Grocery Stores Check Outs

[GFreeMO]

I just got back from the grocery store. This is a large local chain. Whenever I go, it always looks like there is flour on the belt. Some kind of white substance that sure looks like flour. Well today I noticed after I got in the line with a big cart full of groceries that the scanner area had a lot of what looked like cinnamon and sugar on it like maybe a box of doughnuts from the bakery popped open or something to that effect. Since my things were already on the belt and there were people behind me, I just watched as my stuff all touched the stuff on the belt and scanner. I paid, came home and took the stuff out and some of that cinnamon sugar mix was actually on some of my meat packages and things.

This happens to me all the time. Another time the man in front of me had pasta noodles and the bag broke open so the checker picked it off the belt and stuck the pasta near her register.

The whole point of this is, how can I avoid the flour or gluten on the belts? Why don't they clean these things?!

[kareng]

That's just gross, even if you don't have an issue with wheat. The ones around hear are always wiping the belts down. Sometimes there isn't a dry place to put my groceries.

I would mention it to the manager. It might be a violation of health codes? Maybe you could try to shop when it isn't too busy? Then tell the cashier you are allergic to several foods, etc, etc,

Maybe they could take them straight from the basket and into a sack?

[Jestgar]

Maybe they could take them straight from the basket and into a sack?

I was going to say this. Just put a basket or two into your cart if you don't feel like lugging it around, then put the whole basket on the belt. If they ask you to take your groceries out of the basket, ask them to clean the belt and wash their hands. Also, more stores are getting self-checkout stands. Maybe you can find out if yours is heading that direction.

[GFreeMO]

Karen, I know they clean them in JOCO. I've seen the spray bottles and paper towels. I love Hen House in Lenexa. Very clean store. I'd love to shop there all the time! I emailed Price Chopper i'll post back when I hear from them. It was really gross with the sugar all over the belt and more gross that I brought it home on my food.

I have never once seen anyone clean the belts. They are really dirty. The problem is that mostly teenagers are working there right now and they get all pissy if you ask them to do anything. My sacker today actually said yuck when she was putting my fresh green beans in the sack.

Jestgar, that is a wonderful idea! I will have to start doing that. Thank you.

[saintmaybe]

I think the name of the store says it all. Part of what you're paying for when you shop at a higher end grocery store is the shopping experience. This generally includes higher standard of cleanliness. In a retail location, the reason a store can afford lower prices is by hacking at anything deemed unnecessary. They're perennially understaffed, and the people who do work there, underpaid even by retail standards. In that kind of environment, you care about your job about 8 dollars worth an hour. you want bargain prices, you get bargain service. Now, we can't all afford to shop at whole foods or whatever, god knows, but just be aware that not all stores care about cross contamination and fighting that fight is pretty much a losing battle.

[kareng]

I think the name of the store says it all. Part of what you're paying for when you shop at a higher end grocery store is the shopping experience. This generally includes higher standard of cleanliness. In a retail location, the reason a store can afford lower prices is by hacking at anything deemed unnecessary. They're perennially understaffed, and the people who do work there, underpaid even by retail standards. In that kind of environment, you care about your job about 8 dollars worth an hour. you want bargain prices, you get bargain service. Now, we can't all afford to shop at whole foods or whatever, god knows, but just be aware that not all stores care about cross contamination and fighting that fight is pretty much a losing battle.

I think you live on the east coast so you wouldn't be familiar with our Price Choppers in the KC area. I think there are a couple of different companies in the country that have grocery stores by that name. Here, Price Chopper isn't really a discount grocery at all. Not sure what prices are chopped. Which makes this lack of cleanliness even more unforgivable.

[saintmaybe]

@kareng

In that case, the best way to go is to write a letter of concern to the store manager, cc'd to the corporate office. In my experience, and I do work in retail for significantly more than 8 dollars an hour, that is the most efficient way to get an individual stores concerns addressed. There are troubled stores, but corporate won't know about it without enough customer complaints.

[GFreeMO]

Our Price Chopper isn't a troubled store usually. It's actually a new store built within the last 3 years or so. I remember before we got that store, we had to drive about 45 min. round trip to any grocery store. I am very appreciative that we have this store because that was a royal pain. This store is still pretty far from my house but I live out in the country and everything is far from my house.

I'll post back when I hear something from the store.

Karen, where do you do most of your shopping? I could drive out to the northland where they have all of the stores.

[kareng]

Our Price Chopper isn't a troubled store usually. It's actually a new store built within the last 3 years or so. I remember before we got that store, we had to drive about 45 min. round trip to any grocery store. I am very appreciative that we have this store because that was a royal pain. This store is still pretty far from my house but I live out in the country and everything is far from my house.

I'll post back when I hear something from the store.

Karen, where do you do most of your shopping? I could drive out to the northland where they have all of the stores.

I'll pm you

[Mnicole1981]

My Independence Hy-Vee is pretty good about keeping their belts clean, but it depends on what cashier I go to.

[Takala]

Oh, fer Pete's sake, that is so gross!

Contact the county health department.

I treat the packaged meat as if it all might be contaminated with bacteria anyway, and I put it in those clear plastic produce bags that they have rolls of displayed near certain areas for putting individual unpackaged items into. When I head over to the meat counter area, I have already taken a couple of bags which I have ready to just pop those meat packages into. This way there is little chance of meat juice dripping onto my cart's vegetables, fruits, or on the conveyor belt at the checkout, or onto those cloth re-usable grocery bags we're all supposed to use now. THOSE things are germ vectors.

Funny true story: was at the local small grocery a year or two ago, and observed small child (maybe age 4?) going thru the apple display and taking the apples one by one, and trying to bite into each, before putting it back. Mom is deliberately ignoring the kid, but fortunately, a stocking clerk is very close nearby and I quickly get his attention and we watch him finally quit and run off, when he realizes he's getting The Eye. OMG you should have seen this clerk's face as we are looking closely at the apple display, with a trail of slobber and bite marks thru the apples, and he's pulling them out to be disposed of- some teenagers ARE conscientious. This is part of why everybody likes to shop there.

When I was shopping last month, at a store in a different town, somebody dropped a wet baby pacifier into my shopping cart and disappeared. When I got up to the checkout, I asked "uh,what should we do with this, somebody left it in my cart when I wasn't looking?" and the checkout clerk actually took a paper towel and came around and snagged the thing for me, then used sanitizer. The funnier part was that when I had entered the store, I had used the restroom and washed my hands, and another employee came in there before the start of her shift, and had actually chatted me up on this topic as she washed up too, saying that too many customers were behaving in sort of gross ways and that they were having to clean the carts and shelves up all the time and that it was sort of freaking her out because she was sort of germ -phobic. (and this store is in the best part of town ! ) So from that I learned two things: this store has employees trying to keep it clean, and that if you wash your hands as if you've had to wash your hands seriously for work at some point, other people will always recognize the technique and it's like the secret signal to commiserate on the lack of hand washing observed in general !