Dominique Bernardo first noticed chewed up bread.
"I think rats chewed on this," she recalls telling her manager in early 2021 at a Trader Joe's store in Oakland, California. Weeks passed, and Bernardo said she would spend the first 30 to 40 minutes of her shift cleaning rat feces at the College Avenue store.
It was only after the problem snowballed and customers began returning damaged products that the company took more aggressive measures to deal with the infestation, said Bernardo, who has worked for the grocery chain for 18 years.
