Super Fresh is a New Jersey-based grocery store chain that is struggling financially and has had to close many of its stores in recent years. Yet, at least one of the company’s remaining locations feels the need to turn away paying customers, and it does so by perpetuating false information.
This sign is posted on the door of a Super Fresh grocery store located in Ocean CIty, Md.
At the front of the store is a sign that reads: “Under Maryland code, your shirt and shoes are required before you enter into Superfresh [sic].” Before we address the legal fallacies of the sign, let’s take a look at the hilarious construction of the sentence.
First, the name of the store is two words: Super Fresh, not Superfresh. Second, if you read the sentence literally, it suggests that the customer must give the store his or her shoes and shirt before entering, not that he or she must wear shoes and a shirt to enter the store. Third, the sentence as written implies that the nonexistent “code” is written specifically for Super Fresh.
But, what the author of the sign is clearly attempting to say is that shirts and shoes must be worn in the store, as mandated by the state code. Of course, Maryland does not have a code requiring shirts and shoes in grocery stores (or any other place of business), nor does any other U.S. state.
Super Fresh is allowed to bar barefoot customers from its stores. But, if it does, it’s the store’s policy, not the state’s policy.
I have sent an email to Super Fresh regarding the sign. I will update this post with the company’s response if I get one.
Let's Go Barefoot! 