So, I just went to the ice cream place in my local shopping center, and order their biggest size (48 oz?), vanilla with almonds mixed in. The girl who starts the order, gets called away by the boss, so she turns to a girl who's just come from the register area to "take over." Ok. So, the take over girl reaches up and adjusts her mask and visor brim with her bare hands. I assume she's gonna wash her hands, but she doesn't. So then she's working on the ice cream with the scoop/mixer tools, so I think, "ok, she's not actually gonna touch the ice cream, so it's probably ok." Well, then when she's putting the lid on it she literally used her thumb to smoosh some down into the container where the lid will fit on. Her thumb! The same one she was adjusting her mask and visor brim with! I'm thinking, "ok, I can just scoop that part away and clean the container." And I did all that when I got home, but all the way home I'm fretting about it. And when I tried to scoop that area out, it's half melted and runny, so there's no way to get that exact spot.

Obviously, I'm still fretting about it. And mad at myself.

I can't give this to my kids! $15 f'ing dollars worth of ice cream.

The face, hat brim and thumb stuff isn't even sanitary BEFORE Covid-19 issues arise. She'd just come from the register area, so probably handling money, or who knows what, and not only not concerned with washing her hands, but then literally sticking her thumb right in!

Normally I'd have spoken up, and don't know why I didn't this time. I think I'm just so stressed and frazzled with Covid-19 and everything being vitriolic and weaponized. I was just sort of paralyzed and making excuses of how I could remedy it myself rather than speaking up in defense of myself (and my kids) over the horrible hygiene in this shop, and "making a scene."

In the meantime, I've gotten all worked up. I told my girls I'd bring home [the ice cream**], so I guess I'm gonna drive to the one in the next suburb over and get more. So it'll now be $30 for 48 oz of ice cream...

Am I crazy?


P.S. **Edited to remove the brand name. I had tried to be vague, but accidentally included it near the end.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2020 09:46PM by Gordon B. Stinky.

Not crazy at all. I'd get the new ice cream and then probably phone the original place and gently tell the manager what happened and why you are concerned. You could probably do that without penalizing the server, just ask that they speak with their employees to ensure more reasonable behavior.

Thanks for the reassurance, LW. That's essentially what I did.

Don't worry. Because she wore a mask, there will be no Covid transmission. It is science.

Show us the science you claim to cite. Or shut up.

Free Man Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don't worry. Because she wore a mask, there will
> be no Covid transmission. It is science.


Dirty hands contaminate whatever they touch. It is science.

Exactly! When I got home I did some quick research and saw that Covid-19 isn't a food borne pathogen, which relieved me. But, as you mention, and I pointed out, this is a sanitation/hygiene issue even without regard to Covid-19.

I would have put it in the freezer and kept it their until the virus stopped breathing!

That is what I am doing. I have it delivered, put it in the freezer then wash hands.

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would have put it in the freezer and kept it
> their until the virus stopped breathing!


You know, there's a lot of wisdom in that. Just wait and see what happens (treat it like a petri dish and see if it turns into penicillin or something). ;)

But it's already been disposed of!

Heat will kill the virus. It's just what I heard.

Just microwave the ice cream for five minutes.

Interesting, but not sure I want ice cream soup!

the safest thing people can do is to grow their own food. I work in the supply chain/agriculture industry, trust me, stuff goes all over the floor and stomped on by people who have just been into the bathroom, and then back into it's container. Definetly inspect your food before you eat it, and wash it off if you can. Seriously I wish I was making this up.

You going to piss and moan about e.v.e.r.y. person who prepares food for you when you go out, eat out, buy a treat...because some form of that will and has been happening.

If the idea that a.n.y.o.n.e. who prepares your food might do something similar to this...you might want to eat in and cook all your meals.

nonmo_1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You going to piss and moan about e.v.e.r.y. person
> who prepares food for you when you go out, eat
> out, buy a treat...because some form of that will
> and has been happening.
>
> If the idea that a.n.y.o.n.e. who prepares your
> food might do something similar to this...you
> might want to eat in and cook all your meals.


Good grief...

I made one post about T.H.E. O.N.E. that I actually saw stick her thumb into my ice cream (after messing around with her face mask, hat, and coming from the register w/o washing her hands).

- One thumb.
- One ice cream.
- One post.
- One time.

I'm not sure how you can see that as pissing and moaning about anyone and everyone who prepares my food.

where's the thumb when it's not in your ice cream?

In their mouth

You can't always know how safe the food is, how sanitary the employee or environment is, or what's happening to our food that we can't see.

At at least you did finally say something, AND get closure; free ice cream!

It's better to eat off of trees or bushes, or from beneath the water or up in the air.

If you find an ice cream tree with nuts and fruit and chocolate and all that, please give me a call.

These posts, minus the thumb post, should fall in line.

But alas, they are out of line.

I’m jast as concerned where our food is sourced. “Packaged in the USA“ doesn't work for me.

Smooshing the ice cream down in the container with a thumb is flat out unacceptable, pandemic or no. If she had put on gloves after using the register, then maybe. If no gloves, or gloved before using register, that was a total no-no.

I can understand a kid new on the job doing something like that, but the customer should say something to the clerk, if not the manager. She may have just been clueless. It happens, and it is often curable with information.

Yep, agree on all counts.

