Honey Baked Ham Story

Ordered an entree with mashed potato and gravy.

Ordertaker, who had gloves on at that point, goes to refrigerator and with gloved hands takes out single serving container of potatoes and single serving container of gravy. Walks past me, still with gloved hands, opens microwave and heats potatoes and gravy.

Ordertaker, next takes potatoes and gravy and walks to area where my entree container is sitting on counter. She removed lids from containers.

Instead of getting a spoon, spatula, or scoop, ordertaker sticks her gloved index and middle finger into the container, and uses fingers to clean out container onto my entree container. She repeats with gravy.

Ordertaker wipes potatoes and gravy off of gloved hands onto a wet rag on counter and comes to register with my food. She rings me up, accepts cash, and gives me cash change, all with same gloved hands.

And employees wonder why they are shopped.

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

Ewww

Oh boy! This is why I prepare my own food! And you never know what goes on in the back either. (just sayin')

Yuck! Did you eat any of that? I assume this was a shop, and you reported that activity?

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

OMG. I once shopped a McDonald's and watched the young woman preparing my order. She looked around to see if any other employees could see her, slipped her cell phone out of her pocket, texted someone, slipped the phone back into her pocket, then proceeded with my meal.

Unfortunately, I had just recently read a Consumer Reports issue about the e-coli and other filth on cell phones (we DO take them everywhere, you know!).

I didn't taste the food. I stayed inside the required 15 minutes without tasting the food. I said in the report I didn't eat it, and why.

Never got any questions about the report, and I was paid in full.

I shopped an A & W this year and it is a 24 hour location and guess what they DO NOT use gloves. Yes! All this in view of the customers! The lettuce, the tomatoes and maybe even the patty with no gloves. 24 hours for this location...all I can say. I had to include that in the report because em...what in the cross contamination is going on?

ceasesmith,
I hear you. This could be why they were shopped for this very reason. It's good that you noticed and especially not eat it. Hopefully they got to the bottom of it.

Mysteriousways , It sounds like they were very comfortable and used to this type of practice. Hmmm!
It would have been worth video taping..I think!

They don't use gloves at The Habit either except to handle raw meat--at least here in CA. I've stopped putting in my reports because it's clearly company policy.

It gets so gross we when they are handling food without gloves and they have acrylic nails.

I guess this how they keep the prices low lol gloves must be getting expensive!

What about the common practice of putting a finger into a drinking cup to hand it to the customer?

Gross!

Mysteriousways...LOL

Gloves are not always required. In fact, some experts advocate against using gloves precisely because of what you saw. People think gloves=clean. I saw a guy at a restaurant pick his nose with a gloved hand. I called him out and told him to remake my order. He tried to tell me that I was wrong. He honestly seemed unaware of what he was doing.

Encouraging proper hand washing is a better strategy. Of course, in busy restaurants, managers will yell at employees who take twenty seconds to wash their hands.

Even with gloves, you are supposed to change gloves and wash your hands regularly. Gloves are not a substitute for handwashing. Unless you have some way to put on gloves without touching them.

That's one thing that always impressed me about Subway. They normally have the sink right there, and you see employees remove gloves and wash their hands frequently, then put on clean gloves.

One of the questions for Little Caesar's Pizza is if you saw an employee touch food without gloves. I use to be able to see into the back area at most of the restaurants so I could report on it. Now all the restaurants have a wall between the front and back so I can't see into the back area anymore.

That happens a lot! When it happens to me I “accidentally” drop my cup on the floor, politely ask for a new cup, and whisper to the cashier “please don’t put your fingers inside the rim this time”.

Susie shopping the Columbus Ohio area and outlying communities.

I shopped a location last month where I ordered a sandwich. The employee went from the food prep area to the cash register and back to the food prep area without changing cloves.

This couldn't go in the report fast enough.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Way back in the 70s I worked at Arby’s and was taught not to use fingers inside the rim to grab cups and also not to use the cup to scoop the ice (we had those big ice bins then). That has always stuck with me.

It’s even worse when they scoop ice with a glass and it chips...yeah.

I used to have a pizza delivered frequently from a location near my home in the past. One day I went down to pick up the pizza. The owner/ pizza maker was a large man who dripped sweat on to the pizza from his head. This was not a shop. HUG! YK!

Eewwww. Food trucks are big here. Especially for coffee/breakfast. A co worker told us he saw the food server stick his bare fingers in a tub of butter to smear it on his roll. Disgusting.

@Madetoshop wrote:

Eewwww. Food trucks are big here. Especially for coffee/breakfast. A co worker told us he saw the food server stick his bare fingers in a tub of butter to smear it on his roll. Disgusting.

There is nothing more dirty about food trucks. You just get to see more.

Once you know how that ham is made, you won’t eat another one. My little brother had a friend that worked at the honey baked ham store. It was his job to glaze the hams, and he said it was completely disgusting.

I guess i am in the clear. I don't like ham and sweet and meat don't go together anyway, in my opinion.

@SoCalMama wrote:

Once you know how that ham is made, you won’t eat another one. My little brother had a friend that worked at the honey baked ham store. It was his job to glaze the hams, and he said it was completely disgusting.

Ha. Many years ago when he was high school - we're talking FIFTY years ago - my uncle worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken. He never ate fried chicken again, and, once he moved to another job, he never entered another Kentucky Fried Chicken. He worked a lot of fast food and restaurant jobs while he was in high school and college, including Jack in the Box, McDonalds and Taco Bell, and he eats all those, but Kentucky Fried really put him off fried chicken. We still have to hear every Thanksgiving and Christmas how disgusting fried chicken is and he tells us all never to eat it.

Sweat is a common ingredient. Kichens are hot.

I shopped Mod Pizza a lot. Every time I saw employees putting dough in the machine without gloves on, I put that in my report although there wasn't any requirement that employees need to wear gloves. It was just disgusting especially if men did that. I always wondered if men washed their hands coming out of the bathroom and the image just went wild. Just hope their oven killed all the germs. They should put to audit gloves in the requirements.

But I am guessing he still eats turkey?

@roflwofl wrote:

@SoCalMama wrote:

Once you know how that ham is made, you won’t eat another one. My little brother had a friend that worked at the honey baked ham store. It was his job to glaze the hams, and he said it was completely disgusting.

Ha. Many years ago when he was high school - we're talking FIFTY years ago - my uncle worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken. He never ate fried chicken again, and, once he moved to another job, he never entered another Kentucky Fried Chicken. He worked a lot of fast food and restaurant jobs while he was in high school and college, including Jack in the Box, McDonalds and Taco Bell, and he eats all those, but Kentucky Fried really put him off fried chicken. We still have to hear every Thanksgiving and Christmas how disgusting fried chicken is and he tells us all never to eat it.

@KV wrote:

...It was just disgusting especially if men did that. I always wondered if men washed their hands coming out of the bathroom and the image just went wild. Just hope their oven killed all the germs. They should put to audit gloves in the requirements.

Curious...why the concern about men's bathroom hygiene in particular? Have you found hygiene issues to follow a gender pattern, in your experience?

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Honey Baked Ham Story

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine