STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

Bulk Bins

Boots · Gucci

I don't use the bulk bins at all because I'm afraid of exactly this. People reach in there with their hands, and not to be graphic, but lets just say I don't have a lot of faith in other people's hygiene. I want my food to either be washable like fruit & vegetables or sealed from the general public.

It does sound like you had food poisoning. Hope you feel better.

relrel · Marc Jacobs

If you wanted to be safe, just make sure that you only use bulk items that come from gravity-fed bins rather than the scoop type.

Suasoria · Chanel

Whatever you decide, I would contact the store to bring it to their attention. Foodborne illness is so common...and they should take it off the shelf.

Elle · Hermes

It could have just as easily been from touching the scoop or lid of a bin - stomach illnesses are usually spread via surface contact.

There are really two different kinds of what we consider 'food poisoning' - the kind that comes on within an hour or two of eating a certain food means that food contained a high level of toxins being produced by bacteria or a virus, and the sickness is a direct effect of being 'poisoned' by the toxins. The second type is one that doesn't come on for 12 to 24 hours, and is more common in the case of having ingested a few actual virus or bacteria. The lag time between ingesting them and getting sick is the time it takes for them to set up shop in your GI tract and start making you ill. Fun, eh?

Most of the stuff that you'd consider sampleable is in gravity-fed bins at our store, but for the other stuff that I must scoop for (flour, dry beans, etc), I just put a small bag over my scooping hand while I'm in the bulk section and make sure I use hand sanitizer as soon as I get out to the car.

I'm sorry you're sick! You might want to call and let them know you believe their bulk bins made you ill, or at least inquire about how often they're sanitizing their bins and scoops and such.

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

I like the gravity-fed bin approach - - paired with the baggie-over-the-hand trick.

Elle, several things make me think that the mix or bin was contaminated (as opposed to the trail mix having actually turned on its own). The bin was at kid-height. This store's bin lids don't stay open on their own, so you so have to practically get intimate with each lid in order to keep it from slamming shut, and--on a later trip to the store--I noticed that scoops for some of the items didn't look like they have been cleaned in forever. For several other reasons, this store's been on my sh*t list anyway, and I think this was the final straw.

Thanks for your input, everyone.