Here are some facts about “Lou’s Restaurant”:
- Lou’s receives deliveries from may suppliers. Many of them have been chosen based on the price of their products.
- Deliveries are received through a double door in Lou’s receiving area. The deliveries are wheeled in from trucks directly into the receiving area where they are sometimes inspected.
- The operation has many exterior windows. Some of them have screens that need to be patched or replaced.Doors coming into the operation must be closed tightly by hand and are sometimes not closed completely by employees. The weather stripping on doors needs to be replaced. Dust and dirt often blow inside.
- Some water pipes run through the wall into the operation. The sealant around these pipes is missing in many places.
- The foundation has some cracks. But the holes are no bigger that a quarter. There are a few holes next to the foundation outside the building.
- Stationary equipment, such as walk-in coolers, is not sealed to the floor.- During rush periods, garbage bags are tied off and stacked by the back door until the end of the night.
- While trash cans are fitted with clean bags, the cans are not cleaned very often. They also leak, and these leaks are not always cleaned up immediately.
- Lou’s is eco-friendly, so they recycle cans, glass, and other paper products. They keep recycling containers in the operation and outside next to the back door, so it is easy for staff to recycle.
- Dry food is stored on shelves. Products on the shelves are stored close to the wall to get as many items on the shelves as possible. Cases of dry pasta and bags of flour are stored on the floor. New products are often stored in front of older products.
- In the chemical-storage room, only chemicals and cleaning supplies are stored. Wet mops are stored on the floor. A bucket has been stored under a dripping faucet to catch a small leak.
Please imagine that you are a rat or a cockroach. Explain how you will enter this restaurant, what you will eat and where you will live. Then explain what a pest control operator would do to try to make sure your plan would not succeed.