Schnucks Wins Coveted Black Pearl Award

What is the Black Pearl Award, I hear you ask in a tone of great bewilderment? And why is it coveted?

We at Gut Check are here to help!

We must also confess -- we were drawn to this arduous research task by our fondness for pirates.

Shopping at Schnucks, particularly during the five o'clock hour or on a Saturday afternoon, frequently makes us wish we had a cutlass, and occasionally we occupy ourselves in the self-checkout line by indulging in keel-hauling fantasies.

Alas, the Black Pearl Award has nothing to do with pirates. Or with caviar, which might have been the next logical suspect.

The Black Pearl Award, as the St. Louis Business Journal was the first to report, is an annual award given by the International Association for Food Protection of Des Moines, Iowa, "in recognition of a company's outstanding achievement in corporate excellence in food safety and quality."

(There is also a Black Pearl Award given each year by the Middle East International Film Festival, but Schnucks won the food safety one.)

An award for food safety that includes the word "black" seems kind of...strange. The IAFP says, poetically,

The Elusive Black Pearl
Sought after from Oceania
To the Orient by European Lords
and Asian Emperors Alike,
Its Rarity a Sign of Determination,
Its Luster a Sign of Quality,
Its Acquisition a Sign of Excellence

Well then. Previous winners include Jack in the Box and Walt Disney World.