Diary of The Food Whore: Not My Kind of Bar

Not My Kind of Bar

February 22, 2007

I don't think it is any big secret how I feel about communal eating. As hard as I try to be open minded, and not be such a snob, the real me comes out and stands in defiance over dining establishments that force me to stand in line behind the guy who just came out of the bathroom - no evidence of hand washing - and wait while he digs through all the chicken to find the perfect piece for him.

It also brings me back to my days in high school where our crazy old art teacher used to walk through the line and randomly pick food off each of our trays. He once buried a just-licked finger deep into my taco salad to retrieve an olive. The Lunch Ladies graciously gave me a new salad, but it sort of set the tone for my inability to stand in line for a meal that other people have rummaged through.

This same thought overcame me yesterday as I stood in line for a cup of coffee at The Grocery Store. Because no longer are grocery stores just places where you can get food commodities - you can now do your banking, have a coffee, get your car waxed and have a pedicure while waiting for Deli Girl to slice your salami. (Which is not a metaphor - so don't even go there...)

So I am waiting for nice Starbucks girl to get me my drip coffee, "Yes I just want drip... no thanks, no flavoring, please. No cream. No sugar... right... just drip", when I see a man start rummaging his way through The Olive Bar. He methodically went through each olive bin to taste each olive - something the store encourages. Which is fine. Take an olive, shut the lid. Like it - buy it. Don't like it - move on. But this guy took it to the next level by biting into an olive, wincing, and then tossing the olive BACK INTO THE BIN. I gasped a little as I saw this, as did the lady next to me in line. The Man, realizing what he had done, looked around to see if anyone was watching him and locked gazes with us, and then he shut the lid to the bin and hi-tailed it to the wine cooler.

The lady next to me looked at me and said, "We have to say something...I can't just... walk away in good conscience."

But before either of us made the move to get some one's attention, Deli Guy came storming out from behind the counter, grabbed the bin, and stormed back into the deli.

My guess is that it won't be long before the olives are behind the glass of the Deli Case - where they should be. And they should replace the Olive Bar with a nice Martini Bar. Talk about the ultimate shopping experience...

Posted by Foodwhore at February 22, 2007 11:12 AM

Who, I mean, who raises these people? How is it that living amongst us there are individuals who think this behavior is appropriate?
It's always disheartening to know that some people think that anything goes. So long as you don't get caught.

Posted by: Charlotte at February 22, 2007 12:29 PM

aarghhh.
As my mother used to ask, 'was he raised by wolves?'

Posted by: DV at February 22, 2007 12:50 PM

i think i would enjoy the whole grocery shopping experience a lot more of there were a martini bar instead of an olive bar. even though i love olives.

Posted by: barbie2be at February 22, 2007 01:40 PM

What an outrage! Sometimes people are just unbelievable.

Mmmm, martini bars in grocery stores. Now there's a thought.

Posted by: Margarita at February 22, 2007 01:46 PM

no doubt about it. people. are. dis. gus. ting!!!!!

Posted by: Banita McCarn at February 22, 2007 02:45 PM

I am trying to discourage this sort of behavior (among others) in my 3 year old. sigh. I can't believe you didn't chase him down. I believe I would come unglued if I ate somewhere (besides home with said 3yo) and picked up a half-bitten whatever... surely even wolves act better than that...

Posted by: Tonja at February 22, 2007 04:37 PM

I know it's sad, but at the end of this story I was just impressed as all hell that the deli guy took action. Wow, I am jaded...

Posted by: Jen at February 22, 2007 05:52 PM

OMG, I never ever want to buy olives at Safeway again. It's not like they don't provide deli containers for the used toothpicks. Put it in there ffs. The mind boggles.

Or maybe your store doesn't have those little containers. But still.

Posted by: Sha at February 22, 2007 06:35 PM

It just goes to show, some people are raised up...Others are dragged up!!

Posted by: Caroline at February 23, 2007 01:26 AM

I work in an upscale market where there is plenty of free food/samples daily. A man pull a pocket knife out to sample some watermelon b/c the demo person had turned her back and there were no samples on the table. Fortunately, she turned back just in time to stop him. She was mortified and he was a little baffled/miffed that she stopped him.

There is another (old) man that gets his daily excercise by walking our store. He also makes a stop or two by the bulk bins for a snack or ten which the management would probably overlook if he would use the scoop or tongs and not his hands to reach in for his prize. Gross!

I was in the demo kitchen cutting green grapes into a beautiful chicken salad in a large shallow stainless bowl when a man walked up and stuck his hand right in the bowl to retrieve a few grapes for himself. It happened before I could even speak. It was a Saturday so there were plenty of people around to witness this horrific act and we were all just speechless. The man's poor wife was so embarassed and tried to apologize, but the damage was done. I turned and dumped the whole bowl into the trash so that the people watching wouldn't think that I would, in anyway, try to serve that food.

I could go on, but I won't. People don't think.

Posted by: sue.g at February 23, 2007 03:20 AM

Yes! People turn out this way, in part, because they're allowed to. I've been to a couple parties where families were encouraged to bring their kids. I have no problem with that. I DO have a problem with a toddler (who happens to have a cold) who dips his hand into a bowl of chips or dip, shoves his little fist in his mouth, then promptly puts it back in the aforementioned munchies. All this while mom and dad smile indulgently at their little cutie.

