I love to buy in bulk at my local Roth's Fresh Market. I took a shop for a different store that I had never visited. I was surprised and delighted to see a huge bulk area. There were signs posted all around stating "No Sampling", but apparently it is not enforced. I watched a couple walk through produce sampling grapes, then into the bulk department. They'd open the snack bins and reach in with the bare hands, eat something, then reach bare-handed into another bin and sample from that - on and on down the line. I was disgusted. I had planned to purchase from the bulk area but changed my mind. What really got me torqued up was that there were employees in the area who witnessed this, but said nothing. If I hadn't been MSing at the time, I would have said something to the employees about it and would not have minced words.
Thank goodness Roth's has the type of bulk bins where customers cannot touch the food. You lift up on the dispenser and hold a bad underneath for the food to fall into. If a customer changes their mind, they can't put it back; they just leave the bag behind.
I'm sorry the OP got semi-scolded by the MSC. I probably would not have thought of cross-contamination in that manner. Live and learn, right? No more bulk trail mix.
There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.