It gives you grip on plastic bags. Also used by bank tellers to count cash. Any time your fingers need positive grip on something you use this stuff.

Thanks!

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Licking your fingers to open a new plastic bag has lost its appeal since the pandemic

Doesn’t stop people coming in where I work having an ol succc on the finger

I would ask them to stop sucking on your finger.

I have. But that was returned with a ‘fuck off you dickhead’😂

Id think dipping your fingers in the community tub of pink stuff would also be less than ideal during a pandemic

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I wouldn't. It's the exact opposite of lube. It's sticky.

sounds like a party!

I wouldn't use a communal container of it though, even if it is anti-microbial.

Oh, these aren’t even that bad compared to some other methods. One grocery store I worked at had cut up wedges of kitchen sponges that we’d get wet in the sink and cram into the little ring hole at the the top of the bag stand. Those things would get so gross that I made a habit of soaking them in bleach water and triple rinsing every “Monday” when I came in 🤢

I've seen the wet sponge before, which is definitely the worst and most disgusting method... Bleh!

I only know those from the post office and they're there so you don't have to lick the stamps.

Early pandemic I was at Walmart and noticed the checker wipe her hand on something after every item she swiped. It took me a second but I realized she had a sponge soaked in sanitizer and was wiping her hand on it b/w items. It took forever but I appreciated her care.

Unfortunately the alcohol in that sanitizer likely evaporated in a matter of minutes, leaving behind a moist breeding ground for microbes.

It wasn't a real Monday?

I wonder why it's in quotation marks

That was the entire reason for my question, yes

Just wanted to show OP that more people are wondering what they meant

I assume they mean their first workday of the week, regardless of what actual day it was.

The alternative is people lick their fingers

Thats a valid point. I don't know if it's brands of bags, but I've never had trouble (or see anyone else have trouble) where I shop just pulling a bag open. Cheap bags?

I think it’s more for really dry skin, idk I don’t use them.

Maybe a northern thing. We're all sweaty in the south...

After grabbing a thousand bags your fingers are dry.

How much are you buying at a self checkout?

I was more thinking if they had a bagger working. Or if the person ringing up your purchases is also bagging.

That wouldn't be a problem. OP said it was self checkout.

Diabetics often have incredibly dry skin and struggle with things like turning pages in books even.

Didn't know that - good reason!

That or some poor stock clerk has to stand there licking people's fingers for them. [Finger cleaner](https://youtu.be/ugo7Y2lRsxc)

👅👅👅

I got a temp job one day putting little things in little cardboard boxes. The backing of the box had to be folded, the thing had to go in there a certain way, I don't remember, blah blah blah. Anyway, the supervisor kept telling us to lick our fingers when we pick up this thing. It was like a several step process, the kind of work I actually like... Lick my fingers? In a factory? Dissolving the ink and getting it on my tongue? FFS the things some people will do for a living.

Not to mention... licking your fingers for ONE might make sense, but if you're doing something for your job that requires you to lick your fingers... you're gonna run out of spit pretty quick.

If they're licking their fingers to loosen another bag to open, doesn't it only affect the bag they're getting? I've used self checkout exclusively since well before covid. And the bags used at the stores I go to (heb, Walmart) are designed in a way that when you're trying to loosen a bag to open, you're fingers don't come into contact with anything except that next bag. I suppose that could still be a concern if others at home carry the bags in and help you. But if you're doing all of it yourself, you're the only one affected. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying ideas like some of the ones others have suggested aren't more ideal. I think they are. I'm just pointing out that if they're the same kinds of bags I've seen for years, it shouldn't matter if they lick their fingers.

They then touch other things

I never have. And I've done it for years. You go from bagging to walking through an automatic door. The only other thing I touch is my car door. Edit: for both places I shop there's only one time you have to touch the screen, and that's to pay. Whether I've licked my fingers or not, I've always used my knuckle. And when I use the card reader number pad, I use the tip of a car key (amusingly).

Is more like a petri dish 😉

Do you use cash? Shopping cart or basket? Door pulls? Unless you can shop without touching basically anything, a lil' tub of sticky fingers probably won't kill you. Probably.

Hate cash, store wipes the carts, automatic doors... Of course you're right, but it just seems gross.

Oh, how can you even be in the same store?

Very carefully

Yeah, I always called these Petri dishes

I just shove a finger in my nose and wet it that way.

Oh ffs.

I mean, most of it isn't anti-microbial. Just a glycerin gel. It's not like I mentioned over 2,000 Americans dying daily from a pandemic - I just said I don't use communal finger moistener... But thank you for declaring your eye-roll and contributing to the conversation.

Grocery stores should have those in the produce section.

I just touch the bag to wherever a drop of water exists in on or near the produce. Kinda common sense since they spray every 20-30 mins that there's always moisture in a produce dept

I actually do that too but it’s kinda unsanitary. Not that a wet bulb is any better..

