A trip to the bakery aisle at a Granada Hills Vons turned into a scene workers say they will not forget: a customer lay dead on the floor, hidden behind carts and umbrellas, while the store stayed open and shoppers kept moving past.
Employees say managers chose to keep the store running for hours after the collapse, leaving staff rattled and the victim’s family seated inside the supermarket as they waited for a mortuary crew to arrive and remove the body.
The incident unfolded on July 5, when a customer suffered a medical emergency in the bakery section. Paszion Horner‑Smith, a store supervisor, and another employee performed CPR, but the person was ultimately pronounced dead. The Los Angeles Fire Department says crews were dispatched just after 7 p.m.
Horner‑Smith later told coworkers that corporate managers instructed employees to “barricade the body” using shopping carts and umbrellas while the store stayed open. She also said the customer’s family remained inside for roughly four hours until a mortuary arrived, and that UFCW Local 770 urged the company to review its emergency policies, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Horner‑Smith said the experience left her shaken enough that she planned to take a week off to recover. “This poor family that’s just sitting there,” she told CBS Los Angeles. “They can’t even see their loved one; they can’t touch their loved one.”
Union Reaction And Worker Context
UFCW Local 770, which represents Vons workers across Los Angeles and lists Horner‑Smith on its leadership roster, says the episode highlights why stores need clear emergency procedures and stronger protections for employees. The union, detailed on its site at UFCW Local 770, has pushed in recent contract fights for better staffing levels and workplace safety rules.
Coverage of grocery labor has documented how thin staffing and constant stress have worn down frontline workers, with Forbes and other outlets chronicling the lingering toll of these conditions on store employees. Union leaders say the Granada Hills case fits into a broader pattern in which workers are left to manage high-stakes situations without enough guidance or support.
Regulatory Questions
Federal rules require employers to notify the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when an employee dies on the job, and a workplace fatality must be reported within eight hours. Those requirements cover employee deaths, not customers, according to OSHA.
Separately, California law requires that certain unattended or unusual deaths be reported to the county medical examiner. The county’s own guidance, outlined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, cites Health & Safety Code provisions that govern when coroners must be notified.
Workers and union officials say the Granada Hills incident underscores the need for clearer store-level procedures and faster coordination with authorities any time someone dies on the premises, so employees are not left improvising behind a wall of shopping carts.
