Shoppers wearing disposable gloves- rant

briskbeats

Do these people know that gloves aren’t suitable for shopping? Due to cross contamination. See customers touching thousands of products wearing the same gloves, touch face, put glasses on/off and then pay with cash. If you are germophobic, then you don’t pay with cash! Then probably wear the same gloves at different shops they visit.

Then a couple of occasions I have seen people taking off gloves with their teeth by grabbing onto a finger. Well that’s really stupid.

Disposable gloves are worn by health and care staff are changed often and between patients!

Just sanitise hands with own santisier before entering and after you leave shops. Then when you get home, wash hands with soap and water.

I sanitise hands often at work (supermarket) with my own stuff as the work one smells awful.

JJ_Egan

Agree i touch stuff without gloves as the majority do .

yksi

It's just as gross in food service. I worked as a chef and had customers complain that they could see me preparing dishes bare-handed. It's actually more hygienic to do this (and wash hands often to avoid cross-contamination) because people in gloves are known to be generally more blasé - the gloves provide an artificial sense of cleanliness, leading to people forgetting to change them or think about food safety, and you end up with poorer hygiene overall and cross-contamination (think raw chicken juice and then handling lettuce).

But the general public associate seeing gloves with being clean and will just not be told otherwise.

jon81uk

Well the "cross-contamination" risk is the same as bare hands. If someone touches their car, some apples, the chicken packaging, their bank card and the till all with their hands its the same as if they had the same gloves the whole time.

As above people just think its clean.

When I worked selling food I much preferred not using gloves as could feel when I was dirty and use soap and water again. Only put gloves on if I was picking something sticky up and would then remove and dispose of the glove immediately. Wearing the same gloves for hours is worse than washing hands.

ka7e

My daughter is a midwife and at the height of lockdown had a woman attend an antenatal clinic, all masked and gloved. The patient was asked to go and produce a pee sample as she had forgotten to bring one. When she returned and handed over the sample, my daughter archly asked her if she had washed her hands (signs everywhere). The patient rolled her eyes, waggled her fingers and said "Don't need to, I got gloves"!

donnac2558

When the first lockdown started, the first time I went out shopping I did put on plastic gloves.   Noticed quite a few others doing that too.   I lasted I think 10 minutes, hands sweating and thought screw that.   Never again.  Now, I never see anyone wearing them.

briskbeats

donnac2558 said:

When the first lockdown started, the first time I went out shopping I did put on plastic gloves.   Noticed quite a few others doing that too.   I lasted I think 10 minutes, hands sweating and thought screw that.   Never again.  Now, I never see anyone wearing them.

I work at a supermarket and guessing about 5-10% are still wearing disposable gloves, some are just wearing one glove - explain that one. Numbers of customers wearing gloves has gone down. Be interested in why - cross contamination, find them awkward etc

KxMx

I did at the start but know how to use them properly.
Sanitise hands, put them on, clean trolley handle, no touching face or getting phone out etc, pay by card, take off carefully ( pinch at wrist roll down to finger tips putting the glove inside out as you go), dispose and sanitise hands again. 

68ComebackSpecial

Even more ridiculous are the people I see wearing leather gloves when out food shopping. 

briskbeats

KxMx said:

I did at the start but know how to use them properly.
Sanitise hands, put them on, clean trolley handle, no touching face or getting phone out etc, pay by card, take off carefully ( pinch at wrist roll down to finger tips putting the glove inside out as you go), dispose and sanitise hands again. 

I bet many who wear/wore disposable gloves didn’t follow the correct protocol for using them. I have seen a couple wearing the same gloves as I followed them (not intentionally) from Wilko, to a card shop then to a cafe. In both shops, they touched many items which they didn’t buy