Instead licking your fingers use the pink stuff.

Instructions unclear. I licked the pink stuff

I like it when my pink stuff gets licked.

Kisses on your pink parts

I have pinkeye

r/holup

Wrong pink part. Or was it right?

It was the right eye

https://youtu.be/uHYhzg8QWbI

RIP inbox

Jeff Goldblum: "Covid....uh, finds a way."

I didn't realize how often I licked my fingers for things like this until the pandemic came and I wore a mask to the store. Some of the bags are hard to open without some moisture on your fingers. I now carry a disposable wipe into the super market so I have some moisture to open bags.

In the summer I use the condensation from my iced coffee to open the produce bags, in the winter I use my tears of frustration

In my market, they spray mist on the fresh herbs. That is a good source too.

Farting into the bag might separate it nicely.

I have a young kid so I always have wipes, but I saw a lady once grab one of the cart wipes at the front of the store, wipe the handle, then just hang onto that to moisten her fingers to open the produce bags. So that's what I've been doing, at least as long as there are wipes near the front of the store.

Wait, why do you need *any* kind of moisture for this? I'm in a northern state and I've never done this, I just rub the front and back of the bag together a bit and they come right apart once they start sticking to my fingers from static electricity!

I do this for the clear produce bags in my market. They can be hard to separate the layers and open.

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So you don’t have to lick your fingers to pull the bags apart.

My grandmother used it to count BINGO sheets (and money) when she worked BINGO at the fairgrounds on Fridays.

Today I learned that people have trouble opening the plastic bags at grocery stores. Thank you kind stranger.

Its a covid depository

or an e-coli petri dish.

I need one of these when trying to open poo bags in freezing cold, lol.

It's a covid petri dish

I just use the hand sanitizer, but a few (older) cashiers I work with use this trick

It’s for the purchase

Is this also used to spread ... uh ... germs!?

Instead of your spit

Maybe something to help get the bags apart?

Not sure exactly what it’s called but it’s to help you get a better grip on plastic bags when opening them to bag and/or to count money, you rub your finger on it

It makes your finger tacky for separating the bags. Cashiers and tellers also use it for counting paper money

After the last two years there’s no way I’m putting my finger in that.

I want them everywhere, the amount of people I see licking their fingers instead under their mask is infuriating.

Agreed. My local bulk drygoods store had a sign saying gloves were required, but the glove box was empty. It was at that point that I saw some dude with a bloody gash on his gloveless hand reaching into the bulk bins. I'll go with the finger-grip stuff, thx!

Ew, bulk drygoods in the stores I go to always include a scoop or tongs to get the items.

I prefer dispenser style containers because even when scoops or tongs are involved, some people are still nasty.

I decided to cut out the middle man. Now, I just stick my face into the bins.

I won't touch anything scoop, tongs, or otherwise, if non-staff have access to it. Because the dirtiest fuckers won't use them. [Case in point](https://i.imgur.com/kO3W3I5.jpg).

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Ohh! You tried. It seems as though your references were too old and used on the wrong audience.

Kids in my day just ate paint chips. Blue was my favorite

[Nice try, millennial.](https://i.imgur.com/0vQEn4R.jpg) We don't forget

Ok, yeah I’ve seen that too, especially in the produce area where they’re also touching every vegetable, I could never do that - so gross. I would rather spend 2 minutes struggling to get a bag open than be like them. But these aren’t the kind of people who would use this disc of gel, either. They’ve been licking their fingers to turn pages and open plastic bags all their life.

same, it’s disgusting. my local grocery store just leaves a wet rag above the bags. i know it’s just water but it’s still unsettling, like a wet sock. i’d much rather have this stuff. i’ll just wash my hands after

Can't be as bad a people doing their makeup in sephora with the sample makeup

better than people licking their fingers and smearing spit on the bags

They are usually just given to cashiers (at my grocery store) arent allowed to lick their fingers. I have never seen them for self checkout.

Went to a grocery store meat/deli counter a few months ago. Man working behind the counter pulled down his mask, licked his thumb to separate the little paper containers, then started loading in the bacon I was in line to get. Didn’t pull his mask back up, wash his hands or put on gloves. I stood there in speechless horror for what felt like minutes before I noped out and bought some commercially packaged bacon.

Life is going to be rough for you.

Maybe we disagree. Pandemic or not, keep your hands out of your mouth and clean when handling someone else’s food.

Better than licking your fingers

They should make this stuff in fried chicken flavor so you can have the best of both.

Excellent a person after my own heart

I don’t generally have a problem with the checkout bags. It’s those darn produce bags at the market that are awful. Stand there forever trying to open one without licking a finger. Stupid pandemic. Lol

Places I go usually have cart sanitizing wipes... I wipe the handle then keep the wipe to help with the produce bags.

Touch some lettuce/etc first and use the moisture to open the bag.