At least it wasn't intentional.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-spit-starbucks-cops-20200721-dxjsxvijwjhldfdvlob5giq6pm-story.html

I wondered how he got caught and went looking. He was bragging about it. Good lord.

My first job for a paycheck was scooping ice cream (for cones and packed quarts/half gallons,) and I have to say it's a rather miserable, minimum wage job. Whenever the scooper reaches into the barrel, her arm can get covered with sticky ice cream up as far as the elbow. And it's difficult to hand pack hard ice cream, quart after quart after quart. Your hands get tired, and your arms get tired. Mistakes get made.

I also cooked for a hotel, and all I can say about it is that your average restaurant is just one step ahead of the health department. I try to remember that whenever I get the urge to get takeout during the pandemic.

Oh so true, summer, on both counts.

Nothing finer than 20/20 hindsight.

You should have called the clerk and the manager when it happened not after going home and fretting about it.

Sometimes it takes a bit of reflection. Not always so quick to assess and act. Life is a learning process.

I agree, tumwater and nightengale.

Normally I'd speak right up if I thought someone ought to wash their hands.

I didn't express it very well in my original post, but for me it's not so much about an employee making a mistake. It's about everything nowadays being laced with angst and acrimony at the same time. I'm so "aware" of hygiene given the current pandemic, that I'm watching things more intently, or more apt to notice them, but I'm also sort of paralyzed about speaking up and making a commotion, choosing in the moment to excuse it and make excuses, and think I can just fix it after the fact.

What I mean is that my own reaction and behavior bothered me more than the employee's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2020 05:15PM by Gordon B. Stinky.

That's what I was trying to express too, Gordon B. I didn't say it clearly enough.

I do not usually speak up at the time when something happens. I am a bit slow to think things over and decide the best approach. I am getting more blunt and quicker to act as I get older and also for sure during this pandemic. Not to harangue people but to expose bad practices. At quite a few eating places I've been to I've pointed out lapses. (We're low on the scale of contagion here in BC so restaurants have reopened, at one's own peril - or to be 100% accurate at the peril of everyone if we're not careful, each of us, for ourselves and others). I find that especially younger servers don't really get the whole disinfection technique and often do a quick once-over, a flick of a dry cloth to clean a table after one party while ushering a new party to the same table, for instance. Recently, my sister and I reported an entire food fair area to management of a mall due to people going through the motions but egregiously incompletely to the point we didn't feel safe eating there.

I don't like to make a scene or get anyone into trouble but in "these times" as we're all saying now things are a bit more top of mind due to the "one-second rule" as I call it - since I heard an MD say it only takes one second to become infected - one tiny moment of inattention or carelessness. So yeah, it's crucial to me - I seriously don't want to catch the thing - ever since the seasonal flu nearly saw me off last year - and this thing is way more virulent and nasty and I don't want it thankyouverymuch.

I'm not blaming you GBS for taking time to think things through. From now on you will likely change your habits or at least speak up more quickly when necessary. It will help everyone not just yourself.

But true enough, there is such a condition now as virus burnout! I get so tired of so much caution and apprehension and avoidance.

You know that old line from a well-known detective show? Hey - be careful out there! Very apt for all of us for the foreseeable...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2020 05:26PM by Nightingale.

I seem to be moving in the other direction, from speaking up to keeping quiet. :(

Prepare, cook and eat your own. No other way is safe from sloppy servers and help.

Watch the Pizza prep folks - after it it out of the oven they stand with their face 18 inches away, breathing on it/hair falling on it as they push down and cut it.

No matter what - eating in restaurants is a crap shoot.

Forget the Salad Bar - idiot customers are worse than the help. Reaching under the glass, coughing and hacking, reaching for some food with their hands...

Fix your own stuff at home.

Followup...


I remembered a bit later last night that a former neighbor of mine used to actually own a couple of these franchises, although not the one closest to home. It's been several years, and they've since retired to Florida, so I sent him a message on Facebook describing what happened and asking him what he thought I should do. I also included a photo of the two receipts, side-by-side, for the same thing, two different locations, timed about 90 minutes apart.

This morning he had responded and said to check my front door, and there was a bag hanging from the door knob with a $50 gift card and a thank you note for letting them know. I guess my old neighbor knows the owner.

So, not a bad ending.

What if...your former neighbor is actually...God!!!

Perhaps he actually “retired” to exaltation on a planet near the star Floridob!

Maybe the bag hanging on my door this morning was reorganized matter!

That would make him a "nattering nabob of Floridob."

Say that fast ten times.

Hehehe

:-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2020 04:02AM by Lot's Wife.

I can see where you would be upset, but I also see that you complied with the event and had a regret about it.

You are completely correct that this was NOT appropriate for the person to do for food handling.

With that said I would STILL contact the manager or corporation and share your experience as you did here.

Consider not going out of your way to the other side of town to another store. Go in the one you want and share your story (hopefully, you even shared it with the company by then and you are compensated free Ice Cream)

You aren't crazy, just give yourself a chance to do it over. You arent going to make the same mistake twice.

RMM

To those that are a bit reluctant to speak up immediately, just realize you are wearing a mask, most likely no one will recognize you.

It should make you feel a bit more comfortably and build your self confidence for future situations when this COVID thing is over.

Why were you there in the first place?

I go to the nearest Walmart and buy it.
You can always wipe down the container with sanitizer before you open it.