A Memphis, Tennessee, Popeyes restaurant was recently shut down after a video posted to TikTok by former employee Tykeia Ransom went viral. In the video, roaches are seen scurrying across surfaces that come into contact with food and several other kitchen areas.
According to WREG, the manager of the Popeyes location was made aware of the roach infestation and still wanted to serve the food, Ransom told WREG.
“I got fired for the previous video that I had recorded on TikTok.”
Ransom also discussed the extent of the roach problem, saying,
“It’s very bad. It’s everywhere and all in the food you know and everything you can think of. All in the rice.” Ransom continued to say that things escalated when she alerted the manager to the problem. “The G.M. knew about it. It’s been a problem; you get what I’m saying? And when I tried to tell her about it, we got into it.”
After WREG contacted Popeyes’ corporate office about the situation, the company responded swiftly. Not only did Popeyes send an e-mail confirming the practice violated its company policy, but it would also investigate how this happened and close the store until the roach problem was solved.
Popeyes writes: “Absolutely nothing about the condition of the restaurant in this video is acceptable. Even though the Health Department visited yesterday and confirmed no issues at the restaurant located at 4720 Showcase Blvd, Memphis, TN, we shut it down, thoroughly cleaned and will not reopen until we understand what happened and team members have been retrained on proper procedures.”
Ransom is not interested in getting her job back:
“I don’t want my job back because that’s the rudest company I ever worked for.”
According to Fox 13 Memphis, several customers expressed frustrations with that particular Popeyes location. Donald Ellis told Fox 13, “They don’t worry about the customers like how they eat and what they eat. It’s all about money,”
The news station reached out to the Shelby County Health Department, which handles food inspections, to see when the restaurant would reopen, but they have not responded to those inquiries. Ransom has set up a GoFundMe to help her cover her expenses until she can find another job, and the whistleblower says that she will never work in food service or for Popeyes again.
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