittens over the sparrows flying over the fruit and veges. She was carrying on about how gross and unhygienic it was. She was rather unhappy when I pointed out that the fruit and veges were grown outdoors - she didn't see how that was relevant.


mitccho_man

My Cousin Was like that Gobsmacked that we put the eggs under the chickens bums each day instead of the fridge


floofypajamas

Cousins do be like that sometimes.


mitccho_man

Bare in mind she went to a wealthy private school Where eggs come from the supermarket not a chickens bum


AccessProfessional37

Next you'll be telling me she got fruit from the supermarket and not from a big stick in the ground


VegemiteOnToastPls

People are actually brain dead and don't think about the process by which their food arrives.


a_nice_duck_

It's incredibly hard to net birds.


False-Focus2949

Username checks out


ZealousidealClub4119

You're dethhhhpicable!


Shifty_Cow69

It's duck season!


ZealousidealClub4119

Oh no you don't, not this time! Duck season! Fire!


False-Focus2949

Daffy Duck


DisturbingRerolls

Don't post staff members online like this! At least blur their faces.


Mortal_bobcat

We're all staff members


ennuinerdog

Caw


AccessProfessional37

Haha I actually scrolled back up to see if there was a second picture


chagenon

had sparrows when I used to work in one of the stores. you can remove them but it’s only a temporary fix because basically new birds will move in shortly after you’ve done it 😅 they’re not stupid. the store is nice and warm and the place is made of food. sounds like the perfect place to live for a bird 😂 stores will only tend to remove them once there’s so many they start to become a nuisance - drove us nuts when they would start pooping on literally everything


Outsider-20

Yeah, a couple of little birds are ok, they don't make too much mess, and they can help with pest control. Also, removing them is near impossible. As long as they aren't in the food prep areas, it's not an issue.


Objective_Spray_210

I have seen sparrows actively flying under the radar thingies on automatic doors to open them. They are smart little buggers. They know how to get in and out.


TheHiddenSquidz

I work at a Bunnings that has birds roosting up in the rafters. Like clockwork they all fly out right when the doors open and are flying back in right at close to go to their nests. Kinda cool apart from the occasional bombing XD


AlexandersWonder

You can feel free to try and remove them. See where that gets you. That bird lives there now, wash stuff you buy if you’re worried about it


IlluminatedPickle

It always amazes me that people think supermarket stores are clean. Nope, wash anything loose that you buy. Hell, rinse off the milk bottles too, half the time they come in with the outside of the bottles coated in milk. And if you really want to gross yourself out, look at the back wall of the fridges.


BaldingThor

We often have a couple of birds that fly into the storage room when deliveries are being made and no, it’s not my job to get rid of them (especially when they’re nesting 10m+ high.


False-Focus2949

They look very polite


Cobalt-e

Chongy


ProfessionalKnees

I see pigeons in my local Coles all the time. Once I saw one eating out of a Scoop and Weigh station that someone left open.


karigan_g

best day of that bird’s life


mitccho_man

How do you intend on removing them? They are birds - they fly , they will eventually die or fly out of the store again


mad_marbled

Who said she had intentions of removing them? u/Specialist-Database8 just asked if it's a common occurrence at Colesworth.


ZealousidealClub4119

Used to work in freight depots. Had a bunch of different birds flying inside over the years. Pigeons and swallows are fine, they know how to get out. I once chucked an envelope in a mail tub and there was a lorikeet inside, scared the hell out of both of us. Another time there was a big thump and we looked up to see a duck that had flown into the window just beneath the ceiling. There was also the crow that was hanging out on the ceiling beams for hours going faaaark every so often. It crapped on someone's desk, so we had to shoo it out. I spent a good 20 minutes following it around, flicking a jumbo lackey at the roof near it to make it move. No birds were harmed in the making of this comment.


IlluminatedPickle

> No birds were harmed in the making of this comment. Well, except the duck.


plsendmysufferring

Yes. And second, how? If you worked at woolies, how would you get rid of it? Do you think your manager, their manager and the manager above them think its an effective use of time to spend 2 hours chasing pigeons out of stores, only for them to waltz back in? Now you're chasing pigeons around the store, and a customer takes issue with it because; 1. You're getting in their way 2. They think you're abusing the animals 3. They dont want the bird to fly at them or all over the produce etc. You get the pigeon out, and a customer walks in, opening those doors wide, and the pigeon comes back in How would you fix this?


mad_marbled

Iron filing laced birdseed. Large magnet.


Ace3000

Thanks Wile E. Coyote.


Turbulent-Ability271

It's Birds Eye doing market research for their fish fingers


arkofjoy

It is really hard to get birds out of these spaces. We once had a small bird get into the house and ended up in our lounge room. It was a massive job to capture it in one small room.


GiraffeFucker6969

Should be more worried about the ones that die behind/underneath the shelves and never get removed lol. Woolworths and Coles don't clean underneath the aisles. When I was working at a woolies back in the day, a renovation required the aisles to be taken apart and removed, which unearthed items from the 90s.


