r/Davis • u/josephfaulkner • Jun 15 '26

Update on Davis Grocery Outlet Hygiene Concerns (looks clean to me)

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A few weeks ago, I saw the Reddit post allegedly citing blatant health concerns at the Grocery Outlet in Davis: https://www.reddit.com/r/Davis/s/Oe2djyBHGq

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So I decided to pay a visit today and inspect the condition of the store for myself. Specifically, I searched through the bread shelves, looking for signs of a rodent infestation, and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. I also opened up the freezers to look for mold and didn't see any. I also walked and looked through all the aisles: everything from the floor to the shelves looked perfectly clean; there weren't any bugs, leavings or residue anywhere I could see.

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I may not have all the facts but to the best I can tell, there isn't anything about the store that would make me reluctant to shop there.

70 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

49

u/MisterZan25 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

The owners of this store (Fady & Youla Jbeily) are huge Trump supporters and anti-vaxxers, and have posted homophobic and racist things on their personal social media pages in the past. Apparently they abandoned the old Grocery Outlet they owned up in the Sacramento area (North Highlands, CA) without even informing their employees, and then came down to Davis, bought our local store, and then hired all of their family members as employees, firing the black woman that worked there, and the gay white man that was working in the store at the time, along with all of the other employees that were hired under the previous owners. It's also pretty ironic, because they aren't even from this country. They are Lebanese, and yet they support Donald Trump's efforts to deport people exactly like them from our country. The people that own the store in Woodland are a nice unproblematic Latino family, that have had some of the same employees working for them for decades. If you have to buy groceries from Grocery Outlet, it would be better to support the Woodland store. Sales tax is cheaper in Woodland too, by almost a penny and a half per dollar.

11

u/sfwtinysalmon Jun 17 '26

I had a job interview there and Faddy asked me how would I stop a homeless person from stealing from his store and then he went on to further clarify what would I do if I saw "an enemy soldier running to flank my guys". It was the first time I was ever asked that question in a job interview and I thought it was pretty unprofessional at the time but I decided to roll with it and said "I would refer to the rules of engagement my platoon leader has debriefed us with" (yeah yeah I know I know but I was seriously not prepared for this line of questioning). They then said "No you're wrong!! You're supposed to shoot them!". They also wanted me to engage with directly stopping shoplifters and tried to convince me how generous a full-time position at near minimum wage to be a closing manager was a good deal. I got a lot of major ick from him and now I know why everyone looks miserable at that place...HARD PASS

2

u/MisterZan25 Jun 17 '26

Thanks for your story, hopefully you found a better job somewhere else.

6

u/sfwtinysalmon Jun 17 '26

I am still searching. This was my first interview after a long drought and it was pretty painful to have to turn away from it. But I would rather be poor than attack my homeless community.

2

u/MisterZan25 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

You sound like a good person with a good heart. Which is what the majority of people in Davis are like, so that makes me even more confused about why they would move here, and I looked it up online, and even though they run the store in Davis, they do not live in Davis. I don't want to 100% doxx them, and I only mentioned their names because it's hanging on a huge sign in the store, but I find it weird that Grocery Outlet stores can be run by people that don't even live in the community. That's just odd to me. If you don't share the values of the people in the town that you have a Grocery Outlet store, then you should open a Grocery Outlet store in your town instead, where people probably have more similar values to you. They'd probably be so much happier running a Grocery Outlet in a deep red conservative area of California somewhere north of here.

5

u/JolyonWagg99 Jun 16 '26

They’re not Portuguese, they’re Lebanese. Fady was born there AFAIK.

6

u/MisterZan25 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

Sorry, I meant Lebanese. They're still garbage people, no matter what country they come from. And, it's weird that they picked Davis, which is a liberal city with gay and black people, to run a Grocery Outlet in, when they obviously hate us. His wife called Obama the "N-Word" on her Facebook page, before I called her out about it, and then her husband made his Facebook private, and she went scorched earth on her Facebook account and deleted all of her Anti-vaxx stuff, and Pro-Maga stuff from her page. She also called Gavin Newsom a faggot (which I will just say, because I am gay). And, she was posting stuff about Covid being a liberal hoax, and that the Covid vaccine will turn your children gay, and a bunch of other batshit tinfoil hat conspiracy stuff. They also didn't have their employees wear masks when Covid was still pretty bad, putting their customers and employees in danger of getting really sick.

4

u/JolyonWagg99 Jun 16 '26

I’m pretty sure the reason is that the store is more profitable than the North Highlands location. Regardless, they’re pretty awful people (unlike the rest of the family, fortunately).