Posted by: Madam Chow at February 23, 2007 06:45 AM

Yes, the eternal problem is people are usually so horrified, they can't say anything before oblivious grazers move on.
I totally sympathize with the poor deli guy, he was probably cursing in his head because this is the second or third time that day he's had to dump something.
Worst thing ever seen in one of these bins?
A piece of gum in a tissue, apparently left there so the person didn't have gum in their mouth when they sampled.
Yes, I mentioned it to a horrified employee.

Posted by: Mel at February 23, 2007 06:53 AM

That kind of thing is ALMOST excusable if a child does it. They just might not know better, but Jeeze M. Crowe! THAT is disgusting. It boggles the mind just how socially inept some people are.

Posted by: Dave at February 23, 2007 07:28 AM

I'm afraid I totally ruined (ok not totally) a cousin's dessert reception this winter when I chastised a child who was literally lapping at the choclate fountain like a dog! I don't go near those things for that same reason...people can't seen to help themselves!

So this child was poking out his toungue and licking at the chocolate and everyone was laughing at him and I see him and say "Ew! That's just like spitting in it!"

Everyone realized at once what I meant and slowly backed away from the fountain.
The MOB was a tad pissed at me because "They paid a ton to get high-end brand chocolate and I just ruined it."
I DID? No the stupid monkey that spit in the fountain did, I just saved everyone from getting the flu...or worse!
Chocolate fountains are gross!

Posted by: Miri at February 23, 2007 07:44 AM

Maybe I'm just too trusting of people because this thought never really occured to me, or if it did I simply brushed it off with a "nobody would actually do that!" Now I'm going to find myself suspect of any such situation. I would say that this is one of those "ignorance is bliss" kind of things, but, I suppose there is a real health issue here and you can't ignore that. YIKES!

Posted by: Kevin at February 23, 2007 09:32 AM

If you're eating or already feeling queasy, you probably don't want to hear my story.

I've never been a fan of "public" communal food, but I thought I was safe with friends. Until a few years ago when I hosted a family Christmas Eve that included a couple of friends of the family. The five-year-old of one of said friends, who had just returned from the bathroom, grabbed some olives with her hands and stuck her saliva dripping hands back into the bowl for more. Luckily, said family had just arrived so I knew she hadn't touched anything else. Why luckily you say? Because her mom then told me the kid had had diarrhea all day!

Mom was offended that, not only did I remove the olives to the garbage, I suggested that it wasn't appropriate to bring a sick kid to a big gathering and asked that she keep her kid away from the food.

Posted by: A Nony Mous at February 23, 2007 10:27 AM

And then there's the Fruit and Vege department where people hand select their choice of fruit, squeeze it to test it's ripeness and chuck it back on the pile. That's squeeze and chuck it back, squeeze and chuck it back... This would be why most of the fruit we buy is bruised so badly two days after being purchased.

Try being considerate people. We all like the best of the best.

Posted by: Dean at February 23, 2007 12:01 PM

Dave ~ I beg to differ. It is no more excusable when a child does it than if an adult does it. It's gross either way - whether the offender is 5 or 55. My children know, in no uncertain terms, that they are to use utensils to serve food onto their plates and ONLY THEN they may touch the food on their plates with their hands (though I prefer the use of a fork if possible).

A ~ eeewww. GROSS. Yet another thing I instill in my children - cleanliness is next to Godliness. WASH YOUR HANDS. ALWAYS. The mom should have been smacked.

Posted by: HomefrontSix at February 23, 2007 12:57 PM

I'm going to echo HomefrontSix with the eloquent words of ewwwwww! I guess you kind of expect a certain amount of grossness with bins of open food at the grocery store, but to put it back in???? I can't even fathom how anyone would think that would be ok. No more olive bins for me.

Posted by: Max at February 23, 2007 01:54 PM

Ewwwwww. This is exactly why I can't buy the olives from olive bars in grocery stores. At ours, I saw a guy stick is fingers in the olives, fish around and pull one out to eat. *shudder* One, I just don't agree with people eating stuff in the grocery and not paying for it and two, use utensils, not your fingers, in food other people are going to eat.

Posted by: Melissa at February 23, 2007 02:29 PM

It gets worse.

I was in my local grocery store one day, walking by the meat counter. There, behind the glass, was a kid cutting meat, wearing some kind of protective gloves . . .

Blowing his nose in them. And then touching the meat.

I rang the bell and spoke to somebody in charge. I don't know if they fired the kid, threw away the meat, whatever. I should have gotten the store manager. Looking back, I feel like I didn't do enough.

Posted by: StevenHB at February 23, 2007 03:59 PM

Occasionally I help our neighbor out at an upscale farmers market in a major metropolitan area. They set out a phenomenal spread with all their products along with toothpicks so people don't have to touch the food with their finger. I thought I was going to barf the first time I saw people spear a piece of food, put it in their mouth and then use the same toothpick in another sample pile. Serious yuck factor.

Posted by: Painted Hand Farm at February 23, 2007 06:59 PM

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Posted by: Chef Johnallen at February 25, 2007 02:20 AM

Oh, I was once that person who had consumed half of her container of olives from the olive bar before finally coming across _the one with the bite marks_. I gagged, threw them out, and vowed "never again".

Posted by: Livy at February 25, 2007 12:33 PM

Once while catering an adult party in Bel Air, I was refilling the buffet table and came across a piece of chewed meat lying on the linen in between the dishes. That had been spit out. On the table. No napkin. No anything.

Ew.

I'm never shocked when people behave disgustingly with food now.

Posted by: Food Allergy Queen at February 26, 2007 10:38 PM

LOLOL!!!! I think I'm hooked on your blog already, and it's only my first visit....

Posted by: Ellie at February 27, 2007 06:25 AM