Oh, That's Nasty: The Mexia Supermarket Disaster

While watching a thing about creepy lost media recently, I came across a story (several, actually) that had somehow escaped my little oddity-collecting brain:  the most memorable being the Mexia Supermarket Disaster.  (I use the word "disaster" because nothing else really fits as this story is so bizarre, yet I'm kinda shocked it hasn't happened more than just once with the way we humans are so careless).  Sit back while I enthrall you with a tale that's guaranteed to fill your nostrils with a thick rotten funk & leave you retching in the aisles.    🤢🏪

Picture it:  Fort Worth Texas, July 1999.  It's a hot and muggy Texas summer when suddenly you smell something rank.  Probably just some roadkill that's sat in the sun too long, you think.  But alas:  rather than fading with time, the stench grows more pungent by the day, with neighbors soon complaining to the City & local news channels about the worsening odor of decaying flesh.  Anyone who will listen, basically.  At some point it becomes unbearable--what the HELL is going on?  Then you look out your window one day and see workers in moon suits descending on the local supermarket, which has apparently been abandoned with all the meat, milk, produce and other food still inside.  Meanwhile the power was cut off months ago when the owners filed bankruptcy and fled back to their home country of Laos. 

Somebody done funked up here, boys.  

But it gets worse:  not only is the market full of rotting food, there are now millions of maggots, rats, flies, cockroaches & other insects/vermin throwing a party inside the stanky store.  One decontamination worker described the scene as follows: 

"Every aisle contained... a new surprise.  Brian Boerner recalls that the apples, lettuce, and bananas had already rotted, but that what remained showed signs of where rodents had gnawed on it, several containers of milk had exploded due to the bacteria inside producing gas, and packaged meat appeared to not have been touched by animals, but a large portion of it had decayed into a greyish-black organic slime from where microorganisms had decomposed it."

Not only was this nauseating and repulsive, it was downright dangerous.  Bacteria had literally sucked the oxygen out of the store & replaced it with toxic gases, and surfaces were overrun with E. coli bacteria.  Workers from the Health Department, the Environmental Management & Code Enforcement departments as well as a company called Garner Environmental used a front-end loader to scoop up various liquid meats, toxic sludges & other biohazards after thoroughly fumigating the building to rid it of pests as much as humanly possible.  When all was said and done, the operation cost "tens of thousands of dollars" & wasn't complete until November 30th, 1999.  

...and people still reported smelling foul odors as late as December.  That's nearly half a year of dealing with this filth.

IDK about you but something like this would probably turn me into a hardcore vegan & PETA weirdo for life.  I don't even eat beef or pork but 🤢.  There's just something about the smell of rotting animal carcasses that kills the ol' appetite.  Like, forever.  There are animal processing plants in my area where you have to hold your nose driving past on the highway to avoid gagging at the dead animal stench, so I think I have a pretty good idea of what these folks were subjected to, but this had to be a special kind of nasty.  I imagine there were an extra couple layers of Eau de Hot Dumpster Juice and Curdled Milk Essence on top of the usual "week-old horse carcass" & rat doodoo smell of the rendering plants.  I have to wonder if the store itself could've exploded if left like that long enough in the scorching Texas sun, maybe if it had been a little smaller.  Seems like having the oxygen sucked out and replaced with toxic gases would make it pretty combustible but I never was good at chemistry so IDK.  (Ooh, imagine if a meth lab nearby exploded and blew all that unholy diseased filth to the high heavens!  Kids would be all "Mommy, it's raining maggots and brown slime!")

Sorry.  I really am. 

So where does "lost media" fit into this picture?  Apparently decontamination crews recorded video footage of the cleanup process, some of which was broadcast on local news segments and the like.  Only a portion of those can be found today.  I've included a series of photos and screenshots from inside the nightmare store below.  Enjoy, I guess.  If you're into that kind of thing:

Hmmm, whats' this?  Looks innocent enough...

Good god what's that smell?  I'm getting hints of decomposition with rat shit undertones.

No.  Nope, ain't no way or no how, turn the fuck back now!

Ground beef, lightly browned (Or is it "Browned beef, lightly ground?")

Juice and explosive dairy aisle...




Article from beginning of cleanup efforts...

...and near the end.  🫡




Truly, the Mexia Supermarket circa late 1999 makes The Backrooms look like a good place to settle down and raise a family by comparison.  To quote the great American cartoon character Cleveland Brown: