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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask the sales assistant to wash her hands

259 replies

careergirl · 23/03/2013 10:25

I don't think i was tbh
It was Boots. I bought a yoghurt, wrapped sandwich (thank god!)

As I went to the counter the sales assistant was sniffing then wiped her nose with the back of her hand then picked up my items saying do you want a bag....

I actually said... I would like to put those back please and change them..and really you should have washed your hands before touching them because you've just wiped your nose with the back of your hand.

She went a bit red and washed her hands with some anti bac on the counter so I wondered if someone had mentioned something earlier

But I felt very awkward like I was being difficult..but really I'm not am I?

OP posts:
shockers · 23/03/2013 15:56

I think I'd have done a very small inward Shock, but not said anything.

I did say something in Burger King once though, when the man making my children's burgers did a little nose blow without tissue into his thumb and forefinger and then carried on assembling the burger ! I discreetly asked for a supervisor, explained what had happened and asked for my money back, before making a sharp exit.

NoelHeadbands · 23/03/2013 15:59

This has just reminded me why I was so glad I left retail work a long time ago.

And believe it or not, chances are the poor cow had to serve more than one cunt in that shift alone Sad

Salmotrutta · 23/03/2013 16:03

Why did you come and post on AIBU careergirl if you already know the answer to your question?

Or do you feel secretly guilty at embarrassing the assistant?

SirChenjin · 23/03/2013 16:04

I've worked in retail over the years too - never, ever felt the need to wipe snot on the back of my hands before serving a customer. And I served a fair few cunts in my time.

VelvetSpoon · 23/03/2013 16:04

This is extraordinary.

firstly, re the assistant. She almost certainly won't have a pocket in her uniform or be allowed to have her bag with her on the shop floor, or even her purse. They will be up in her locker in the staff/rest room or wherever. So once she's started work, if she's forgotten a tissue/used them all she's stuffed til it's her break/end of shift or whatever. You can't (unless you have a v obliging supervisor) just go off and get some more, same way as you can't take toilet breaks etc.

So I think it's perfectly possible to be caught out without a tissue, and if the alternative is using your hand or having it drip down your face, I know what I would prefer.

Secondly, OP, if this shit worries you I REALLY hope you don't eat out in restaurants. Because I could tell you some stories of bad hygiene about a million times worse than rubbing your nose with the back of your hand!

SirChenjin · 23/03/2013 16:05

The OP has no need to feel embarrassed Salmotrutta - it's the sales assistant who should be cringing.

MamaMumra · 23/03/2013 16:25

The OP has no need to feel embarrassed Salmotrutta - it's the sales assistant who should be cringing

I think the OP isn't the slightest bit embarrassed and I'm sure the cashier was suitably humiliated. If we are comparing what the OP did and what the cashier did, I think that humiliating someone is much ruder.

And it's not as if lots of people think its perfectly "acceptable" to simple ones nose on the back of their hand, just that the OP showed worse manners.

SoupDreggon · 23/03/2013 16:26

I can't believe there are so many people who are happy to be served by someone who's just wiped their snot onto to back of their hands

Well, the key is whether they then wiped the back of their hands over my items or across my hand. Which is very unlikely. Also, I suspect it wasn't great big candle wax like streams of snot. The sandwich was wrapped. It is fine.

There is a whole world of difference between "happy" and "rabidly frothing"

I'm sitting firmly in the "OK with it but it's not ideal" camp. With most of the normal Real Life people.

MoreBeta · 23/03/2013 16:30

In the past I have asked M&S manger to remind staff on their in-store bakery section at my local shop to NOT to pick up fresh unwrapped bread and pastry with their bare hands.

They are still doing it as I noticed on Friday.

If any M&S senior managers are looking in please can I ask you to provide staff with vinyl gloves. They are readily available from catering suppliers and really quite cheap.

MrsWolowitz · 23/03/2013 16:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

marjproops · 23/03/2013 17:09

what about bakeries then? theres a few I could mention. asking for a loaf andthey pick it up with their hands, take your money in same hand and run their fingers through their hair that should be tied back or in a net around food and carry on the same with next customer.

i wont buy anything if they dont wash hands first. ive only ever seen ONE place they actually wash hands/tie hair back.

and dont get me started on icecream sellers! and hot dog carts..and uncovered food at a market stall.....

