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Countdown's apologising to customers for the distress and inconvenience of a pest plague that's temporarily closed one store and raised question about food safety at others.
The Dunedin South Countdown has been closed for a week today, as exterminators try to rid it of rats.
It's been battling the unwanted intruders since October last year, with one rat photographed looking pretty cosy in the deli section.
Since then the bodies have been piling, adding to that, images of a mouse romping over salad in the deli section of the Eastgate Countdown in Christchurch.
Another incident has seen pigeons apparently pecking away at groceries in two Auckland countdowns.
Pieter de Wet from parent Woolworths speaks to Lisa Owen.