That's pretty common and in the past I'm sure that the customer would have ignored it. But in these in these times I don't blame you at all for what you did. I think that there should be a container of sanitizer at every register for the use of the cashier.

Of course the possibility that the cashier you did get had just used the bathroom with out washing their hands. It's the luck of the draw.

This is allergy season. I blow my nose a lot. She gets more germs on her hands from handling money than she does from blowing her nose.

My stomach turned just reading the description. I don't blame you at all. While I agree that money and other items do spread germs, to see it in action makes me think of one of those epidemic movies.

Management should provide sanitizer at the register for cashiers use, I'm sure that customers spread germs to them as well.

Cold or allergy. Seeing that she blew her nose, I would have excused my self and gotten in another line. It is like someone blowing their nose at the table where people are eating. Most disgusting and completely unnecessary. She could have covered her nose and at least turned her head. Yuck.
Sue

I agree blowing one's nose at a dinner table is disgusting. I don't think this is at all the same. There are germs on every surface of a grocery store, and most people who are blowing their nose are doing it because it is necessary. No one does it for fun.

For those who would have left the line - would it be better if she checked you out with snot running down her face? Or should she have left her register, making everyone in line wait, while she goes to the bathroom? Just curious what you think she should have done instead.

Wouldn't have bothered me at all. It might have been just a tickle in her nose. A sneeze can come up so sudden out of the blue. She used a tissue, what else should she have done?

As others have mentioned, there's little else dirtier than money. What about the handle of the shopping cart that you used? Gross! Putting vegetables on the belt that meat was on, same thing.

I've seen sanitizers at some of our checkouts----the chashiers bring their own it seems. They use sanitizer when handling leaky packages of meat.

Even tho there are so many, many places to pick up a bug, blowing one's nose then handling someone's groceries seems to cross a line IMHO. Having hand sanitizer at the registers is such an easy fix.

I'm not sure what I would rather see done, I just know that the reading of the scenario made me feel ill.
Sanitizer might have made me feel better. I actually would not have minded if she had needed to run to the ladies room to blow her nose and wash her hands. I would not have expected or wanted her to have to stand there with a runny nose.

I do understand that grocery stores are nasty and full of germs, I wash produce, meat and cans before using the food, but seeing it would have turned my stomach.

You had every right to feel grossed out, and I understand the desire to not have your food touched by someone who just blew her nose. I was grossed out during one trip to the grocery store in the produce section I watched a Mom direct her daughter to pick out different produce, she picked up and put back different things as per her mom. This child had a terrible runny nose was sniffing and coughing all over. This was very gross why the mom had her doing this was beyond me. I didn't buy any produce that day, but at the same time I know that each and every customer has all kinds of disgusting things on their hands. The only thing we can do is take care of ourselves, trying to police or change others is a waste of energy if they don't know or care what they are doing is disgusting our saying so won't change them.

I think everyone is right. It was gross to see it, and everything is filthy.

What I don't get is not blowing your nose at the table. Who does it if it isn't necessary? How can it be better to let it drip? Or sit there and snuffle? What if you have to sneeze suddenly because the scent of the flowers or candle just got to you, or you ate something spicy? A discreet blow into a tissue or quick wipe seems much less disruptive than pushing away from the table and rushing of the room while your nose is dripping. IMHO. I've never seen anyone make a production of blowing his/her nose at the table, and I'm 67 years old.

I'm not sure what you expected her to do. Sometimes you don't have a choice on whether to blow your nose or not. She couldn't leave. I'm not a fan of hand sanitizer. IMO, people need to go wash their hands with soap and water and quit killing their good germs.

I think discreetly wiping your nose at the dinner table is fine if it's urgent. And sneezes happen unexpectedly. I think what grosses people out is when someone blows their nose loudly into a tissue or handkerchief when others are eating. In my experience in restaurants (other tables), it's almost always older men who do this for some reason. I'm sure others do too but I don't notice.

A bit of an over-reaction, I think, and not very tactful.

The presence of sanitizer EVERYWHERE is what grosses me out. Over-use of that just builds a stronger, more resistant bad microbe, folks, not to mention being potentially harmful to the multitudes of benevolent microbes that live symbiotically on each and every one of us. THEY are potentially better protection against the bad guys than any synthetic chemical, anyway.

"Sanitizers" do nothing about the dirt and microbes already residing on the food, of which there are plenty. Our immune systems are good at dealing with most of it. As my husband's mother (mother of five) used to say, "You eat a ton of dirt before you die." I was particularly dismayed when the college where I teach part-time put hand-sanitizer in the biology lecture halls last year during flu season. It was an affront to the theory of evolution.