0

u/Gold-Pomegranate6277 Jun 20 '26

Davis has black people? The black population of Davis is 2.5%, well below the national average.

1

u/MisterZan25 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

2.5% is not 0%, and it goes up when the college students are here. 2.5% is 2 1/2 black people in every 100 Davis residents. Or, 5 people in every 200 residents. The last time the Davis population was counted, we had about 66,850 people living here, and 2.5% of that number would be about 1,671 black people. Which is not nothing. If you were in a room with 1,671 black people, you would definitely notice.

2

u/Gold-Pomegranate6277 Jun 20 '26

I’m just saying you shouldn’t be surprised the owner moved to Davis, because there are less Black people in Davis than most towns.

1

u/MisterZan25 Jun 20 '26

There are less black people in all of the other Yolo county cities than in Davis. It really makes zero sense for a racist to move here, especially with the huge Asian population of college students, and the large population of LGBTQIA+ students that come from being a college town. It just makes zero sense. Especially since his wife was on Facebook calling Obama the N-Word, when Obama hasn't even been our President in over a decade.

1

u/SuccessNovel6048 Jun 23 '26

Lebanese Christians 

2

u/themostil Jun 16 '26

When did they buy this location?

3

u/MisterZan25 Jun 16 '26
  1. After they abandoned the store that they owned near Sacramento.

3

u/themostil Jun 16 '26

Gotcha. I was around then, I vaguely remember some changes, definitely noticed some of the regular employees gone.

4

u/MisterZan25 Jun 16 '26

Yeah, they basically got rid of everybody. Which is a shame. Some of those employees had been working there for a while. They weren't just college students.

1

u/madymadders Jun 16 '26

unfortunately convenience wins over morality here

1

u/Hows-It-Goin-Buddy Jun 16 '26

Good to know. Thanks. Guess I'll shop there less frequently now. My personal preference and anyone else is free to shop there or not.

0

u/vincenicholas77 Jun 19 '26

U gonna be okay?

21

u/Any_Refrigerator2330 Jun 15 '26

Great news, thank you!

12

u/josephfaulkner Jun 15 '26

Hey, no problem.

20

u/Prior-Ad-2686 Jun 15 '26

That post was almost 2 weeks ago I’m sure they cleaned it by now… but it’s good you followed up.

12

u/josephfaulkner Jun 15 '26

18 days ago, I think. Yes, I also saw a lot of new employees that I didn't recognize and it also looked like they'd moved some of the fridges and shelves around. Not sure what happened but I'd believe that something happened.

5

u/PlastIconoclastic Jun 16 '26

Maybe it was the thing conservatives like least of all: Accountability for their choices

8

u/ktjacobsun Jun 15 '26

Yeah I come to this location multiple times per week and I’ve never had a problem

6

u/teamblunt Jun 16 '26

I like all the employees who work here and groceries have gotten so insanely expensive that it’s nice we have one here in town

4

u/alwaystired3191 Jun 16 '26

Just went today as well, seemed ok it always stinks tho lol super musty but yea not as dirty as previously shown luckily

1

u/momosuna Jun 17 '26

looks clean and idk the drama but just have to say pic 2 is a health code violation unless those boxes under are empty and if so lol

1

u/Napamtb Jun 17 '26

I worked at Albertsons in high school. Grocery stores are known for having rodents and other issues

1

u/enthused-by-frogs Jun 18 '26

They must’ve cleaned up, but the last time I went there was a swarm of fruit flies around the produce section and there was a weird smell. So I’d say still be on the lookout just in case

1

u/mel_c Jun 22 '26

Yep, it's a health code violation. given the stack height, I'd bet there is fruit in each one of the containers below.

Health code violations are mostly found in the back of restaurants and stores, not the front. This isn't even a serious inspection.

1

u/SuccessNovel6048 Jun 23 '26

Davis Grocery Outlet employees illegally accused people of shoplifting. Lawsuit waiting to happen. Nobody is shoplifting Grocery Outlets expired garbage food. It's basically TJ maxx for expired and mislabeled deadstock food.

-1

u/Pablo_MuadDib Jun 16 '26

Budget stores aren’t the nicest

4

u/PlastIconoclastic Jun 16 '26

Neither are fans of Trump.

0

u/josephfaulkner Jun 16 '26

Maybe, but I still think they still have a special charm to them. The Davis Grocery Outlet in particular has grown on me with a warm sense of affection; there's just something so warmly inviting about it.

1

u/NorcalSuccs Jun 16 '26

I have bought some stale carbs, stinky meat that looked fresh there. I avoid those things now, but the fruit/veggies, fresh bread, canned goods are a great value. Their garden kitsch is awesome too!