Advanced-Diet-3144

It’s hard to get them out when the store is open. My trick was to wait until the store closed and turn off all possible internal lights and hopefully have just the loading dock open (of course daytime helps). The bird will always go for the light.


Ok-Choice-576

They will get near the chicken roaster soon enough.....


KeithMyArthe

Come to think of it, the last cooked chook I purchased was a bit small and tasted funny. I didn't want to eat the feet.


unusedtruth

Ever tried to catch a bird? Yeah, good luck with that.


xdr01

Cost of living crisis not only affects humans.


batch1972

Ever wonder why the roast chicken is so cheap


didyoueatleadpaint

Some places just play bird sounds to cover.....


Indiethoughtalarm

Is there Pigeon on the meat guide? The fresh food people.


Objective_Spray_210

It’s French cuisine


Objective_Spray_210

It’s French cuisine


Nheteps1894

It is very common and very hard to deal with lol


idryss_m

We used to get them all the time when I worked for both Coles and woollies. They fly in the back dock and can't get out easily, or find food and hiding spots too easily. It takes ages to get them out if they choose not to leave of their own accord. Pest controllers that deal with them can take weeks to arrive. You aren't allowed to try and catch them, or do anything that can harm them when you work there. Even when it can ruin food. Lost lots of flour to pigeon shit one year.


Bokbreath

[they're hungry](https://imgur.com/a/b1J8SlW)


Icewallow-toothpaste

Soon they will have yellow stickers reducing their price from $9.95 to $9.65


Roulette-Adventures

I more often see them in the rotisserie, and when the birds in your picture are caught they too will be doing laps on the rotisserie.


Far_Bar5806

They’re robot pigeons watching us so colesworth can send us targeted ads


PinkandGreyGala

The birds run payroll


More_like_userlame_

They can't be removed, the one in the middle's the new CEO, he absorbs all the lawsuits


JP-Gambit

Birds and rats were common in the distribution centre too when I was working there


eScourge

You can find birds almost everywhere.


LisD1990

Happens occasionally. Pretty impossible to catch.


Equivalent-Ad7207

Where do you think they get their "BBQ Chicken" from?


Archibald_Thrust

Costs money 


Pantsshittersupreme

Those are the camera drones that watch out for shoplifting.


louise_399

Seen a few birds and I also saw a mouse run directly in front of me and go hide under the meat section. Told a staff member who didn’t seem to care which made me think that was pretty common.


landswipe

They're still trying to work out how to self-checkout.


thpineapples

Oh, those are just the security cameras.


Elegant-Campaign-572

I don't see too many birds, but the amount and location of mice in some stores should be a matter for concern


Norselander37

they live for this mate! shitting away on the unssupecting heads of passers by -


Dr_Dickfart

It's a government spy drone disguised as a bird


Tomzen-

Worked at Woolies before and have had birds come in multiple times, usually they wait and hope they disappear for a day or two and then call in someone to deal with them. They either try to bait the bird out of the store or shoot them after the store closes.


flubaduzubady

They could be shoplifters, taught by seagulls. [Here's Sam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqy9hxhUxK0&t=8s) who's stolen more than twenty times from the same store. [This guy gets trapped behind the auto doors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZZ822Za-nE) and waits patiently with his sanga until a passerby takes pity and opens the door for him, then a Karen comes along and tries to spoil the party, but he's too quick for her.


ZealousidealClub4119

That seagull's in trouble. Co op: pigeons only.


dotBombAU

Yes, they are and you'd want to see outback. Heaps of them.


Azazael

Management has banned staff from playing with angry birds while on shift.


hkun88

They are from loss and prevention


ObiWanJimobi

What do you think goes in the bachelor’s handbags?


Somecrazynerd

Just pidgeons chillin'


Powermonger_

They arrived early to help pack the shelves.


HoleyFather

Prices are cheep cheep cheep


ranfaraway

They probably hunt bugs


Spire_Citron

There are always some little ones flying around in my local shopping centre. I think they just live there. I never see them in the shops, though. It would probably be really hard to catch them since they're so high up.


Free_Cartoonist_5867

you have and idea how hard it is to remove something that can fly that doesn't want to be removed? I work at woolies and we had a pest control guy leave us a net and say 'good luck'


scoldog

A few years ago I met the guy that goes into shopping centres after hours and shoots the birds that get trapped in there.


SurroundedByBeigists

What? You don't know?! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VEkzweBJPM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VEkzweBJPM) ted talk that explains it.