I assume the checker used a tissue to blow her nose? Then any germs would be on the tissue, not her hands. In any case, your best defense, as stated above, is to wash your own hands (with plain soap!), then you are good no matter what has happened around you, seen and (more likely) unseen.

On a completely different note but with the same theme: Not too long ago I observed a woman take a cart from the cart crib outside and while pushing it inside lick her hands....let me repeat this just so you know how grossed out I was....L.I.C.K.I.N.G H.E.R. H.A.N.D.S! She would lick her palm, then each finger, then put that hand on the handle and repeat for her other hand. She did this at least three times for each hand before she got inside the store. I haven't touched a cart handle with out spraying it with sanitizer since. I would rather see the cashier use a Kleenex and not her hands to wipe her nose with....but like I said above, I've seen worse!

I know my fil hasn't been shopping, let alone out of the nursing home for a month...why? caught something from someone or something and had has been in isolation for a month! the first several course of meds didn't work either...so don't blame anyone these days for being overly cautious with sanitizer, ect...the first thing we both do after shopping ect, is wash our hands before and after putting food, cans, even glass containers away...

Really? You'd report her multiple times and risk her losing her job because she blew her nose into a tissue?

I remember, way back when, parents gave their baby the car keys to "play" with - but often they were put in the mouth as a teething ring if the child was at the teething stage.

And as chi83 stated......"really?? Report her??" I bet you'd have been crushed if it was your daughter somebody reported for blowing her nose into a tissue.

Y'all who are ready to burn this person at the stake better be careful what you wish for....one day it may be you who's in this same situation. Nah, of course you would never be. Ya, right!

Just on a side note: I usually don't shop in this store. It is just more convenient that the larger supermarket I usually go to. At that market, I get a "wand" and do my own scanning and bagging as I shop. Then, I just waved the wand at the check out line, pay and go.

I wouldn't report her. But, I realized that I didn't have to have her as a cashier. I guess I'm getting old. Years ago, I would have just stayed there. I feel that the way I handled it, it looked like more my problem than hers.

People are always coughing and sneezing everywhere you go. I wouldn't have thought much of it other than made a mental note not to put my hands anywhere near my face until I got home and washed my hands really well.

It was right for you. No guilt or apologies needed. Doesn't matter how anyone else feels. You didn't hurt anyone.

You had to do what was right for you. too many think it was wrong. I have end stage renal disease and I am always afraid when I am in a crowd. I just know I will pick up something. so far I haven't. simple solution would be to have hand sanitizer at the register just like doctors offices. You can use it if you want. I agree money has many more germs on it. Did she ever touch you in any way? I don't remember ever having a clerk touch me.

It was right for you. I wouldn't have done what you did, but that wasn't your question. Sue used a Kleenex (not her hand, as someone said above), and yes, while it might've been a bit of a "yuck" reaction from me, I, too, will blow my nose when I need to. I'm sure I've done so in a grocery store and then held back onto the handle. I'm not thinking that a lot of germs are spread after someone uses a Kleenex at their nose.

But - if it grossed you out and you were concerned about getting a cold for it even after she said it was allergies, you did what you needed to do for you. I think you could've been a little gentler, that's all.

It's not what I would have done, but who cares what I would have done? What you did was not illegal or immoral and perhaps will make her think twice before blowing. It reminds me of a situation when I was a high school waitress. I was setting the table for a family that was at the table and I handled the silverware by the part that would go in their mouths, instead of by the handle. The father called me out on it, and I was embarrassed. But it made me stop and think and I never handled silverware that way again. Lesson learned.

Thanks for clarifying, Sylvia. I couldn't imagine anyone would want her to get in trouble over it.

I probably wouldn't have even noticed, I'm too busy unloading the cart, getting out a credit card, etc. I try not to worry about germs too much and unless somebody actually coughs or sneezes right in my face or in the air that I'm about to walk through, I don't pay too much attention to it.

My husband is one of those people whose sinuses start to drain whenever he eats hot food, especially if it's the least bit spicy. So he will blow his nose if we're at a restaurant. I can see where that would gross a lot of people out but I am not going to embarrass him and make him get up and leave the table and find a restroom so that he can blow his nose into a tissue without possibly offending sometime. I think tables in restaurants are far enough apart that what one person does at one table shouldn't affect everyone in the whole room.

All I know is that if I sneeze or blow my nose at the check-out the cashier doesn't stop putting my stuff through the scanner and tell me to move to another check-out because she's worried about what germs are now on my groceries.
You have no idea what the health condition of the grower, the original packer, the stock boy... etc was when your groceries were touched from growing to shelving. You've already been contaminated with who knows what yucky stuff on your boxed goods, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, etc. She sneezed and blew her nose. We all do it and I doubt she would have been allowed to go to the washroom to wash her hands..