I know it was about covered food,OP but still......

marjproops · 23/03/2013 17:16

and 1-one can cough/sneeze into the crook of their arm therfeore saving hands.

2-of all the shops, boots being known for pharmacy stuff, surely theyd have bacterial handwash or someyhing by the counters.

3-anyone with a runny nose surely wouldnt forget to have a tissue on them. and if they didm again, boots have tissues right there by the counter.

Flobbadobs · 23/03/2013 17:17

You do know that most of the food used to put together the sandwiches sold in many stores is grnerally kicked around like a football don't you? Especially lettuce. It must be too tempting. The germ ship sailed long before the sandwich got to the counter..

Flobbadobs · 23/03/2013 17:18

marje the tissues are there for the customers to buy, not the staff to use when they have to. It's probably classed as stealing.

IslaValargeone · 23/03/2013 17:20

So you have an issue with bad manners - fine
but you chose to draw attention to hers by being rude yourself.

Yes, nicely done Hmm

marjproops · 23/03/2013 17:22

Flobb I know that but if they were in need and not able to leave the shop floor surely theyd be able to get a packet and then tell their supervisor or colleague they had to get a packet as they were without?

mind you the shop should have a box under the counter especially for staff, along with wetwipes and handgel.

i had all that when i worked in a shop. thought they all would.

Salmotrutta · 23/03/2013 17:23

SirChenjin - your point to me makes no sense.

I never said the OP was embarrassed Hmm

BuggedByJake · 23/03/2013 17:24

I worked in a large department store & have seen worse. One of the girls who worked on the Clarins counter used to go to the toilet & not wash her hands! It put me off letting assistants put products on my face for life Hmm

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 23/03/2013 17:54

WHY on earth did you ask if you were BU??

Since you are getting very annoyed with anyone who says you are?

acrabadabra · 23/03/2013 17:59

Not read whole thread, but a couple of questions and reasons why y might bu.

  1. Was there a big queue?
Assume at lunchtime there would be. Poor woman has probably dragged herself to work and hasn't had a second between customers to fart, cough or blow her nose. Another customer might complain they were kept waiting while she did. I know that's ridiculous but some people get very silly when they are waiting in a queue and perceive some slight by the assistant.
  1. Were there tissues behind the till for her use? (Not ones for sale as, presumably, she'd be sacked for theft if she just helped herself to the stock)
If it's anything like my work, these things are not provided. If she brought some of her own, they may have been confiscated before she got to the till. I am not supposed to carry anything other than my locker key, card to get me through the doors and a pen. Nothing which might conceal stolen money. If we're searched by one of the more by-the-book managers, they'll tell us off if our pen isn't see through as you could roll up notes and hide them inside!
  1. When you sat down to eat your lunch, did you open your sandwich then wash your hands before touching your sandwich? (without touching any other thing between sink and sandwich)
Unless you have some fairly serious health anxiety disorder, I assume not.

That was quite a long winded way to tell you that YABU unless any/all of those things were not as I said.

If you want to know who's touched your food before you then you ought to start milling your own home grown wheat and taking a packed lunch to work.

Theicingontop · 23/03/2013 18:11

Oh no, acrabadabra she didn't eat the perfectly good sandwich and yoghurt she'd exchanged, she was too grossed out and chucked them in the bin when she got back to her office. So embarrassing the sales assistant and demanding to exchange the food was a pointless exercise in the end.

nicole5446 · 23/03/2013 18:16

Very rude. You know how many people paw that food before you get it? And the counter you set your food on? And you know how filthy your own handbag is? If I was in line behind you I would have cracked up

StickEmUp · 23/03/2013 18:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nicole5446 · 23/03/2013 18:17

By the way, the poor girl probably had a cold and had to come in to work anyway...not everyone gets a lot of sick days.

LittleBairn · 23/03/2013 18:29

But why should that be the OP problem! She should still take care not to spread germs by carrying tissue and hand wipes. Fact is regardless of her work conditions the sales assistance had bad hygiene!

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