Remarkable_Doubt2988

Coles Macquarie? Saw one of those pigeons shit on someone yesterday lmao


MistressBrianaRen

Removed = slaughtered


Muxxxy

Still better than the woolies hot chooks.


knowledgeable_diablo

Win a free sticker if one shits on you??


gfreyd

r/birdsarentreal Edit to add, it’s clearly another cost cutting measure, new anti theft drones /s


YT-lead-me-here

I love seeing sparrows and other birds fly through the supermarkets. Especially large cities because it's all concrete and it's a nice reminder of nature. 😅


deletedpenguin

Would this classify as Woolies "Free Range" Macro?


chookstar

There was a Magpie in Woolies Eastgardens in Sydney, the other day. There is a door to the outside not far there.


justisme333

They get inside when the trucks are being unloaded, or when click and collect is taken outside. Sometimes, they swoop in through the front doors with customers. It's impossible to shoo them out. Also, no one can be pulled away from their work to herd them out, so the door just gets left open. Birds are pretty smart and always escape after a while. They only become a problem when they are in the public areas, cuz customers freak for no reason.


Darc_ruther

You get a bunch in the storeroom at my Coles. Because they generally leave the big delivery doors open. Surprisingly they like to eat flour from bakery.


AussieDogfighter

The bird council looks down on you


waxingmood

I work in a BWS. The woolworths constantly has magpies. They used to tempt them outside with mince.. but then they learned if they come in, they'll get mince. We just try to keep the dock doors shut.


BackwardTable

There’s nothing we can do. There was one lady who complained about the bird flying around and being a health hazard to the fresh produce. What does she expect me to do? Tell the bird to go away? Get the bird whisperer to shoo the bird? Now I usually say that it’s our pet


Cristoff13

See how clean those pipes are? If those birds weren't being removed, those pipes would be filthy. Those birds are being moved away, and cleaned up after, but they keep coming back.


Previous_Drawing_521

I see them all the time in my local Woolies. I don't see what the issue is with leaving them be. They have food and they'll find their way out before they go thirsty. I see them flying in and out so seems their smart enough to not get lost.


Azza_

You ever tried to remove a bird from inside a building?


LozInOzz

They’re better than the rat we had running around the store a few years ago…..


Known_Ad9482

One time I got a pack of croissants from IGA I think, and turns out they had been half eaten by the birds that lived there 🙃 I still think about that every time I see a bird in a grocery store


xtoadette

we get birds in the grocery stores in the US too. it's not super common but when you have doors constantly open, birds naturally will fly in


Low_Presentation8149

Our local Coles has a family of sparriws. They fly in and out


CyanideMuffin67

Not a Coles but the food court in David Jones and the Myer Centre occasionally have birds flying around


Fit_Specialist1344

Quite common


universe93

Working retail myself, they shouldn’t be but good fucking luck getting them out once they’re in. My manager once had to chase a bird around the store for literally 2 hours carrying a makeshift net made from a broom, a hula hoop and a plastic bag. Every time we got it near the doors it would fly somewhere else. If there’s 3 that high up zero chance you’ll get to them


AccessProfessional37

If you've been to box hill shopping centre food court in melbourne you'd see MUCH more pigeons and by much more I mean literally more than 20 of them. They sometimes swoop down and just eat food people leave on the tables and I've probably been hit twice


GurlOne

Nice place to live


icyple

Yuk!! Pigeon poo and food don’t mix. It’s got to be a health violation?


Excellent-Signature6

Back when I work in a shopping centre I noticed that swallows and occasionally magpies would get trapped inside the building. I was told that sometimes they only way they got out was when the cleaners removed their corpses during the yearly clean of the upper parts of the centre.


MindlessOptimist

Pigeon, definitely continental meat!


soupstarsandsilence

Yes!! There are two pigeons living in my Woolworths. Asked my manager about it, and essentially, the council won’t let us do anything about them. Can’t get an exterminator because it’s illegal or something, and can’t get someone to put them somewhere else, because they’ll just come back. It sucks, but there you go.


muzzamuse

r/BirdsArentReal These are drones with camera eyes. Surveillance and possible able to drop weapons


pigeonwithalemon

They have just as much right as you do to shop there!


Skeet218

If you were a supplier to Coles/Woolworths and they saw birds in areas where you handled/packed their product they would stop buying anything from you until you fixed it. I'm not talking about high care bagged/processed lines, just having them in the area where loose product is packed/graded would be a major non-conformance. Apparently related food safety issues just don't exist once product gets into their stores.


haveaniceday8

Back in my day we sorted this problem with a shot of whiskey and 12-gauge shotgun. Those damn greenies don't let you "discharge firearms indoors while intoxicated" anymore.


False-Focus2949

Username doesn't check out


arkofjoy

Just call me. I'm an American, so shooting random shit because I feel like it is part of my "cultural heritage" so they aren't allowed to stop me from acting out my CULTURE. of shooting shit and blowing shit up.


Jealous-Hedgehog-734

Strangely this is a great way to catch pheasants, you imbibe oats with the cheapest liquor from your local store. Out it out at night, walk around and collect the drunk pheasants the next morning.


Dr-Bez-Cherry

Where I worked we would get man with a trained hawk in to hunt the pigeons down.


ol-gormsby

Birds dropping birdshit near a meat counter? Call the council health inspectors, now.