Woman's Shopping Experience at Supermarket Sparks Etiquette Debate on Social Media

A shopper raised concerns about grocery store etiquette when she encountered another customer's behavior at a supermarket. Tayler, known as @taylerstanleyy on TikTok, shared her experience at the Australian grocery store chain Woolworths, questioning whether what she witnessed was a questionable habit. She asked viewers, "Is this behavior unsettling, or am I alone in feeling this way?"

"Okay, so I just went and grabbed some groceries and please tell me this is normal," she said in her video. "A lady walked over and she was standing in front of me at the blueberries and strawberries in Woolworths, and she opened up the blueberries and started touching them."

After finding that the blueberries didn't meet her standards, she returned the first container to its place and repeated this process with two more containers until she found one she preferred. She then chose a container and walked away. The TikToker expressed disgust, saying, "Is that normal? Yuck."

After Tayler shared her experience, many TikTok users took to the comments section to express their agreement with her assertion that the behavior was not acceptable. One user commented, "I always feel my fruit and veg. Some things are soft and starting to go off, and others can be hard and able to eat for days so always check for fruit I can eat on the day. That means I need to touch."

Tayler agreed, saying, "Yes me too, did it to my avocados yesterday. I don’t eat the skin off my avocado though. I get it but do you touch/squeeze blueberries before you buy? Is this normal?" A different user chimed in, stating, "And you didn’t think to say something while she, did it?"

"Why didn't you say something to her?" wrote another. "Yuuuuckkkk!! I wash ours and this still makes me mad!" said someone else.

Users expressed their frustration toward such unhygienic practices. "You wash your produce and how many hands touched it, picking packing up, etc?" wrote one user. Tayler agreed, saying, "Absolutely agree, this is why I wash my veg and fruit vigorously but to go as far as touching and squeezing the berries, like c'mon. It’s not normal right???"

"Oh piss off. I don’t want to buy blueberries again now," someone commented. "It’s not normal! And if you look at the amount of grapes in each pack at Woolies, that’s even more disgusting," said another. "You wash your produce anyway. Just think about how many hands have already touched it before this woman… picking, packing, etc?" one comment read. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that the safest way to consume produce is either by cooking it or washing it thoroughly. To wash your fruits or vegetables, the organization recommends rinsing them under running water, even if you don't intend to eat the peel.

This is because germs present on the peel or skin can transfer to the inside of fruits and vegetables when you cut them.

For more such content, you can follow Tayler (@taylertsanleyy) on TikTok.