Touching items in supermarket bakery with your hands

[37anddone]

I think almost every time I have tried to use the 'fresh bakery' in the supermarket (you know, all the breads and whatnot out for you to pick from) - someone has come over and started moving them around with their bare hands.

Not picking one up to take (questionable but tolerable), actually moving items on top out of the way to get the item they want. Customers this is, not the staff.

YABU - why not, you'd do it in the fruit and veg aisle

YANBU - bad manners

Yes, that’s true.

YANBU, it's very unhygienic.

I'll admit to sometimes picking up the item I want to buy, but only when the tongs are dirty. (Bun icing, pizza slice toppings, anything else that really should have separate tongs!) I'll only touch the specific thing I'm buying, though. Carefully avoid all the others!

Do you ever wonder how many people have touched that item before you?

But @Elephantswillnever I thought that aroma was produced and pumped out artificially anyway. Pretty sure I read an article in maybe The Sunday Times, years and years ago, about the whole industry dedicated to engineering aromas, sounds and logistics in supermarkets.

(Like having the fresh fruit ‘market’ near the entrance, even though 99% of supermarket stock is UPF. Or making you travel halfway around half an acre of shelves to find a litre of milk.

Bakery sections could easily display fresh bread in bags, but use an artificially created aroma for purposes of customer appeal.

Amazed at the standards of some people on here. Just half a tablet? Imagine visiting this person's house. Disgusting.

When I lived in France, our local Lidl bakery was arranged like this
You can't handle the goods. You have to use the 'pusher' to direct your choice into the open area. I they can do it in France, why not here?

If they can do it in France, why not here?

Because they do it in France, I suspect.

I find your remark quite offensive. My house is immaculate, I expect you have a no shoes in the house rule, but do you go the extra mile and expect visitors to walk through a disinfectant bath as well? I doubt it, my plumber said he had never been asked to install one before but when I showed him my slides of foot diseases he said he was going to think about installing one at his own house.

Of course I don't expect visitors to walk through a disinfectant foot bath when visiting. People would think I'm crazy.

Because I already have a full body "sheep dip" system in my front garden the everybody is forced to use. A foot bath would be pointless after that.

I have both a sheep dip AND a disinfectant bath and both are stocked with Holy water, blessed by the pope himself

But I'm sure you are both trying your best

I have often dreamed of a sort of disinfectant arch (like a security gate at courts or airports) at the entrance to my kitchen or dining room …

YANBU. Grim. But you kinda can’t think too much about it, otherwise you’d never eat anything

I didn't, but I probably will now 😬

In Spain most of the good supermarkets like Mercadona not only have tongs for the lovely baked goods but they are also on covered shelves -- you select the shelf you want, pull it out and the cover goes up, you pick the product using the tongs.
There are also generally plastic disposable gloves available and people do use them too. It seems to work well.

I wish it was 😆

Fruit and veg can and should be washed
Bakery items cannot

I tend to avoid bakery items like this...especially ones in very open baskets, at face height or kid height.
I will take ones that have more protection.

And I will use my hands to grab the one I want without touching or reaching over anything else instead of using tongs that have been handled by dozens of people....if I can't do it without touching another I will use the tongs.

😆

Laughing so hard at this thread as I wait for my laptop to complete a software update.

Holy water full body sheep dip 🤣

People who do that should be banned from the supermarket at first offence.

I'll do you one better.

Was in a newsagents one morning, one of those that have fresh donuts and baked goods for sale, that you use tongs to put into a bag to bring to the till. This particular morning I was in the queue waiting to pay, and saw a junkie come in and pick up several donuts, looked them over, put them back and walked out. I was horrified to see people coming in after him and select which donuts they wanted, the same one that this guy had been turning over with hands that were practically black with dirt.

Ever since, as a rule, I never ever buy anything from a shop that people are able to freely maul and handle. Same goes for anything within reach of children.

YANBU , fruit / veg you wash or peel . I don’t buy loose / unsealed bakery items for this reason .

It has to be, doesn’t it?

I ended up having to buy 5 French sticks because my then un contained 3 year old was touching them. Only popped in for a loaf, a lady knocked over a few bits off a shelf so I helped to pick them up. Turned around and my dd was practically hugging the French sticks. FFS 😂 I couldn't be sure if she'd licked any of them.

I would have been tempted to say in a loud voice to the bakery staff 'excuse me, you'll have to discard this batch because that woman over there (and point) squeezed every single one so they are no longer fit for sale'

This. How many people on here never wash things like meat joints, and such like. They still survive.