Following instructions from Jeddah municipality, supermarkets in the city have put up antibacterial deep-cleansing hand gel dispensers and wet tissue paper boxes near shopping trolleys so that customers can clean their hands before using the carts. A visit by Saudi Gazette to some of the city's supermarkets on Sunday showed that the big chain stores have made the facility available in all their branches. While shoppers found the dispenser easy to use, the box posed minor problems. There is no problem pulling out the wet tissues as long as the box is full. However, when it is half empty, shoppers are not sure if there are any tissues left. And even when they try to pull one out, more often than not, the result is that a bunch of tissues comes out which leads to a waste of tissues. However, the installation of the cleansing and antibacterial material has been given a warm welcome by both supermarket management and the public at large. “Dear Customer: For your safety measures, kindly use the hand sanitizer before using shopping trolleys,” says a short notice in English posted above a gel dispenser near the trolley station of a large supermarket. Another notice in both Arabic and English states, “Dear valued customer, we would like to bring to your kind attention that in order to maintain your safety and hygiene, we kindly request you to wet your hands with instant hand sanitizer gel. The sanitizer gel is available close to your shopping trolley station. We will highly appreciate your cooperation in this regard.” Joker Ali, purchasing manager at Shaker supermarket, said the municipality's directive was timely and useful in keeping with its concern for civic health and welfare. “Prevention, of course, is always better than cure. We believe in health for all and we are all for health,” he told Saudi Gazette, and added, “This is an age of ‘value added,' where some value is being added to the product without any extra charge. That is marketing. We, and the other supermarkets, are going beyond that by cooperating with the Jeddah Municipality in taking small steps to create awareness and ensure the health and hygiene of our customers.” Ali said that when customers enter the supermarket, staff inform them of the new facility which was only set up one week ago. “However, there are also those who already know about the municipal instruction and ask where the cleansing materials are before proceeding into the store,” he said. Muhammad Ashraf Javed, Panda store manager, said, “It is a very good and appropriate precautionary measure. Customers love to use it. Some women ask their maids and drivers also to use it as they enter the store. It is widely used and we have to refill the containers at least six times a day.” He added that Panda has installed gel dispensers at all its stores in the chain all over the city. “We value customers' fitness, health and hygiene, and are proud to cooperate with the municipality as a matter of duty,” he said, and added that in a way it also comes under CSR – corporate social responsibility – which is increasingly being practiced in a wide variety of ways throughout the Kingdom. The municipality issued the directive last week to create health awareness in view of the spread of swine flu in the Kingdom. According to Dr. Bashir Najm, acting undersecretary for licenses at Jeddah municipality, studies have shown that the handles of trolleys are contaminated with bacteria, germs, viruses and traces of sweat, which easily transmit diseases. “Shoppers use their hands to push the trolleys and sometimes they put their children in them, thus increasing the danger of infections and diseases,” he said. “Mumtaz!” was the comment from Muhammad Nasser Al-Salami, a shopper, who was asked about his view of providing gel dispensers for customers' use. “It is an easy and simple, but effective, preventive measure. I use it every time I visit the store, and have a similar one at home. Apart from the family, we see to it that the driver and the maid also use it – both at home and at the supermarkets,” he added. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, another shopper, who was accompanied by his son, said at first he did not notice the dispenser, but when one of the store staff brought it to his attention, he and his son were “glad to use it.” Hashim Ismail, store manager at Al-Raya, said at least 12 boxes of wet tissue paper are used during the day. “We have provided these materials at both of our trolley stations,” he said. Abdul Monem Mahmoud and his son Mahmoud Monem, both shoppers, drew wet tissues from the box, and not only wiped their hands but their faces as well. “It is like boarding a flight where passengers are given wet tissues or towels to freshen up,” said the elder Monem. He added that it was a good preventive measure, which should not be limited to trolleys but should include all places that could be possible sources of bacteria and germs. Abdul Gafoor, a taxi driver, said that while working or by just being on the road, one cannot escape dust and perspiration, which is very unhealthy, which underlines the need for such gel or wet tissues to disinfect the hands. He said that being illiterate, he thought, a sketch or a photo showing the use of the gel or wet tissues would be very helpful. “As it is, it could be easily mistaken for a security or electrical gadget,” he said and added, “Some garbage bins have a picture of a person throwing trash in a can. I mean something like that.” A medical conference held in Jeddah to discuss the hazards of epidemics transmitted by touch, noted that the Kingdom annually spends about SR2 billion on the treatment of skin diseases caused in this way. The conference called for observing correct healthy behavior in life and curbing the spread of such diseases and infections. In a press conference on Saturday, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, said that the Kingdom has ordered four million doses of swine flu vaccine from international pharmaceutical companies to be delivered by the end of October. Speaking after four deaths from the H1N1 virus had been reported in the Kingdom, the minister said that his concern was now about the disease spreading locally and not so much from people coming from abroad. Among the precautions that the ministry recommends to reduce the chances of contracting the highly infectious disease is the instruction to frequently wash one's hands with disinfectant and soap.
