To not want to buy uncovered food in shops, cafes and delicatessens

[atthewelles]

Obviously things you can wash and that are going to be well cooked like vegetables and fruit are okay. But I do not want to buy bread, cakes or salads that other people have been handling or coughing and sneezing over.

AIBU to wish shops would either wrap or cover in some way these items, instead of just leaving them lying around in trays or on counters with no covering whatsoever?

[Moominsarehippos]

I shall be shopping today. Will loudly mention 'cuff-snot' and see if anyone hi-5s me!

[marjproops]

was in a supermarket this morn about to buy a fresh baguette (always using the tongs provided and always go for the bottom one) when i saw someone sneeze onto the bread.

then a posh looking woman picked up a few rolls in her hands, looked at them disdainfully and put them back and didnt even buy one.

Ive seen rolls on the floor and a shopworker pick it up and put it back on the display (complained to manager about that one)

worst one? market stall food. breads and cakes where street dust, peoples breath etc all over them. cakes and buns with icing that flies are all over them in the hot weather and shockingly people STILL buy them, errr, you do know what flies DO on food, dont you?

i thought health and safety were supposed to be big on all this?

[Pandemoniaa]

I normally laugh in the face of germy paranoia. But I have to say that I stopped buying unwrapped cakes from the shelves at Waitrose after I'd seen rather too many examples of "rearrangement" for the sake of it. Usually by unaccompanied children who were fascinated by the opportunity to play shops with real shopping. Like I said, I'm not a germophobe but I still prefer my Bath Buns without added snot.

[SaggyOldClothCatpuss]

Halfling, your DS would get the sharp end of my child squashing glare!
Its over the top of my glasses and very scary! not

[SaggyOldClothCatpuss]

OI! I do not sell people pies!

[Halfling]

My DS loves to poke any uncovered loaves, cake with his snot covered fingers, so YANBU.

I have to keep him on a tight leash at all times in the supermarkets.

I just wish they could put the sodding loaves behind a covered glass counter.

[TheCraicDealer]

At this time of year, I sell pies out of open baskets
Mrs Lovett's a mn'er!

You're all being VU. I am rarely ill and put this down to my laissez faire attitude towards baked goods.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

Aye, them were the days, when a man in brown overall used to serve over the counter.

[Moominsarehippos]

I am very good at playing jenga with the Wholefoods baguettes. I simply must have the bottom one in the stack with the least likelihood of contamination of cuff-snot!

[GetOrf]

I hate cupcakes.

[usualsuspect]

Ah, but customers don't always ask. It's the impulse buyers that you need.

[Crinkle77]

No I feel exactly the same. Where I work they have some lovely stalls selling really nice cakes and stuff but with all these germs hanging round in the air it really puts me off

[GetOrf]

lol at snotty cuffs

[SaggyOldClothCatpuss]

At this time of year, I sell pies out of open baskets. God help anyone who touches them!
We use sneeze guards sometimes, but they look horrid and put people off. They are also expensive, fragile and easily broken when transporting to a new market every day.

[CaramelBobbi]

Our local deli has those huge handmade cupcakes iced with mountains of brightly coloured buttercream and glitter sprinkles (just yuk on every level) on a tray, completely exposed on the top of the serving cabinet. As if they weren't unappealing enough.

My mother always taught me that when you're serving yourself from a cabinet with tongs (like when buying rolls etc in sainsburys), to always go for the ones at the very back. Because people's snotty cuffs may have touched the ones at the front. Nice thought.

[atthewelles]

You can have cakes behind a glass counter. People can still see them but will have to ask the assistant to actually serve them, so no random members of the public mauling them, coughing over them etc.

[GetOrf]

I love my local Whole foods, but yes you always have people prodding and touching. I am not paying a thousand pounds (ish) for some cheese that someone has poked.

Why do people need to pick up bread and sniff it? It smells of fucking bread.

[Pseudonymity]

Salad bars are a pit of disease.

There are two cafes near me, local, non-chain, homebaking types. I love them but they have uncovered cakes and food out on the counter where people are speaking, coughing, handing over money. I have to admit it disgusts me a bit (ma'am).

[usualsuspect]

Cafes leave cakes etc uncovered on the counter because customers impulse buy and like to help themselves. There are usually tongs to pick them up with. It doesn't bother me at all.

No point having them behind the counter.

[Moominsarehippos]

Loaf, not loaf. Uncovered loaf. No shame these people!

[NettoSuperstar]

If I don't see it, it didn't happen.

I need to follow this as I have a weakness for Morrison's salad bar, it's the bacon bits, I love them

[atthewelles]

ClaraBut you could just cover up the display; keep the stuff behind the counter so only the staff can serve it; wrap it in brown paper. It doesn't have to be plastic and polystyrene.
I have often seen people, kids in particular, handling bread and cakes and then putting them back.

[usualsuspect]

I love a nice carvery.

[Moominsarehippos]

Fondling bread... That would be something! I did see a family pass a load around to sniff (two adults, two older children) before shoving it back on the shelf in Waitrose. Yuk.

Wholefoods is a den on pokers/prodders/snafflers. Mucky buggers.

[InNeedOfBrandy]

I don't mind a salad bar, harvester one is very nice I can even do Chinese all you can eat style buffets. I'm quite a germ a phobe but help yourself stuff doesn't bother me.

Now if there was someone serving me calling ma'am but had greasy hair and dirty nails that would put me off!