the wipes are probably so you can wipe down the handles and the gross "seat" where people put their children. i don't need a kid's ass germs all over the area where my food will be placed thanks.

Supermarkets are GROSS. ever think about how many germs that nasty teenager who is ringing up your groceries deposits on your keys when they scan the rewards card on your keychain?
i do. i scan it myself.

that being said, i would be really annoyed if i saw someone pawing around in the roll bin without gloves and touching the food without the paper or tongs. they're placed there, along with bags, for a reason.

you might have showered, but you might also have touched keys, money, the door of a car or store, who knows...i don't need that spread to my food. i don't want it sterile, but proper food handling techniques are in place for a reason.

what if you had eaten a handful of peanuts before you went to the store and didn't wash your hands? you stick your hand in and touch some other roll you're not buying inadvertently and someone else comes along and buys it who just happens to be allergic.

it's a stretch, but someone with food allergies like me has to think about every situation before eating.

i also buy loaves pre-packaged to avoid this very thing. i also make my own baked goods. i don't need people touching my food unless necessary.

How about the supermarkets just put the bagels and rolls in UFO catcher machines? No chance of human hands touching the items that they're not buying. ;p

haha...fend for yourself, strategy eating!

AWESOME IDEA!

And while we're at it, don't devour your purchase in the checkout line while you are in front of me waiting to check out.
Crumbs flying everywhere cause you can't wait five minutes to stuff your pie hole.

haha....i wonder if we shop at the same market ls....i've seen this happen so many times.

my other pet peeve is people on their phones while in line (anywhere...this isn't specific to supermarkets). there is no reason i need to listen to insipid blathering while standing in line. it's like you're trapped.

i also like to shop late at night...less idiots and more funny drunk people wandering about.

Yeah, I only go shopping late at night, say after 9pm.
In and out.

Hell on earth must be saturday morning at the grocery store.
That's if you can find parking.

I'm starting to see people walking around texting, fixated on the screen and not watching where they are going.

Back to the grocery stuff:
I had a fish guy once lick his fingers and run them through his hair (no gloves) and then ask me if he could help with anything behind the counter.
Yummy.

I haven't seen them, so I don't know. You don't, either, because you're making a supposition. There are Health Codes that Supermarkets must adhere to and inspections they must undergo, so tongs must be considered safe within parameters of current standards of practice (because of the preponderance of tongs where bread is sold).

Still, those tongs are probably cleaner than your hands. Just stop touching food in supermarkets and grocery stores--it's gross and uncouth, and not considerate of your fellow shoppers, and it was why that woman scolded you in the first place. It's not YOUR personal hygiene practices that are in question, but between your home and the supermarket, your hands were probably filthy at that point (you might be appalled at the amount of germs you contract when you type these posts on your keyboards).

Remember, cleanliness is close to godliness.

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/conditi ... n/lifespan

http://www.ehow.com/how_2218252_protect ... arket.html

Hell on Earth = Wal-Mart 12 Noon on a Sunday. If you manage to get through the parking lot without hitting some idiots kids you'll most likely hit them inside with your cart. Though satisfying for a moment, it gets less so when you have to hear the freak try to yell at you, explain their kid was running around without being watched, than told "DON'T TELL ME HOW TO RAISE MY KIDS!" That's when I start feeling bad for the kid, if they grow up to be like their parents it's as if thye never had a chance.

But the prices are worth it!

Uhg. I'd rather get a root canal than go to Walmart.

I agree with you on the other stuff, but I have to disagree that Health Codes mean a whole lot, unless they're enforced, and there are no guarantess they ARE being enforced. A Safeway here in Seattle had had issues with rat feces/urine on product shelves and chewed through bags/boxes for about 2 mos now, and they refuse to do anything about it and the state is just giving them warnings. Ridiculous.

Ugh. Seriously? Which one?

On Rainier Ave in Columbia City.

I keep forgetting to call you to get together, L!

Interesting. I imagine that the Health Departments vary from State to State (and County to County), but they are very strict in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles--I work in the bar/restaurant industry (and have friends who own bars and cafes), and I can tell you from personal experience that they are strict, and also make surprise inspections (in both towns). Still, they do need the support of the public to be vigilant, and I've reported a couple of businesses myself.

Before the advent of tongs in supermarkets (aka Terror of the Tongs), I remember the wax paper gig--and I remember that some bakeries didn't let the customers handle the food, until after they handed it to them.

The bottom line is, people are filthy and must be destroyed.

+1

Since the conversation has shifted a bit. My two pet peaves:

1. The fat ladies (and yes they are always ladies..and yes they are always fat) in the parking lot who insist their husbands/boyfriends/whatever drop them off at the front door of the store (thereby blocking traffic as she roots around in her purse, unbuckles, barks out more orders to those in the car, etc.) rather than simply parking the car in a slot and walking an extra 30 yards..

2. The aisle hogs that insist on stopping mid-aisle, blocking both directions as they price compare rather than pulling the cart aside. I'm not expecting the aisles to part like the red sea for me as some supermarket aisles are just too narrow, but some consideration would be nice.

Two weeks ago this lady at Trader Joe's just stops her cart in front of me and takes off, because she suddenly remembered something. I took her cart and ditched it across the store. And this last weekend at Whole Foods some dude just stop in front of me, leaves his cart and answers his cell phone. I put a couple of extra things into his cart, wonder what he'll make with the Cream of Tartar.

...And this is the reason why allergies are on the rise.

Mud is good!

This reminds me of an old joke:


Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant and noticed that
the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.

It seemed a little strange. When another waiter brought our water and
utensils I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.
Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their
pockets.

When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, 'Why the spoon?'
'Well, he explained, 'the restaurant's owners hired Andersen Consulting to
revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded
that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a
drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our
personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to
the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.'

As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it
with his spare. 'I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen, instead
of making an extra trip to get it right now.'

I was impressed. I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the
waiter's fly. Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same
string hanging from their flies. So before he walked off, I asked the
waiter 'Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?'
'Oh, certainly!' Then he lowered his voice. 'Not everyone is so observant.
That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we can save time in
the restroom. By tying this string to the tip of you know what, we can pull
it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands,
shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent.

I asked 'After you get it out, how do you put it back?'
'Well,' he whispered, 'I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon.'

that totally turned the day around alex....thanks!

All the self-service food stuff kinda grosses me out. Whole Foods has some great looking meals (big trays of hot food set-up buffet style) but I'd never buy it because I've seen people sticking their hands in there and munching away. There's a tray of chicken there and one time someone had eaten the chicken and chucked the bones back on the pile of chicken *hurl*

I stopped eating their food samples altogether when I saw someone take a toothpick out of the holder, eat a cube of cheese, and then stick the toothpick back in the holder.

My pet peeve- those awful Marina-esque ladies that use their $500. monster strollers as battering rams/shields/traffic testers, etc. Go ahead, ram your friggin stroller into my leg, leave your kid in the middle of the aisle so no one can pass on either side, jut your kid out into a walkway without looking first and be sure to roll your eyes and get pissy when someone runs into it. Unlike locomoto566's funny cart manuevering, there's nothing you can do except exchange pained glances with your fellow shoppers...........

Slacker.

We should get together. Maybe closer to the holidays? School has been crazy busy.