Get Some Paper Towels, Wendy's!

They're supposed to wash their hands when they go back to the line
anyway.. .even if they just washed them in the bathroom five minutes
ago.

At this point they should just make the door itself swing open rather
than have a handle because it's never locked anyway.

Great, so let's say you have some paper towels to open the bathroom
door. But then you go out into the restaurant, and touch the ketchup
pump, the napkin despenser, the chair, and all the other things that
the person in your hypothetical situation touched. Unless you go
around wearing rubber gloves all the time, you aren't going to avoid
all the germs.
My mother is one of the people who has to open the door with a paper
towel, and it drives me nuts.

Eww. I hate it when they have no paper towels becuase the dryers are
soooooo slow. I don't worry about opening doors though. I just wait
for someone to open it and then I pop through, or if no one is around
I'll just use my foot or put my hand in my shirt. I know that like 1
out of 6 people don't wash their hands after touching their ass, so
I'm definitely not touching that doorknob w/o a papertowel.

Well, this is what I do. This is also what I teach my son to do.

Either use ONE finger to open the door and then remember not to use it
again....OR use the inside of your shirt.

It might be gross but at least you arent going to be sucking on your
shirt later...

They washed their hands, so would that not make their hands clean? If
you are so concerned about sanitation, stay at home, I am sure that
you have encountered a lot more germs. Infact the money you used to
pay for the food probably has more germs than the door handle. I am
not saying that you are unclean, it's just they say money is one of
the dirtiest things you handle.

So you're a restaurant manager, huh? Doesn't your restaurant have a
rule that the employees must wash their hands in the kitchen somewhere
if they leave the kitchen area for any reason? I know when I worked
at a restaurant, we had a rule like that.

Many years of restaurant management experience? Then, at some point,
you would have had to go through ServSafe certification in which you
would learn that air dryers are an acceptable alternative to paper
towels in fast food establishments.

Robert, I certainly think your suggestion has merit. I believe that
companies have gone to the air dryers because of the cost of paper
towels, and because of the general mess made when the trash gets too
full and is not taken out, as it should be. However, because the air
dryers take so much longer to use, many people do not use them at
all.

Unfortunately, while antibacterial lotions would remove germs, they
won't remove any transferred soil, which is very disconcerting shortly
before you sit down to eat. Companies should offer both choices, and
make a concerted effort to keep their bathrooms clean and hygenic, for
everyone who uses them.

Might I suggest, in the meantime, carrying handy-wipes with you? They
can be used after you leave the bathroom to clean your hands and your
children's hands, so that you won't be eating filth you picked up on a
door handle.

Thank you for sharing your feedback!

The missing paper towels are just a small part of a much bigger
problem, for Wendy's and all the others. Let's face it, most of these
places are pig-sties, and the employees I've seen are usually
lower-class types who probably value many things above personal
hygiene. There are very few fast food places I vist anymore because
they typically gross me out. Here is what you get with that burger
these days:

1) Servers with long "fashion nails" that I'll bet NEVER get washed
for fear of ruining the $50 nail job

2) Servers who play with their hair then handle food

3) Tables & counters wiped with filthy towels

4) Serving trays stacked up so the dirty bottoms rest on the paper
liner of the ones below

5) Servers who wear gloves to the restroom, and then return with the
same gloves on!

6) Food intentinally altered (extra salt, condiments, grease, etc.) as
a prank on drive through customers

7) Undercooked meats -- chicken and beef still running red because
they are in a hurry to serve the stuff

8) Uneducated managers who are ignorant of how a restaurant is
supposed to operate -- the blind leading the blind.

There are a very few well-managed fast-food eateries, and they deserve
our business. The rest should be boarded up IMO.

Carry some Kleenex in your pocket.

If they washed their hands (you'd have to, to get them wet) then
what's the problem with them opening the door? Their hands are clean.

Even if they did provide paper towels, it's still not going to make
the people who don't wash their hands automatically make them wash
their hands. Those germs are still going to be on that handle.

Buy some antibacterial gel and use it before you eat.

On a semi-unrelated note: It costs more to receycle paper (and other
material) than it does to make things anew. There are tree farms
specifically for the manufacture of paper.

The AMA (American Medical Association) has recommended not using these
products in the household AT ALL.

I've SEEN some people's sponges. "Antibacterial" properties were
ruined long ago by letting those things get so disgusting. I have
like 10 sponges, and I use them for one day/night, then they go in the
wash with dishcloths and towels. I don't put them in the dryer, but
they don't take up much space on the drying rack.

And re: the earlier comments about being "too clean": I didn't have
immunizations as a kid. I had all of the illnesses (except polio)
before I could even get my shots (I was one sick kid). By age 5, I
was done, and I hardly ever get sick. Last summer, my boyfriend had
mono for a month and pnemonia for a month, and I never even got a
sniffle.

Germs can be good.

Paper towels make waste and we cut down trees to make the paper
towels, most of the paper towels you wipe your hands with end up in
the garbage and are not recycled. Also hand dryers are more cleaner
to use, and lots of people don't use paper towels because there are
people that flush them down the toilet which causes the water to
overflow. If you went to Wendy's and there was an overflowed toilet
because someone flushed paper towels down there then you would have
something else to complain about.

I'll wipe my hands on my pants long before I use those things. Just
look at the screen the air goes over before it reaches your hands.
I've never seen a clean one before. It blows hot air over that filth
onto your wet hands. No thanks. Plus you have to use your shirt or
some TP to grab the door handle.

But I also think you could've phrased things a little less
graphically.

>Oh, and while I am at it - where do your employees use the restroom?
Uh Huh - the same place I do. And how do they dry their hands? And how
do they get out of the restroom without grabbing the handle?<

They re-wash their hands when they get back into the kitchen.

I'm not going to repeat the example of John. I didn't read past it. Do
you think they will? Disgusting.

If you have "many years of restaurant management experience" then you
should be able to write like an adult.

There are germs EVERYWHERE! You can't get away from them.

Actually, Tyra Banks had a show on germs the other day. Fecal matter
is almost everywhere. It's on money, on door handles (not just
bathroom), everywhere.

Also, you can't recycle paper that has been mixed with other garbage.
Do you expect them to sort the bathroom garbage out to determine what
they can recycle? I worked in a copycenter and we couldn't even sort
the paper from the other garbage. They said it was contaminated and
couldn't be recycled.

Bob -- you can simply grab the bottom of your shirt and use it to open
the door. Problem solved!
Find another euphemism besides "takes a dump" which is very juvenile
sounding.