The Case Of The Clueless Customer

[home-based-mom]

Today a customer came in and was eating some kind of a chocolate-covered biscuit. She was dribbling crumbs all over the counter. There was no point in saying anything to her as she gave every indication of being a clueless dingy airhead. Pleasant, but dingy.

I realized that even though I could clean the counter after she left, I couldn't clean her money. Then I realized that there probably isn't a piece of money anywhere that isn't contaminated with gluten.

Remember when your mother told you not to put money into your mouth "because you don't know where it's been?"

I just realized I might as well assume that it has been in direct or indirect contact with gluten.

Yet another source of cc. Sigh.

[JNBunnie1]

Ain't life grand?

[lovegrov]

Yep, anybody who works in retail or with the public is exposed to anything and everything -- not just gluten.

richard

[YoloGx]

Yep, anybody who works in retail or with the public is exposed to anything and everything -- not just gluten.

richard

Oh wow. I guess out come the cotten gloves, a fresh pair every day...And the vinyl or latex gloves for emergencies.

The money thing is kind of astounding. One doesn't want to be paranoid or neurotic but then where is the line between what is real and what isn't? How much is too much?

I think if we strengthen ourselves it helps us be more resistant. It really helps when I swim for instance. Ditto with taking herbs and observing diet.

This is such a hidden disease. I wonder what it will take to change society at large that so people become more aware here in the US? It seems like people are at least somewhat more aware of this in Europe...

Yolo

[ravenwoodglass]

When I had my shop I put a big sign on the door that stated NO FOOD IN SHOP. Folks that ignored the sign, and it only happened once, were told to leave. No exceptions.

There is no way to get around the dirtiness of money except diligence, gloves would help but I found them hard to work with at times. My hands are really small and most are too loose. I never thought to look for the old fashioned white cotton gloves, I will have to keep that in mind if I ever work a register again.

[salamander]

There can't be many shops in the UK where as a customer you are allowed to eat or drink. Even if there wasn't a sign, you still wouldn't do it. Having said that, being new to this, would contamination from other peoples food particles happen? I mean I am assuming that they weren't digested.

[imsohungry]

Isn't if funny how one thought triggers a whole strand of thoughts (often unrelated to what you were originally pondering).

For instance, I was reading this gluten thread and it ended up making me think of illegal drugs.

I'll tell ya why. I saw a special (Dateline, Discovery, TLC, take your pick...I can't remember what channel now).

They were discussing cocaine and gave a brief fact on U.S. money and drugs; I was amazed to find out that most of the money we handle has traces of illegal drugs on it!

With that said, gluten food particles seem highly probable.

Oh well, nonetheless, I'll never turn down a $20...even if it was rolled in flour!

Interesting topic. -Julie

[kbtoyssni]

I had this exact same thought the other day! I went to Taco Bell with a friend for lunch (I just got a soda) and all of a sudden realized that there's probably gluten all over the cash register. And the napkin dispenser. I took one napkin out, left it on the counter, and took the second, hopefully un-CCed one for myself.

[ArtGirl]

I think about that all the time when I'm out. I am very careful to wash my hands after being in a gluten environment. And I've discarded the top napkin, too.

I was in line at Whole Foods yesterday, and had my groceries on the conveyor belt - was the next customer in line. As soon as the checker finished the person ahead of me, he turned around and took a bite of some sort of cake. He was wearing knitted gloves (without the fingers) so the crumbs were not only on his hands, but most likely stuck on the gloves, too. I put all my groceries back in the basket and went to another check-out station. (The checker was very apologetic about it when I explained why I was leaving.)

Church is another place I need to be careful. People have donuts and other gluten breakfast goodies before the service, and then sometime during the first part of the service we all greet and shake hands. Sometimes I wait until after the greeting time to go into the sanctuary, and other times I quietly walk out and wash my hands and quietly walk back in and sit down.

I think it is a real bother having to be so careful all the time. BUT, it's my life now and I accept the challenge.

[salamander]

I'm having problems understanding this cross-contamination thing. At home I make sure that I have different pans, knives, my own gravy etc to the rest of the family but I haven't been bothering too much if I actually have to butter a slice of bread for the kids, or pass someone a biscuit.

Same with feeding the ducks. If I've handled bread, I just rub my hands together and brush off the crumbs.

I've kept off the gluten for a month and feel 100% better, but how careful do you need to be? Is it different from person to person?

[kbtoyssni]

I'm having problems understanding this cross-contamination thing. At home I make sure that I have different pans, knives, my own gravy etc to the rest of the family but I haven't been bothering too much if I actually have to butter a slice of bread for the kids, or pass someone a biscuit.

Same with feeding the ducks. If I've handled bread, I just rub my hands together and brush off the crumbs.

I've kept off the gluten for a month and feel 100% better, but how careful do you need to be? Is it different from person to person?

You need to be more careful. Let's say you put some dirt crumbs on your hands and then just brushed them off. Would your hands be clean? No.

You're pretty new to gluten-free, so gluten-lite will make probably you feel great for a while. But eventually your body will start to get sick again. Or you may be one of those lucky people who doesn't have bad symptoms when ingesting gluten, but that doesn't mean you aren't doing damage. You'll be doing the kind of long-term damage that you can't fix and don't realize until it's too late. Things like osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer's, etc.