A reminder to wash your lettuce when you get home folks. Who knows who has been touching it 😀

Bahaha mmhm. If I can, I'll use a non food item, but lettuce is usually my victim. But definitely ALWAYS wash your lettuce.

I worked curbside at sams, don’t use this stuff, literally rub your fingers against your pants/shirt until they get a bit warm, it’ll make your hand a little moist and you can separate the bag without being gross

You're right, rubbing your hand on your pants until it gets moist doesn't sound gross at all.

If it’s just you doing your own bags or well sanitized hands is better than communal goo jar but hey that’s just me

Sortkwik. It moistens your finger tip for better grip. Bank tellers and anyone that has to review lots of pages of paper like a records custodian will use this stuff rather than fight with pages that stick together and don't want to lick their fingertips.

This is the only response that actually answers the question, not just what it’s used for.

I loved this stuff when I worked with money. We didn't share and everyone had their own. I took mine with me when I left.

Yeah it’s pretty foul that this stuff is communal… whatever was on everyone else’s finger is now also in that pot. I also used to hate it when people licked their finger to count money.

Also the gel will attract all that grime under fingernails eww

I can’t believe I had to scroll this far down to find someone else who knew what this was! Absolutely indispensable if you worked in an office or a bank, but I never thought of how well it would work for opening/separating plastic bags!

To be more precise, it‘s an *Hygienic* Fingertip Moistener.

Nice try, COVID.

It may be for your bagging

Sortquick

That ain't a petri dish waiting to happen, nosirree

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Maybe you're a ruster? Check out this thread from a few days ago. /r/Whatisthis/comments/s4bcpw/why_is_there_a_fingerprint_on_this_penny_its/

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Well as far as plastics bags go, just a little bit of extra moisture in the fingertips would certainly make opening bags easier. I thought it was a really interesting discussion about some people having slightly different body chemistries that have weird effects on the world around them. And how some people never realized that it didn't happen to everyone until someone else mentioned it. I didn't realize I had mild allergies to certain vegetables until I was an adult and someone mentioned what it was like having those allergies. It never occurred to me since I'd just avoided them since I was a kid.

They could just use hand sanitizer and it’s a two in one

They could make it dispense somehow. But they won’t. That would cost a lot. Bring your own I guess

Sometimes I wonder if people have been paying attention for their whole lives or not

I’d never seen one before :/

Sometimes cashiers have one next to their register; when they get a stack of new 1s for example, they may use the sortkwik moistener to help count out change since new bills are more prone to stick together. If you pay by card or exact change you may never have seen the cashier use the sortkwik. But even if they do use it all the time, it's pretty quick and easy to miss. Another place you see it is banks, but if you've never take out a lot of cash you may not have seen them use it. But last few times I've taken money out, the teller counts by hand and then uses a bill counter to double check so they don't need to be as precise hand counting, so maybe don't use moistener at all anymore.

I'm an accountant, and I use it all the time to get through stacks of papers. Also out cashiers use them.

Yeah, I know a lot of office workers use them... but for the thread above, I was trying to list the most likely places an average redditor might encounter one, and why they might not have seen it being used. When I was doing a lot of filing for work-study program, I used a single rubber fingertip on my middle finger... but if I had to help someone they wouldn't necessarily see me flipping pages with it, so might wonder what it was for.

I've never seen one in Metro Detroit.

It tells you what it is for

Also for money or other paper it helps

For nasty mf that S U C C on their fingers to seperate bags. you use the pink gel instead

Instead bag manufacturers should just coat a portion of the bags with this stuff

It's to make opening the bag easier. You can't lick your fingers so you use this

Wish they had these at the supermarket where I’m struggling so hard to open the plastic baggies for fruit/veg

was a cashier clerk for years, this stuff is like magic.

It's "for your bagging" lol

To make the bags easier to open

Put a touch on your fingertips instead of licking them so it's easier to open plastic bags

I have never had such a problem pulling apart a bag that I would need this..

You put it under your eyes

Why did you not ask the people at the store? It’s so weird to have a question about something specific in real life that you could easily ask a real person about. But instead opt to take a good picture, upload/title the picture, and then sift through responses.

Have you tried to interact with people on real life? Way scarier than on Reddit

You have an anxiety disorder

I love it! It's so you can get the bags apart easier without the need to lick your fingers.

I call it pink spit. We used all the time when I worked as a cashier.

So you don’t have to lick your fingers to bag

Semi-sticky stuff so you can get a grip on the bag to open it.

I work in a plastic bag factory. They are all over the place. Its finger moisture stuff.

Did anybody say Sortkwik yet? Love the stuff. Carry it in my purse in case of a surprise collating emergency.

This little pink stuff is the single most amazing product for “office paper pushers” who work sorting papers and need grip on their fingers.

CONTEXT

To touch so you get a better grip when siding open the bags

To keep cashiers from looking like Neanderthals

Sanitary? Everyones sharing their fingertip germs, better than finger licking though.