Kid-hands

I'm not sure what Panera Bread was thinking when they installed the sneeze guard in the Bakery side. I mean, it works, guarding from sneezes and all that, but the main flaw is the four inch gap between the bottom of the glass and the counter. I'm sure it makes cleaning easier, but that gap is right on the eye level of a small child of the age where they don't seem to know better than to stick hands, toys, and anything else nearby into certain gaps in certain sneeze guards. And try to touch pretty pastries.

Official policy is that if you touch it, you buy it. However, I don't want to be the one explaining to some parent that because they did not watch their kid, they are now the proud owner of a bear claw, an orange scone, and a smeared cherry pastry.
Therefore, the cashiers try and keep an eye on kids who seem about the right age and discipline level to be a threat to the our pastries. Or parents who don't seem to care if their kids spread their little kid germs around in sanitary areas.

Today while I was taking care of a customer, another woman with her kid was walking along the bakery counter and she was pointing out all of the good stuff to eat, asking him what he wanted, the usual. That I don't mind. But the kid was shoving his hands under, going after our cobblestones.

"Please keep your hands out!"

You have to say it loud, or nobody hears/listens. Mom murmurs to the kid, but whatever she said didn't work.

"Don't touch that, please!"

Mom ends up snatching kid up and holding him to her and I catch words that give me the idea that they aren't going to buy anything after all and with the glare she directs at me, apparently it's my fault.

I finish with my customer and shout out with the normal, "Is there anything I can get for you?" Mom refuses, still glaring, muttering to her child about not going over there, she'll get mad at you.

Roar, that's me, the big scary Panera employee. Seriously, do you really want a cobblestone added to your bill?

In the end, she does order, but she makes sure it's from Jenny. I might bite her kid or something.

We deal with kids like that all the time and parent reactions usually range from swift removal and profuse apologizing to completely ignoring their kid. This one really ticked me off because instead of telling her kid not to touch stuff, she instead blames me for telling her kid not to touch stuff and comforts the poor frightened little boy. A kid coddled like that is going to go running to his mother for protection against everything and he's never going to learn.

And I'm still annoyed cause I hate it when customers get upset with me, but I'm still not going to let children fondle my pastries.

This could have been all avoided with sneeze guard that went down all the way, or even just enough to prevent kid-hands.