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General discussionWhy Do People in Grocery Stores Do This?(53 posts)(53 posts)
(53 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 23, 2016
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LootSeeker: I have done this to a basket because the basket was broken.
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tinyE: As opposed to a grocery store basket or cart that isn't broken?

There is no such thing. :
I had big pimpin running through my head when I was bag boy
Posted February 23, 2016
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GothikOrk: I started working at a grocery store not too long ago, when I noticed a strange habit by some of the customers. They'll walk up to the hand baskets, and Instead of taking the topmost one, they pick it up, reach for the one below it, and put the topmost basket back. They'll do a similar thing with the grocery carts, removing the last cart in the row and taking the one behind it instead. This baffles and frustrates me, as I cannot understand the rationale for this.

My only guess is that the people who do this are neurotic germophobes. They must think the last cart or the topmost hand basket must be dirtier somehow than the next cart or next lowest basket. This makes no sense to me. The idea that baskets and carriages are hotbeds of germs and disease have been blown out of proportion by the media. Germs can't live or thrive on metal and plastic.

It also gets me a little miffed when I see people wiping down their carriages and baskets with moist wipes. Millions of years of natural selection and fine tuning our immune systems, and we're afraid of plastic and metal handles? This proliferation of needing to sanitize everything before we touch it, and irrational fear of germs needs to stop. As long as you wash your hands from time to time, keep them away from your eyes, nose and mouth, you'll probably be alright 99% of the time.
Bwahaha! Welcome newbie to the world of food! Law of the land is either L.I.F.O., or F.I.F.O. Last in first out and first in first out. LIFO is customer friendly, consumer friendly but damaging to the shop. FIFO is shop friendly, owner's friendly but not as good as LIFO for the customer. Many people know this, as well as the common practice and order food is being arranged in shelves/baskets/whatsoever. So they always remember to pick the first, so they can take from the one below it. I use it myself in supermarkets always, where thanks to the expiration date being displayed, i can never go wrong. Last product to go there is the first my hand grabs, ergo the freshest, longest for expiration, in best condition, etc. Blame food-science tips being gossiped out to the masses for it! Or food schools teaching it to the gazillions of students flocking there as of late.

About the germophobes you are completely right, though. To be annoyed, i mean. Since the food they buy is raw and is going to be processed thermally (cooking), it makes no sense to "sterilize" it (that is the job of boiling, roasting, etc). Plus, people who sterilize everything are the most vulnerable to disease and infection; antibodies to work properly need some small bacteria intakes every now and then. If you meticulously clean everything out, you are doing only damage to yourself. This by no means is an urge to senseless dirt exposure, just saying though.
Posted February 23, 2016
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tinyE: Same reason they reach into a loaf of bread instead of grabbing the 1st piece, or grab the 2nd back of chips in the stack, or the 3rd t-shirt back on the rack, etc etc etc.
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Niggles: Front pack chips might have been handled and squashed by previous shoppers. Further tshirts are in the back less chance someone else has touched or worn them. I know.i do this. :D
I never ever put clothes I try on back on the front of the rack for this exact reason.
Posted February 23, 2016
If this annoys you, stay in school and seek greater aspirations in life than working in a grocery store. :)
Posted February 23, 2016
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skeletonbow: If this annoys you, stay in school and seek greater aspirations in life than working in a grocery store. :)
Sadly, the grocery store people escaped. They're everywhere now. The grocery store people could not be contained and have now infected a landmass equal to the size of Jupiter.
Posted February 23, 2016
Having spent many years of my life living and working in different countries and cultures including the middle east, Europe, and US, I realized that this *thing* mostly happens in the US.

And I just can't comprehend why. Americans don't mind walking into their apartments in their shoes, cuddling with extremely-dirty-looking homeless folks on the streets, riding in public transportation packed with all sorts and sizes of dogs, and living in rodent infested buildings. But god forbid they touch a DIRRRTY shopping cart handle. I've never seen anywhere else in the world that has grocery stores with hand sanitizers, extra plastic bags for pre-packaged meat and poultry, etc.

I have so many foreign colleagues & friends that had to receive professional help to overcome various degrees of OCD after moving to the US and witnessing this obsessive fear of raw foods and the grocery store environment in general...
Post edited February 23, 2016 by onarliog
Posted February 23, 2016
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onarliog: Having spent many years of my life living and working in different countries and cultures including the middle east, Europe, and US, I realized that this *thing* mostly happens in the US.

And I just can't comprehend why. Americans don't mind walking into their apartments in their shoes, cuddling with extremely-dirty-looking homeless folks on the streets, riding in public transportation packed with all sorts and sizes of dogs, and living in rodent infested buildings. But god forbid they touch a DIRRRTY shopping cart handle. I've never seen anywhere else in the world that has grocery stores with hand sanitizers, extra plastic bags for pre-packaged meat and poultry, etc.

I have so many foreign colleagues & friends that had to receive professional help to overcome various degrees of OCD after moving to the US and witnessing this obsessive fear of raw foods and the grocery store environment in general...
And per usual, another thread turns into a general gangbang on America.

By an American. Living in America.

America.
Posted February 23, 2016
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do :)
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionWhy Do People in Grocery Stores Do This?(53 posts)(53 posts)
(53 posts)