to ask tesco staff member to wipe hands after coughing bouts into hands and handling my cheeseetc straight after?

[justgotbetter]

I may be on the fussy side but after several long bouts of coughing into her hands the Tesco till operator put her hands all over my cheese etc to find the bar code.I asked her if it would be possible wipe her hands after coughing[she had explained she had bronchitis],she looked at the supervisor who huffed and puffed,said
"The food's all packaged,whats the problem?"
"You carry on,X there's no problem."

The supervisor put the items left still in my trolley on the conveyor~I said, Leave them thanks!",she then turned her back on me and plonked the last items on the belt!To which I said~"manners would also be helpful!"

The till op then explained she had a bad chest since Jan,more a tickly cough I said I do tend to be quite fussy about hygiene but its better to wash/wipe hands after coughing imo and I wasn't being "funny".

I then saw the supervisor relating incident in middle of store to another member of staff loudly and saying till op "really upset now"etc,so I went to her and said it was not a personal attack on her in any way,just a request to wipe hands,the supervisor said"In that situation I have to protect my staff"~eh? I was not rude at all.I told the supervisor she could have handled my request pleasantly instead of being so rude.The sup then said the tillop had started anti/b yesterday ~so it was an infection then,maybe she should have been off sick.

This is my local store,I feel completely embarassed and don't want to shop there again.
Also think its unfair to take it personally~I was not having a go,I just wanted non~coughed on hands.I feel awful I've upset the till op .

Oh yes,then the super said the till op said she HAD wiped her hands~wth? that makes no sense or why would i have asked?

YANBU - that's disgusting!

did she not have a tissue at all?

I don't get why people handling food/shaking customers by the hand have to cough into their hands; have told dc's that the crook of the arm is a much better place for it if you can't get at a tissue quick enough

She was on the till though? Not on the cheese counter?

She cannot be expected to wash her hands everytime she coughs if she has a persistant cough, she would never be at the till. I don't know that wiping her hands (on what? A tissue) would stop any germs being transfered to your shopping.

No not at the time i was at the checkout but the super said afterwards,the staff had wipes next to them,did you not see them?Then why didn't till op or super say"I've got wipes here instead of being so outraged.She may have wiped her hands after me asking when i was looking at the super~I think she did then maybe but i didn't see properly~but not before i asked iyswim.

Well I am rather fussy so maybe IABU

No, I still think it's horrible - she's touching items that you will touch when you put them in the fridge and get them out for cooking/preparing meals. If staff are handling any items of food, they need to be more than careful when coughing or sneezing. If I cough or sneeze I always wash my hands before making a cup of tea or food for someone (or myself for that matter). YANBU.

Thanks Frank,it is the way i would behave myself.
I was also upset at how the super was so off with me ~ i thought she would have smoothed it over not made it more of a scene iykwim.This is a very small town area and i feel quite embarassed~all the staff know one another and i know most of them by sight.

What's the worst they'll be saying though - oh that woman, do you know she didn't want my germy hands all over her food??!!!
Wouldn't worry about it - they're the ones with the less than savoury habits!
I'm actually rather glad there's someone else out there who does the same as me!!

I don't think YABU either. It is, after all, your food she's hacking all over!

What's as bad is that the supervisor behaved aggessively when she should have diffused the situation. Yes, she has to look out for her staff if they are treated rudely but in this situation she was the only one who was rude!!

Ok, I am probably the opposite end of the germ scale then, as I am extremely easy going about stuff like this.

The only thing that annoys me is when the butcher in Germany used to put cooked and raw meat in the same bag and when I asked politely for him to pack them seperately retorted, "You Brits with your Mad Cow Disease telling us about food hygiene".

I once had an ENT appointment and the consultant started coughing into his hands and it got so bad that he had to go out of the room and I could hear him hacking away in the corridor for several minutes. He came back in and started prepsring to examine my nasal passages without bothering to wash his hands.
I had to ask him to wash them and he was a bit huffy about it.

MmeLindt - that's not nice either. I'm alwasy a bit wary when butchers have cooked and raw meat on the same counter as they don;t always wash hand between handling each....
Hey ho - we're coming into BBQ season now so no doubt it will all be put to the test!!

Thanks~i'm one of those people who feels they want to speak up sometimes but find it too much when i have and start feeling guilty and try to make it all alright again.
sigh and thinks ~either toughen up or shut up !!