AIBU to ask why customers are still doing this disgusting habit?

[Blopi]

Why do people think it’s acceptable to hold money, lottery tickets etc in their mouths before handing them to the shop workers?

It’s a disgusting habit. Yesterday in a shop, I saw a woman holding a lottery playing slip and £10 in her mouth. The shop worker I saw rightfully refused to take the money. The customer became very angry and wanted a manager.

Manager rightly backed the shop worker. Saying it’s a habit that should have gone away.

How would customers react if staff held their change, tickets etc by their mouths before handing to the customers. Similar to the reaction that the customer did on when the shop worker refused their money.

Stop doing this habit along with boob money

Yanbu obviously, but why are most shops unable to clean their self service tills and particularly cash points? I feel queasy every time I use the Asda.

Heard customers lowering their masks to hold money in their mouths during mandatory mask wearing times. Yet denied their actions

Some people weren't even that self aware back then, I remember standing in a supermarket queue in the really early days of the first Covid outbreak and the lady in front of me doing it. The man at the checkout asked her not to because he'd have to handle those notes and she fully kicked off and started shouting that "why don't you just ask me to go and stand outside" .

Meh, it doesn’t bother me at all. I work on a supermarket checkout, have stage four cancer and have chemo every three weeks. Cash is absolutely crawling with germs anyway. I have hand sanitiser with me at my till all the time.

That nose clearing thing is gross. Don't start me on the number of drivers who excavate their nose. At traffic lights usually. Just yuk.

It's silly for shops to have rules like this because it only covers the unhygienic activities that you have directly witnessed. Any bank note that you didn't see being held in someone's mouth might have been dropped in the gutter and picked up again 5 minutes ago, or have been handled by someone who didn't wash their hands after using the loo, or might have been being held just as the holder sneezed into that hand. All money should be assumed to be grubby and workers should never go between food prep tasks and handling money and back to food prep without washing hands in between. Most germs cannot pass through skin though, so everyone who handles money should just wash their hands regularly and they will be totally unaffected by the fact that some germs were on their skin for a bit. Holding money in the mouth or in the bra may seem unpleasant to you but don't make the mistake of thinking that money that you haven't witnessed being kept in such places is any cleaner.

Oops, I’m guilty of this 😳. Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll make sure I don’t do it again!

Might have been me. But I rarely carry cash now, and no one needs to touch my card anymore, so we’re good.
I would hazard a guess, anyway, that my clean bra and clean breast is a more hygienic place than my hand 🤷‍♀️

I worked in a shop years ago and it was the height of summer. A woman rummaged about her heaving bossom to give me a soggy 20. The horror on my face 😱🤑

Money is filthy and if it worries people so much they should wear gloves.

Sorry OP but many a shop worker has licked their fingers before giving me change or opening bags.
Its absolutely disgusting whoever does it.
I always call it out and say can I have one you havent licked please.

Everywhere is pretty filthy here. From supermarket trolleys, to card machines, cafe trays, doors. Handrails.
I routinely wash my hands after being outside anywhere.

You really don’t want to know what it’s like in a primary school then! And some stories my DC tell me about secondary school toilets are gross. 🤢

I was once handed a pen by a child that only moments before had been used to try and fish a sticker out of the toilet. Many wipe noses on sleeves. Sneezing is often projectile. They lick everything. Many don’t wash their hands. Although I’ve seen staff members leave the toilets without washing their hands too.

Agree. Isn't there a stat that says something like 75% of all UK bank notes contain traces of cocaine?

I can't stand touching cash anyway, let alone if it's been in someone's mouth. Stopped using it altogether during covid

Meh. Shops aren't clean places - even the fancy shops I worked in, where people were dropping thousands, still had rats all over the loading bay and running over the product. House of Fraser made me put out towels visibly stained with rat piss (we found a well established nest in the stockrooms...) rather than write them off. I handled all that every time I unboxed and did the shelves.

Cash is always dirty, made no difference to me if people chose to lick it too - I just washed my hands and didn't touch my face regardless. And boobs are no more unclean than any other body parts and cleaner than some.

I did raise an eye brow at the people who unrolled snorting tubes to pay with though. Memorably, once when a chap did that a bit of white powder fell off it on the counter. He wiped it with a finger and stuck it in his mouth. Still accepted it and sanitised my hands after!

I no longer work in retail. In my newer career, I work with kids and they're even worse. I was lovingly fed a well chewed biscuit last term. It was that or risk a brewing melt down. I accept I do have low, low standards though...

I mean… the biggest danger is to the person actually putting it in their mouth.Even If they have something, odds are it’ll be on the money anyway .
Money is dirty. Witnessing something doesn’t make it less dirty.

Who does this? Ive never noticed anyone doing it. Of course it’s disgusting, money changes hands so many times.

Money has thousands of bacteria (from fairly harmless to strains of MRSA, Listeria, E coli etc.), faecal matter, drugs and so on. Whether it’s been in someone’s mouth, bra or whatever is frankly irrelevant. Whether you see it in someone’s mouth, bra or whatever is irrelevant. The mankiness is still there regardless. If it bothers you, wash your hands regularly and use hand sanitizer on top as well. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

Yes. In places such as banks, retail, betting shops and other places with high cash use, notes are bundled into 100 notes. If one note has been used by a cocaine user - either to snort it or handled, the rest of the bundle is tainted

Thats a filthy habit of customers, when shop workers have to handle items that have been in customers mouths, its the behaviour of canines who can't help it but humans can.

They are a bunch of biohazards, what if the shop worker was clinically vulnerable?

If they need to place their tkts and money somewhere whilst they do something else, they can put them in their phones, with the case cover closed.

A well-known sports brand has brought out a bra you're supposed to put "small items" in. Now, you might say there's a difference your handling your own keys, etc, but discomfort aside, those bras are going to be sweatier than the average, and someone is putting their locker/key/coin in them? And then touching lockers/doors etc the rest of us are forced to-and maybe using those coins to pay for their drink. Yuck. What's wrong with side slip pockets in leggings?

People do it with their passports all the time too. They also like to use them (instead of their hands) to shield their mouths when they sneezed! I had one guy who arrived at my desk, rummaged down his pants and pulled out his passport. There was no way I was handling that!!

I’d wipe my arse with it and then bring it back the next day. Probably.

I once worked on a paediatric ward and saw a nurse pop a syringe of paracetamol between her teeth while she was putting the lid back on the bottle, preparing it for a child. I absolutely pointed out to her how grim it was.