Tampa Grocery Store Accidents and Injury Attorney

Injured While Grocery Shopping in Tampa? You’re Not Alone

Tampa residents venture into grocery stores and supermarkets throughout the Tampa Bay area rather frequently. Most never even think twice about the possibility of suffering serious injuries while on their shopping trip. However, grocery store slip and fall accidents are a lot more common than most think. And numerous people suffer harm while shopping for groceries, due to wet floors or messy merchandise cluttering up aisle walkways. Under Florida law, supermarkets and grocery stores open to the public have a legal duty to maintain a safe environment for customers or clearly warn them of any known hazards on the premises.

Grocery Stores Have a Legal Duty to Keep You Safe

At Whittel & Melton, our Tampa Grocery Store and Supermarket Accident Injury Lawyers understand the urgency of thoroughly investigating premises liability incidents before key evidence is lost. In our experience, these cases often involve clear signs of negligence. Strong evidence is critical to proving that store management or employees failed to take reasonable steps to keep shoppers safe.

We can immediately launch an investigation into your injury at a Tampa grocery store or supermarket to uncover key liability issues, such as:

• What types of procedures does the grocery store or supermarket have in place for recognizing and eliminating safety hazards?
• Procedures the supermarket or grocery store has set up for keeping bathrooms and other areas in the store free from dangers, like slips and falls
• What training and supervision are provided for employees on how to safely stack merchandise and place inventory?
• What precautions does the store take to ensure the safety of hazardous conditions for guests, workers, and visitors?
• How long a certain danger at the store has been present?
• The amount of time employees have known about any dangers at the store or have received complaints from customers
• Any areas of the grocery store or supermarket that have uneven, rippled, or torn carpet
• Floors that are prone to slippery conditions
• Defective or Incorrect Paint used to stripe a parking lot – dangerous when wet
• Any equipment that is not working properly, such as a leaky water cooler or a broken freezer
• Inadequate lighting in walkways or stairways
• Stairways that have not been maintained properly
• Obstructions in aisleways that are not marked accordingly for shoppers
• Uneven pavement in the parking lot

We Represent Anyone in the Tampa Bay area

Our Tampa Grocery Store and Supermarket Accident Injury Lawyers at Whittel & Melton zealously represent anyone who has suffered an injury in Tampa Bay area grocery stores or supermarkets, including but not limited to the following:

• Albertsons
• Bravo
• Sprouts Farmers Market
• Duckweed Urban Grocery
• Suncoast Grocery
• Oceanic Oriental Supermarket
• The Fresh Market
• Stop & Shop
• Sweetbay Supermarket
• Fletcher Supermarket
• Quality Meat Market
• Friendly Meat & Grocery
• Iga
• GFS Marketplace
• Rainbow Foods
• Costco/Sam’s Club/BJ’s
• Publix
• Sedano’s
• Trader Joe’s
• Super Walmart
• Save A Lot
• Aldi
• Super Target
• Whole Foods Market
• Walgreens/CVS
• Winn Dixie

Call us today at 813-221-3200 or contact us online for a free consultation

Slip and Fall Hazards Are More Common And More Preventable Than You Think

The most common accidents in grocery stores or supermarkets are slips and falls. While these cases can be rather complex, with the right attorneys on your side, you can maximize your odds of recovering financial compensation for your suffering.

When a grocery store or supermarket in Tampa fails to clean up spilled liquids or place floor mats where needed, they can be held liable for resulting injuries. These incidents often stem from oversight or negligence.

Slip and fall accidents also happen outside, in supermarket parking lots. Many grocery store chains fail to supervise or properly maintain the striping in these areas. When stripes are painted with the wrong kind of paint, they can absorb oil and other substances from cars. Then it rains, and the surface becomes extremely slippery—a dangerous condition.

Even worse, major grocery store chains have known about these risks for years. They understand how to prevent or significantly reduce these types of accidents. But too often, profits come before customer safety. As a result, these dangerous conditions continue to happen again and again.

The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), along with other state and federal agencies, regulate how grocery stores and supermarkets should safely operate. Insurance companies for supermarkets and grocery stores also monitor stores’ safety protocols in order to keep their liability down and decrease injury-related incidents from occurring.

Lawsuits surrounding grocery store and supermarket accidents are very fact intensive. What this means for you is that you need to have a strong premises liability law firm fighting in your corner who handles these types of cases on a regular basis. Our Tampa Grocery Store and Supermarket Accident Injury Lawyers at Whittel & Melton routinely handle premises liability cases throughout the Bay area and know how to handle investigations and analyze evidence related to these incidents. We often utilize experts for these cases who can testify about what practices are common for keeping and maintaining the safety of grocery stores.

What Are Common Grocery Store Accidents?

Regardless of grocery stores and supermarkets passing routine safety inspections, accidents can and still happen.

The most common causes of injuries in grocery stores include:

• Cuts from broken or damaged shopping carts
• Missing entryway or exit floor mats
• Slick or wet floors from leaks – air conditioner, frozen section, refrigerated areas
• Slick parking lot painted stripes with defective paint, causing slipping hazard
• Improperly working or malfunctioning entryway or exit doors
• Merchandise falling from shelves onto shoppers
• Boxes or pallets of food obstructing aisleways
• Uneven or cracked pavement in the parking lot
• Rotten food being sold that causes food poisoning

What Does it Mean for a Grocery Store or Supermarket to Have a Duty of Care?

In Tampa and elsewhere throughout the country, grocery stores have what is known as a duty of care to their workers and customers, meaning that they must keep their premises reasonably safe from any foreseeable harm. For example, if an employee fails to clean up a toilet that has overflowed and a customer or visitor slips and becomes injured, then this is considered foreseeable harm. Unforeseeable harm would be anything that the store cannot predict would be an issue for customers or visitors.

Whether a mom and pop corner shop or a large corporate-owned grocery chain, all retail stores must protect their customers. When a store fails to keep their patrons safe, then they have breached their duty of care and could be liable for any damages resulting from a customer’s injury, such as medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

After a grocery store or supermarket accident in Tampa, you must protect your rights. If you need to be sure you have a valid claim, then we strongly recommend that you contact our Tampa Bay Premises Liability Lawyers at Whittel & Melton at 813-221-3200 or contact us online for a free consultation to learn more.

Contact Our Tampa Grocery Store and Supermarket Accident Injury Lawyers at Whittel & Melton – 813-221-3200

Our Tampa Grocery Store and Supermarket Accident Injury Lawyers at Whittel & Melton know that you may be dealing with many stresses and struggles following a grocery store accident. We can help you understand your rights and what to expect from your case. Our goal is to get the best possible outcome for you so that you can move forward from this unfortunate event. We welcome you to call us today at 813-221-3200 or contact us online to schedule your no-obligation free consultation. If we are not able to get you financial compensation, then you will not owe us any legal fees.