When eating in a public place, it’s natural to hope that everything is hygienic. So, what should you do when you witness someone tainting a place where food is served? 

Well, after seeing a kid basically licking public sauce dispensers’ nozzles, today’s OP decided to inform the store’s staff so they could get it cleaned. But it very quickly turned into a public dispute between the author and the unhygienic kid’s family, which prompted the original poster’s question about whether they did the right thing by reporting the kid. 

More info: Reddit

Eating food with someone else’s saliva on it isn’t something that most of the people would opt for

Image credits: Ivan Samkov (not the actual photo)

Today’s author noticed a child going rogue and licking sauce dispensers at Costco, so they reported this incident to the store’s staff

Image credits: Mike Mozart (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Kojach (not the actual photo)

Image credits: u/Hefty-Quote8462

When staff confronted the kid’s family, they started pestering the author and blaming them for being a child hater

The whole story happened when the OP went to Costco. It’s an American corporation of big-box chain stores that are membership-only. In 2024, it ranked 5th in the top 50 of global retailers. 

In the store, the original poster bought a famous Costco hotdog for themselves and their husband. The hotdogs were introduced in these chain stores back in 1984 and have been one the most prevalent things related to the brand since then. One of the most interesting facts about them is that since their introduction, the price has stayed the same — $1.50 for a combo with a soda. Well, the price is surely one of the reasons why these hotdogs remain so popular. 

Now, nearly everyone’s trip to Costco includes a stop for a hotdog. And today’s author wasn’t an exception to this. After buying it, they went to the sauce dispensers for some mustard, and they saw a child around 6-7 years old licking her fingers with sauce on them and then wiping those fingers on the sauce dispensers’ nozzles.

The OP decided not to confront the kid or her family and reported it to the staff, who ended up confronting said family. And then, these people approached the author asking why they didn’t come to them directly. They explained that they were concerned about food safety and weren’t looking to pick up a fight.  

Well, being concerned for food safety is totally justifiable in cases like this. After all, it is known that various diseases can spread through saliva. Starting from diseases like the flu and type 1 herpes (cold sores) to even illnesses like Hepatitis B or C. And, well, no one would like to get these from a Costco sauce dispenser, would they? 

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

Yeah, sure, one can argue that we don’t know if this kid had any of these diseases. Yet, it still doesn’t dismiss the fact that having someone else’s dribble on your food is a very disgusting thing. After all, when you’re getting sauce for your hotdog, you likely want something like mustard or ketchup, not a random kid’s saliva.

Well, the child’s family didn’t think this way, as they didn’t believe the original poster’s explanation about food safety, and they declared the author a child hater. This made them doubt if they did the right thing by going to the staff and causing such a public argument with that family. 

People online reassured the author that it was the right thing to do – the staff needed to know that the sauce dispensers needed to be cleaned. Additionally, if they would have gone only to the parents, they likely would have pretended it didn’t happen. A few even thought that the employee’s confrontation even taught the child a lesson about hygiene, as for some of the commenters, it seemed that this kind of topic was non-existent in that family.

While some might argue that forcing good manners on kids isn’t the most effective way to teach them to do better, in this case, what was the better way to go about it? Hygiene in public eating places is very important, as it is responsible not only for customers’ health but for the restaurant’s reputation as well. So, tip-toeing around this topic isn’t the best choice, and it’s probably better to show the kid why the way she acted was bad.

And who knows if this lesson will even stick with the kid. Maybe her family will talk it over with some other stuff, just like they did when the OP tried to explain themselves. Well, let’s just hope that it won’t happen again and the next time this kid is near the sauce dispensers, she won’t go around spreading her saliva and making strangers uncomfortable while her family mistreats anyone who brings attention to it.

Yet, people online agreed that the author did the right thing by going to the staff and dubbed the family an unhygienic one

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