To have said this?

[WinehouseAmy]

I was in a well known fast food chain tonight. Wasn’t particularly busy however it took 10 minutes to be served (despite me being at the front of the queue) then 20 minutes for my order to be prepared.
There was another customer waiting for their order with a young child with them( approx 6/7 years of age) and during the time I was stood waiting the child climbed up on the counter.
I can understand it was a lengthy wait for anyone, especially a younger child at gone 7pm. What I can’t understand is why the child was allowed to bum shuffle around the counter, put their dirty trainers upon the counter and sit there whilst food was being placed on the counter and passed over to customers.
When the guardian of the child collected their order I waited a further couple of minutes and asked that the counter top be cleaned before my food was put on there. Behind me was the guardian who called me rude and asked ‘can’t you understand their a child?!’. I suggested that someone could become seriously ill off the germs on her shoes and that it wasn’t appropriate or safe for her to be sat on the counter.
Aibu to expect a staff member to have intervened in the first place given the risks to both the child and customers and for the guardian to have a bit more common sense and courtesy?

To me the word that matters is FAST food,. Why did you have to wait 20 minutes?

Isn't the food on a tray or a bag when it's on a counter?

It's in a carton, on a sheet of paper on a plastic tray....or.... in a carton in a paper bag

No germs near it!

But the kid shouldn't have been up there in the first place

Kfc?

Wouldn't have bothered me.

Was your food inside cardboard boxes and either on a plastic tray or in a paper bag? Because unless they were planning on putting your unwrapped food directly onto the countertop then you were unreasonable to say anything. Yeah, it's not great that the child was climbing on there and you're entitled to roll your eyes and think it's shit but hygiene-wise it's not worse than the many hundreds of people touching the counter, leaning on it, shedding hair on it, sneezing on it, putting their shopping bags/hangbags/school bags on it, and so on. I can guarantee you that it doesn't get wiped down in between every customer, which is why the food is packaged up and put on either a plastic tray or inside a paper bag.

I’m a manager at McDonalds. Unfortunately this happens more often than you’d think and I am regularly having to tell customers that it isn’t acceptable and having to get someone to clean it.

Food does not come into direct contact with the counter top. You were being ridiculous

The counters are touched by numerous people, many I'm sure who don't wash their hands after using the loo, coughing and sneezing, etc. People put their bags in the counter.. same bags they put on the loo floor. I couldn't get too worked up about it, the foods in a container or bag anyway.

Having said that, the child shouldn't have been on the counter as it's dangerous!

You will get lots of people telling you you're ridiculous, and yes, the food is packaged up.

But I would assume the parents were raised in the jungle by chimpanzees. And were passing on the same standards to their offspring.

The food was given in a paper bag which I don’t believe is a barrier to germs. I understand that I will come in to contact with counters where people place their belongings and cough/sneeze. However I wasn’t keen on having potential dog poo or general germs found off the floor on a counter where my food is placed?

Given the time queuing and waiting for food I'm guessing Burger King?

Did her shoes look shitty? I bet they didn't. I also bet if there'd been other people in the queue they'd have probably been thinking you were acting like a bit of an arse.

Given the number of people on mn who get freaked out at the notion of shoes on the floor in a house, I'm surprised at the posts telling you that you over reacted.

I wouldn't be impressed with that behaviour but I probably wouldn't have said anything, just tried to take the bag before it touched the counter. Mind you, I have asked the cashier in Aldi to clean the belt. The previous customer had a leaky chicken 🤮

YWNU OP and I can't understand why so many people thing that you were

Unless your actual food with no bag or tray or anything is being placed on the counter I think YABU. It wouldn’t bother me.

Im missing the point of the thread and focussing on the time waiting lol.... you didn’t happen to be in a new bristol branch of kfc did u because omg its beyond slow. Painfully slowwwww!!!!
In line with thread yes its not nice to have shoes etc on food counters and they shouldn’t of been sat there.
I imagine a fair few handbags that have been in toilets, unwashed hands and coughs have also found there way onto counter also though gross the more i think of it i think il stay at home lolx

Wet weather = muddy shoes. They were muddy shoes. Can’t say I’m too intrigued with the idea of distinguishing the difference between dog poo and mud on someone’s shoes. But was it appropriate to have a child climb on a counter where food is served? ‘Arse’? A manager of a similar restaurant has stated this is unacceptable and the counter is cleaned?

Jesus

With all the talk of KFC on this thread it reminds me of this meme

They were presumably not planning to put your food down directly on the surface, it was going to be wrapped up or in a container. I’d have thought you were being utterly ridiculous to be honest. As others have said, people put their bags, elbows, money, purses, hands etc etc on the counter. They’re all carrying just as much bacteria.

YABU. The food was in a container it's fine. The food you buy from a shop might have been placed in all kinds of places within it's container before you purchase it but it's fine because it's in the container and mud isn't going to get through.

Well if there was actual wet mud on the counter then obviously yanbu and I’m surprised you had to ask for it to be cleaned. But if it was just the potential of germs then Yabu. Likely people who have been picking their nose/scratching their arse will have already been leaning on the counter and there will be all kinds of nasty germs on there. That’s why you tend to get a bag/tray and the food will also be wrapped.

@yestocheesecake ‘Jesus’ said by the person who ‘wishes were one of those clean freaks’ and ‘hates housework’
Food was in a paper bag, again not a barrier.
Does wet mud carry more bacteria than dry mud? If we all thought germs/bacteria were only visible through the likes of wet mud then I’m not so sure we’d be so cautious of the likes of influenza and salmonella (I am not saying this is the case in this situation, but a reply to a ridiculous question)
Totally in acceptance that I would have been unreasonable to have asked for the counter to be wiped down, had their not of been a child with shoes sprawled on it.

@WinehouseAmy
... Jesus