Cape Town - Shoprite will be taking disciplinary action against employees who placed boxed alcoholic drinks among fruit juices this week, amid a public outcry.
Photographs circulated by angry shoppers via e-mail and social networks showed Sangria packaged similarly to fruit juice positioned among non-alcoholic juices on the shelves of one of its stores earlier this week.
Shoprite spokeswoman Sarita van Wyk said the retailer has sent an urgent message to all its supermarkets to check for the incorrectly merchandised flavoured wine.
“The Cape Table Sangria Cooler is only ranged for our Liquor Shops and we are trying to ascertain how it happened that it was merchandised on the supermarket fruit juice shelf in one of our stores.”
The boxed Sangria is a drink originally from Portugal and Spain made from wine and fresh fruits with up to 6 percent alcohol.
Alcohol should be shelved in a separate, specially designated part of the supermarket.
Shoppers first began noticing the boxed juices containing alcohol next to plain fruit juices on Monday.
The message circulated included a warning to Muslims to not mistakenly drink the product.
On Facebook, Tilal Mall wrote on Wednesday: “Warning! Shoprite is selling Sangria brand of fruit juices containing wine. It is packed next to the normal juices. Please warn fellow Muslims.”
Van Wyk said that it was an isolated incident.”and that Shoprite had no intention of misleading customers.
“While this is an isolated incident, Shoprite regrets the error and views it in a very serious light.
“It was certainly not our intention to mislead our Muslim customers or any others.
“Disciplinary action will be taken where applicable once we have identified the cause of the error.”
Cape Argus