You're Signing With What?

I come to you today as your friendly neighborhood cashier.

I bring you a warning.

You know those pens that are sitting on the counter for you to sign your credit card with? Yeah, you don't really want to touch those.

My advice? Bring your own pen to sign credit card slips with.

You have no idea what people have on their hands right before they touch that pen. The pen is easily handled over 500 times per day by people that have just sneezed, wiped their nose on their hand, picked their nose, coughed, and anything else that you can imagine.

I even saw a customer that wasn't paying attention actually put the pen in her mouth while she was waiting for the credit card slip to print out. She put it in her mouth and started biting down on the tip of the pen.

I was too mortified to tell her what she was doing. It was like one of those mirages, where I wasn't sure what I was seeing.

I think that common illnesses can easily be wiped out if people did not use the public pen. Think about it. You might be signing your credit card slip with a pen that was just touched by a person that just picked their nose and needed a place to transfer the booger to.

Or a guy that had his hands down his pants scratching his balls. He might have even left a pube on the pen.

So remember, bring a pen or sign at your own risk.