If you're that worried drop a comment in the comment box at the service desk.

That's a good point blfenton. There would be an uproar if a customer blew their nose in line and a cashier told them she didn't want their germs and to please use hand sanitizer, or ask them to leave the checkout lane if they didn't have any.

If it's a common courtesy issue, it shouldn't matter who the customer is and who the employee is, yet I have a feeling people would be really upset if roles were reversed.

Interesting discussion!

The world and people in it are full of germs, some more than others. I thought most women carried a small bottle of Purell in their purses? I would if I carried a purse, but I do keep one in each car.

When you find yourself about to touch something you don't like, clean it first. If you encounter someone who you think needs a squirt, like this cashier, be a good samaritan and offer it. Case closed.

PS - blowing a nose in a restaurant is extremely inconsiderate and rude. Asking him to leave the dining room to do so causes much less embarrassment than he brings upon himself by doing it in proximity to where others are eating. You shouldn't have to mention it, doesn't he have enough good sense on his own to know how to be polite to others ?

I think you were rude, imo. I work a cash register all the time. I don't have enough fingers or toes to count how often my customers coughed and sneezed in my face and I can't tell them to go to another cashier. I can't count how many customer take their money from their shoe or out of their sweaty bra and hand it to me. How often I've had change handed to me that was sticky from who knows what. If I had asked my customers to do what you did, there would be a phone call to head office and a complaint issued. Who do we go when a customer does that to us? Nobody. People are germophobes these days. I have worked in a drug store off and on for over 20 years. I don't remember the last time I got a cold because I don't use sanitizer. You probably got more germs off the products you picked up off the shelf than that cashier had on her hands. I've seen people pick their nose then pick up product with that snotty hand and place the item back on the shelf.

Depending on my mood at the time, I might have also walked away.

You don't want to know what's on the cart handle and seat!

What about the "new" clothes...how/who were they handled by as they were being made or were they coughed on? Eating in restaurants what about somebody removing dishes/cups/cutlery clean from the dishwasher in their HepC/TB/pneumonia/coughed-upon hands they hadn't washed in 'sanitizer' before unloading? No, you most likely wouldn't complain because you don't see that - but just as unsanitary IMO.

The whole world is full of germs, and antibiotics don't always cure the ills they cause. Guess we could all walk around with medical masks on - like Michael Jackson or life over in China - and while we're at it, why not wear rubber gloves along with those medical masks......stop those damned germs in their tracks!

For me, I guess it would depend on the type of blow. A loud and messy bad cold blow is different from an allergy sniffle blow. i do think they should have hand sanitizer at their stations for their benefit and ours.

The OP didn't say she sneezed, she simply blew her nose. How many of you have purchased a box of tissues at the grocery store & while loading them onto the conveyer, opened those & used one? I have, many times. I would have had a hissy fit if she refused to cash me out because I had a tickle in my nose & used a tissue....please people.....seriously?

I'm stuck with, allergies aren't contagious, but you have a right to leave. I also agree with rhizo. If it wasn't that, it'd have just been something else, bathroom, money, etc. We just have to watch ourselves in this world.

Maybe part of the reason that so many allergic reactions have been showing up in recent years is that so many have become germophobic in recent years.

My Mom/Dad/Grandma used to say that we had to eat a peck of dirt before we died ... that's about an eighth of a bushel, I think.

Our systems learned early to cope with germs/bacteria (and I don't remember whether we heard of "viruses") ... and, by the way - don't ask for an antibiotic for a virus - cause they don't touch 'em ... also we've been told that colds aren't caused by viruses. But the germs/bacteria, etc.'ve become so used to coping with the antibiotics that they've pretty well lost their efficacy.

R C ... as in "Rant Complete".

o j

I think YOU need to carry the hand sanitizer. You are the one bothered by the possible contamination. Be pro-active instead of RE-ACTUVE.

Rob333, are you hallucinating or something? I haven't made a comment to this thread. Lol!

The thing is alot is allergies at this time of year, I know as I suffer and from sinuses and I do blow alot.

I didn't like early on hearing this cashier coughing and hacking and I stay away from coughs big time as I am so prone to them going into my chest and I crinch and get as far as possible.

Thank goodness I got the other cashier and got out there fast.

I come home and wash hands immediately.

You have no idea when you touch anything about bugs as doors are touched to get in and out and shopping carts are touched all over them. and you put your items in them and no idea what is on them.

And same with foods, how do you know someone didn't cough or sneeze or blow their nose by it and some flew out on it.

Sure those can happen but if we think all sorts of those things, we would never buy or go out of our places ever again.

kathy