Are You Shopping for the Flu?

Working second-hand retail is gross, so I wrote this right after I started:

With all the things you’ve probably thought of and worried about when it comes to protecting yourself and your family from the flu, especially in these times of flu pandemics and influenza strains named after animals, you might find it surprising to note that you’ve overlooked something. Unless you’re a bit of a germaphobe, you probably haven’t considered that the stores at which you shop, where you get the over-the-counter medicines to make your cough go away and the warm winter clothes to keep your kids from getting the sniffles, could make you sick. Now before you lock your doors and refuse to leave the house, consider some simple precautions you can take without going overboard. After all, staying cooped up indoors can be just as dangerous as venturing out.

To begin with, let’s clarify the issue. This is not one of those panic-inducing reports about chemicals leeching out of the containers that you buy your food in. This is about common sense and some things that you might not have thought about yet but might be worth the thought.

A store is not your personal pantry. You know that; you see people there whenever you’re there. But have you thought about how many people or what their circumstances might be? To put it in perspective, if a hundred people trooped through your house in one day, coughing and sneezing into their hands and touching your doorknobs, telephone, refrigerator door, bathroom countertop, everything, wouldn’t you do some cleaning after they left?

In this mechanized society, we often forget that the human touch is still present, especially in retail. That carton of milk you bought has been handled by someone who packed it onto a truck (a truck that’s almost never cleaned, you can bet), someone who unloaded the truck and put the crates into a warehouse (a warehouse that probably isn’t cleaned as well as it should be, either), and someone who stocked the shelves. And that’s a minimum. Let’s not forget the drive-by shoppers, who pick things up, look at them, maybe even put them in their cart, and then put them back, having changed their minds. And their kids, who like to touch things for no apparent reason. And the people who just cough and sneeze their way through the store, building up clouds of germs that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can stay in the air and on any surface for hours after they’ve been expelled. Keep in mind, as well, that Sick Building Syndrome can affect not only office buildings and homes but also grocery stores and department stores. Poor ventilation can result in a building staying sick permanently, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

You’ve probably already guessed the solution to this problem: wash your hands when returning from the grocery store, especially if your store doesn’t have complimentary disinfecting wipes to clean the handle of your cart. And don’t touch your mouth, eyes, or nose until you get the chance to clean up. Germs pass most easily into the body through these moist orifices. Now what about your clothes and shoes and anything else you might buy at your local retailer?

Every item in a store has undergone the same process to get to the shelf that you read about in the milk example. In fact, clothes, shoes, purses, and other items may be handled by even more people because shoppers are more likely to pick up and examine these things. And don’t forget that clothes are often tried on in the changing rooms and that shoes are tested out the same way. The best thing to do is to wash the clothes before you wear them, wipe down the purses, and maybe even hit the shoes with a germ-killing spray of some sort.

But what if you don’t even shop in the regular clothing stores? It’s possible you can’t afford retail prices these days. Many of us can’t. Maybe you shop second-hand stores, thrift shops, and whatever else you might call them. They wash the clothes before they put them out, don’t they? That would be a resounding “NO.” Having worked in one of those types of stores for a while now, I can tell you from personal experience that absolutely nothing is done to protect the consumer (or the employee, for that matter) from the germs of any kind that may be harbored by donated items. Some donators are kind enough to clean their old clothes before dropping them off, but most don’t bother. After all, they’re getting rid of them; why should they care? The same goes for stuffed animals, dishes, electronics, bedsheets, shoes, jewelry, and anything else you find there. Employees don’t have the time or the resources to properly clean the floors, let alone the merchandise. Processors check for obvious stains and dirt, but they can’t see what’s invisible to the naked eye.

Then, there’s the back warehouse, where donations are kept until they can be processed. These often poorly-ventilated rooms house piles of clothing and wares that can create breeding grounds for germs of all kinds. There are no washing machines, irons, or anything else to put the clothes in tiptop shape before they go on the sales floor, although there might be an air freshener to create the illusion that everything is shiny and new. The unsellable merchandise is thrown out, and the rest goes straight to you. Certainly, treasures for the online auction block can be found in these massive garage sales, but giving them a good cleaning when you get them home would still be in everyone’s best interests. And if you’re going to wear it yourself, you might consider throwing it in the wash first. I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying it on in the changing room, so if you’re uncertain, better to err on the side of caution and not buy it.

It’s good for the community to shop at these stores. You’re recycling and helping to support others at the same time. But consider where your treasures might have originated. Not every item came from a worst-case scenario kind of house, full of sick people. But when the sales associate has handled the merchandise that did come from a sick house and then touched your chosen items on the shelf or at the register, isn’t it better to take a few precautions?

To recap, wash your hands after shopping, don’t touch your face until you do, wash your new clothes before you wear them, and wash everything you buy from a second-hand store. It sounds like a lot of cleaning, but if it helps you avoid catching the latest flu virus, it’s worth it.