To think this is disgusting, filthy & gross

[Anenome]

..when shop assistants lick their fingers to hand you a carrier bag?

I totally hate it...I don't want a strangers spit on my shopping bag! I have started to take my own bags...but now and then I forget...and have to buy one...and to see various people slurp spittle onto their fingers in order to get a bag off the pile...yuk!

Spit carries germs! And even if it didn't I still dont want it on my stuff...so...AIBU or do you hate it too?

Oh the best one was when I went into a chippy and the guy licked his fingers in order to get a sheet of paper to put the chips on!

I told him...."Er...I cant have that now..your spit is sharing space with my food!"

Guy looked at me like I was crackers...maybe I am? Please enlighten me.

You kiss your DH? Doesn't that involve exchanging saliva, you could both be harbouring germs the other doesn't know about.

I think you are far too aware of other people's germs and if you can't even use a swimming pool, that is definitely not good. It is worth noting that very clean things are usually the most unhealthy. Apparently a new carpet is one of the worst things for health because of the amount of chemicals in them.

It's why I can't stand those stupid anti-bacterial kitchen spray adverts where the mental woman wipes EVERY surface and then lets her child eat off said surfaces. If she is so bloody worried about catching the Ebola virus why can't she get a plate out for them to eat from????

Roccklover...yes..earlier in the thread I said that I don't mind that...I don't overfuss about the house...just the bag thing and the mug thing.

I'm feeling like a freak because I can't ever remember seeing anyone do this.

Do you have any concept how many hands the produce in your bag has passed through before reaching you?

Normal flora of the human body. There's no getting away from bacteria.

PML! Thanks, this post cheered me up at 4am when I thought all else was lost. I agree, once you have a baby who sticks their fingers in their pooh while you are trying to change them, wipes their running noses on your nice clean trouser leg and prefers to eat things off the kitchen floor than a plate, one can't be too picky!

The cashier is much more likely to have a problem than you are, after all she is handling cah and then licking her finger.

Oh, and she handles your food with hands that have handled cash... and we all know how dirty cash is.

In fact - maybe they should have one cashier to scan the goods and issue bags and another purely to handle the cash.

And wipes on the counter so you can clean your hands after handling the cash, before picking up the bags of shopping.

"At our local Tesco they dont lick thier fingers, they have a wet bit of jaycloth to mositen them."

EW!!!! Everyone knows that jaycloths are germ magnets!!!!

"But how else do you detach one of those ultra-thin plastic bags from the others in the fruit and veg section? It's a serious question. You can scrape away at the things with your nails and they will not move sometimes ...until you dampen your fingertips."

I know the answer to that! you just need sweaty hands! No more need to lick your finger!

'mental woman wipes EVERY surface and then lets her child eat off said surfaces'

this actually drives me mad too. There are only a couple household disinfectants that are actually [relatively] safe for any surface that a person or animal might eat from. Most of them are very specific about it in their warnings . Bleach is safe, afaik, at something like a teaspoon per gallon dillution, but then it takes ages to work and who wants bleachy water all over?

so it's not just mental, it's downright dangerous.

besides, why on earth would you need to disinfect all of your surfaces unless someone has been rubbing them with raw chicken?? listeria, salmonella, and e coli aren't fecking mobile. They can't jump about without transfer!

It's lucky I have permanently sweaty hands so I wont offend you op :o

Of course they are far more likely to carry something nasty I suppose, even though I wash them often they are a fertile ground for bacteria.

So stop worrying about the ones who lick their hands and start worrying about why the rest of us don't :o