Walmart cashiers wearing gloves?

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Hi everyone, just curious about others opinion. A few times when visiting walmart, cashiers were wearing gloves. I asked what was the reason for doing so, and they did not want to say. I'm sure its for "avoiding" illnesses but wearing gloves all day without handwashing won't help. I feel as if there's a greater chance of getting an airborne illness. How do you all feel about wearing gloves as a cashier? I somewhat find it annoying and offensive. I feel as if having hand sanitizer at each counter would suffice.

I asked one of them why she was wearing gloves and she said it was to protect her nails

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Specializes in ICU.

Money is dirty. People are dirty. Its better than nothing. Using hand sanitizer between each and every customer would destroy your hands. To each their own.

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Misstika said:
Hi everyone, just curious about others opinion. A few times when visiting walmart, cashiers were wearing gloves. I asked what was the reason for doing so, and they did not want to say. I'm sure its for "avoiding" illnesses but wearing gloves all day without handwashing won't help. I feel as if there's a greater chance of getting an airborne illness. How do you all feel about wearing gloves as a cashier? I somewhat find it annoying and offensive. I feel as if having hand sanitizer at each counter would suffice.

Have you ever worked in retail before? You have to open boxes, stock items, lift heavy objects, deal with dirty cash all of the time. Why wouldn't you wear gloves?

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Is this a legit question??? Who cares if walmart cashiers wear gloves? I have noticed it but never had questioned it. You probably need to find someplace else to shop if you find this "offensive"....good grief.

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Specializes in Occ. Hlth, Education, ICU, Med-Surg.

This post has moved me in way I cannot express...w/out getting arrested:yes:

Therefore...I HEREBY VOW NEVER SHOP AT WALMART AGAIN...unless it's for something I need or want....but if I find it cheaper somewhere else you better believe I'll boycott!!

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smf0903 said:
It's not an urban myth. Our police and other responders are required now to wear nitriles with just about anyone they touch or if they touch any possessions of whomever they stop/respond to. They started this after we had officers OD after touching clothing of persons they arrested. The drug epidemic is horrible here. Now meth seems to be making a comeback as well. We had a couple people come to our facility recently with meth overdoses and some with burns after blowing up their meth labs. But heroin is still numero uno around here. We just had another rash of "tainted" heroin ODs...the batch was laced with carfentanyl. People were requiring ridiculous doses of narcan.

I doubt any company would care to say "hey, people are wearing gloves so our employees don't overdose from our customers" ;) But I can tell you we've had many, many times EMS and police have had to respond to our two local wallyworlds for people shooting up, dealing, and ODs. We refuse to shop there (not that it's exclusive to that company but it does seem to be particularly bad there).

You Can't Overdose on Fentanyl by Touching It

The opioid isn't easily absorbed through the skin, no matter what viral headlines say.

Ty Wright for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Christopher Moraff has worked with fentanyl and related highly potent synthetic opioids at least once or twice a week for the past year. To collect data, Moraff, a journalist and independent researcher, gathers samples of street heroin and cocaine in Philadelphia-then tests them for the presence of fentanyls. Eighty percent of his heroin samples are positive. He does not wear protective gear.

If public fears about these substances are correct, Moraff is taking an extraordinary risk. Massachusetts recently banned courtroom exhibits containing fentanyls in most cases based on concerns that they might waft out of their packaging and start killing bystanders. Some police officers have started to wear masks, gloves, and hazmat suits during busts, following anecdotal reports that skin or aerosol exposure to fentanyls had made cops and nurses ill-even requiring the use of the opioid antidote, naloxone.

But toxicologists and physicians who actually work with overdose victims and directly with fentanyl say these worries are misguided. It would be difficult to get even mildly high-let alone overdose-by touching street fentanyl or being near people who use it. (One possible explanation for the reported symptoms is the nocebo effect, or the phenomenon where even thinking a substance is harmful can lead to exposed people experiencing negative side effects.) But if first responders avoid or delay treating overdose victims because they fear such exposure, more deaths may result.

Jeremy Faust, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and emergency room physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital has treated many fentanyl victims in the ER. He says, "It's just not a substance that is easily absorbed through the skin," noting that pharmaceutical companies spent many years and millions of dollars in order to develop technology for a patch to deliver the drug via the skin.

"I have definitely had it on my hands and I have touched people that have used it," Moraff says. Recently, just out of curiosity, he tested his own urine after he'd spent time testing drug samples that were positive for fentanyl. Unsurprisingly to him, the urine test was negative.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

I am personally more concerned with Walmart's blatant lack of ability to air condition their stores properly, especially in my area. To me, every time I walk inside a Walmart I feel like I am in an incubator of germs, waiting for something to start growing. Their "warehouse" vibe grosses me out. I shop at Target, where I shop in comfortable air conditioning and now bag my own products/groceries. No harm no foul.

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Maybe I should show this to a couple of our police officers who almost died.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

I must admit, I find being offending to be a strange reaction to this. Since only some of the cashiers are doing it, I imagine it is personal preference, not a store policy. Possible reasons why a cashier wears gloves?

1. The cashier has eczema, is embarrassed with it, chooses to wear gloves, and chooses not to talk about his/her ailment with total strangers.

2. The cashier gave themselves a nasty lac/lacs while doing yard work, and covers it up with a glove/gloves. I would prefer that the cashier wear a glove if that is the case.

3. The cashier believes that he/she is protecting him/herself from germs. It might not help all that much, but if it makes them feel better, whatever.

There could be other reasons for the gloves, but, IMHO, it is not something over which to get annoyed, nor do I think they have a responsibility to disclose to customers their reasons for wearing gloves.

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It's from touching people's nasty money all day, I used to wear gloves while cashiering bc sometimes people give you nasty coins that are very dirty, sometimes wet. The gloves help open the bags top

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I never set foot in Walmart. But given some of those who do frequent it, maybe the cashiers were tired of being handed sweaty "boob bra" money?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
smf0903 said:
Maybe I should show this to a couple of our police officers who almost died.

There have been no confirmed cases of fentanyl overdoses from skin exposure to fentanyl, although there have been a number of false reports. In each of the cases of publically reported law enforcement fentanyl exposures there were no symptoms consistent with fentanyl overdose or toxicology confirmed excess exposure, each incident has appeared to be psychosomatic.

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