playing devil's advocate - can someone please tell me how going barefoot/shirtless could violate a health code? i understand about maybe stepping on some glass or a nail or something, but i don't understand why going shirtless into a restaurant is such a big deal. what? will an armpit hair fall into someone's soup or something? this guy was angry at me for having walked into subway the other day without a shirt. he said, "I don't want to have to smell your stench." but would that matter if I wear a shirt or not as I don't wear deoderant? i don't reak at all....
When establishments claim health issues for them enforcing the barefoot/shirtless rule its usually more that they have some personal dislike of being barefoot or shirtless but they wanna try to claim a practical reason instead so they dont have to admit that they themselves have any issues with you. I cant think of anything as far as being shirtless that would violate any health codes and being barefoot the only thing I can think of as far as that is if you hurt your foot and their liability as far as the law goes.
yea....i dont get those signs where it says "no shirt, no shoes, no service" they are usually on small variety and corner stores . well i can sorta understand the shirt thing...some people do have issues with that cuz many people dont feel comfortable standing near someones bare chest or something....but the foot thing in those stores is insane...i dont get it
Luckily most employees at those stores won't care about bare feet, but it seems all the managers coincidentally were born with huge sticks up their bums.
If the customers are not comfortable with bare chests then they shouldnt shop there or should shop there sometime when shirtless customers are not there. Theres lots of things people wear or dont wear that I might feel uncomfortable with but it doesnt mean theyre gonna change the rules just to make me feel comfortable, so why do it for them?
Reading all these posts---I have a lot to post about my recent travels barefoot in parts of Maine, in stores, and have posted some about it and will post more. Thanks to the barefoot lifestyle web pages: http://www.barefooters.org/ a huge source of debunking myths and evidence on how barefoot is beneficial---anyway, thanks to them I checked on Maine's health code (Department of Eating and Lodging, sounds awful) and as suspected, NO such statutes exist here. I have gone back to some of the places which gave me trouble and reminded them of this. My worst experience was the RH Foster chain of quick convenience stores. I finally spoke with someone in their corporate HQ near Bangor. This person was much pleasanter than the store manager in Ellsworth had been, and she will speak to him (at his store) about his poor manners the day he confronted me. She either knew, or knows now, that I've got them on the "health department" rules. So she started in on the liability thing, how I could cut my feet with glass while pumping gas and coming in to pay for it, which is all I EVER buy at this place. I get my food and beer elsewhere. What the will have to decide is whether they want to take my MONEY when I'm done pumping, and wish to come inside to PAY for it. This is up to them. I will use this place for gas ONLY unless things get worse again. Then I can go to other places near here who DON'T mind me as I am. As for the liability thing, yes, we damn Americans sue at the drop of a hat, and this is one more proof that it's got to stop. I carry a statement on me (copies in wallet) absolving any places of business of liability for anything I might do to myself. But liability is all RH Foster was able to hold on me. They've LOST the health code thing. Sorry to say, at the two convenience stores which have ever given me trouble, and at the two grocery stores, it was a lower level female, usually young, who had trouble with me, and who ran and go the ornery owner/manager. And in the case of my Walmart incident, posted earlier this summer, it was one of the greeters. I am convinced these lower ones have a worse problem with me than the higher ups. But once the higher ups are notified about my "offense" the "have" to do something about it. Speaking of offense, I remain determined that being as clean as possible helps, but that's just me. Dirty soles are big with some, whether they like seeing it on themselves, or on others. I don't get it, and I also don't think it helps our cause. My own way of proving how much bare footing I do (4 months this year in Maine, and counting) is the solid, nice, even tan. I get a Teva Tan near the end of winter, and lose that tan by May 1. That's MY version of dirty soles. There's little way anyone can say this looks bad. Shirts---I don't try this since I'm not quite so young and cute as I may once have been, although I will go shirtless at some of the places I work. At my stage of life, I'm trying to be accepted as the tanned, shorts and bare feet, tank topped outdoorsman that I am! More on this later---!!!
