Why is there usually a rule against bare feet in public places?

I thought listeria was what caused people to get sick..and maybe die, through..food. Not through walking on floors. At a food processing plant, sure. Food probably falls on the floor sometimes, and one has to be careful. But I don't reckon it'd be the same for nearly everywhere else though. I've shoes I can slip off easy, it's just when I've walked around barefoot (most of my life on the farm afterall), I don't remember shoes. And now I find I have to wear them ALL the time, or at least practically so. It's just slightly annoying.

Tyson's food put all their employees thru a training course ... they teach that listeria is everywhere... yes its on the floor but if you look it up its on surfaces and in the air! But the health codes require shoes for there are so many things you can track in barefoot!!! Its scary if you knew all the crap they do!!! I didnt always work in processing plants or just online... yeah i had to work food service at one time to help make it with bills in college... it sucked but I talked to the health inspector once and some of the stuff made me look at a resturant I eat at carefully when I walk in the door! :D But hey there are those open air eateries where you can go barefoot still too! :D most on the beach though darn it and i am stuck in the middle of america :~( so good luck with the barefoot thing hon and know there are ton out here like you... :D including me!

I can understand it being in places where food is prepared or cooking. Just not with where you eat, or visit books. It just doesn't make sense to me lol. There's some stuff that you can get through walking, but not many of the fatal ones are common. And yeah..it does kindof have a wow factor when one thinks about all the stuff that can be in the food you get. Not only in restauraunts, but from the store. Ah well..anyways, thanks.

But then, who decided what looks indecent? :)

Ah yes, how could I forget them? And I suppose everyone else, even in this 'modern age'..simply followed what had been decided as indecent. Even if they didn't like it, so small a thing..so they didn't do anything. Tolerated it. Okay, I get it lol. I still don't like it heh.

What do you think? Whoever has the POWER!!! :P

I'm beginnng to think it's one of those silly things that just is because it hasn't ocurred to people to have things any differently lol. Anyway, thanks for responding!

That was my thought. You'd think they'd have better things to do then worry about one woman on her way out of the park. By the third one I was pretty crabby too since I'd been there since 8 that morning and it was now almost 11pm. I think if a fourth had come up I would have really lost it.

Irritates me too a bit. That's pretty amazing though. What's the big deal? THREE guards for one lady with hurting feet? And you were nearing the exit. You'd think they'd be more interested in more important matters of 'public safety'. I mean it would've been sweet if they spotted a piece of glass and swooped in to pick it up..but they were just hassling you for not wearing shoes. *shakes my head, amazed*

Yes, that is what I was trying to say! I have never washed the bottoms of my shoes unless I stepped on a doggie present, or the 'rain' washed it off! :D

Exactly.

There's another way to look at this as well. If your shoes pick up allot of garbage by walking on roads, pavements, malls, parks why would you want it directly on your skin? The custom of taking your shoes off before walking into peoples houses was to avoid bringing all this 'street garbage' into the home and fowling the space that you live in.

Well take it yet another way. I'd wear shoes as a barrier or protectant from the germs you have on your bare feet that you picked up while walking around the streets without shoes.

*smiles* true, they don't dictate yards, gardens, or sidewalks..but that's me again. I never liked being penned in, even if it was something so little as having to wear shoes in a building that wasn't mine. I mean if it was someone's house and they requested it, I'd obey reluctantly..but everyone business wise doing it..just itches my mind a little. My first instinct's to rebel, though yeah..that'd be stupid AND as silly as I think the rule is lol. It wouldn't even accomplish anything.

Well I don't lick my feet lol, and I am one to keep fairly clean..so I'm not that worried about picking up germs..especially since if my feet get particularly dirty I'll take a bath, even if it's nowhere near a time when I normally WOULD take a bath. As for cuts and stuff..hey, I'm a country girl. My pads are almost like leather..walking on glass ain't a problem for me. And besides, ina restauraunt or library..there shouldn't BE anything on the floor. 'Cept dirt maybe..but that's fine. In some instances, I agree..shoes are necessary. Like if it's freezing, or somewhere where there's razor sharp pointy rocks..or near the ocean since I know some sea creatures and other odd stuff washes up there (and mostly I mean wearing flipflops there when one wants to and just watching oneself otherwise..since we can't be careful ALL the time). When climbing a tree sometimes its wiser to wear some shoes..but otherwise, I just really don't see a need for it. I understand, companies are mega concerned over getting sued..especially since that silly thing about that guy suing mcdonald's for gaining weight. But instead of doing what mcdonald's did and changing the food, why can't they go, "Our food is not the healthiest in terms of calories." and "We are not liable if you hurt yourself here in our restauraint while barefoot. We try our best, but we're only human." That's fair warning, and so they wouldn't be able to get sued! Meh, I just don't get people sometimes lol.

That might be there thinking, but I still think its both puzzling and silly. It's not up to them what you wear, if you step on something sharp and were stupid enough to not watch where you're stepping..logically they would NOT be liable. In fact, it should be stated somewhere that they aren't..in their own restauraunt perhaps, or library..whatever. Besides, most cities an' towns have laws against littering anyways. There's not that much sharp stuff to step ON. I guess it's just people again..they don't tend to make that mcuh sense to me lol.

Heh, what's wrong being a little primitive? From my experience its the people that live in the mud huts who REALLY know how to have fun. Throw the wildest party. Anyway, 'civilized' is a loose term for humanity in general to me. I mean, we live in civilizations (I'll put a little emphasis on that word) with child murderers..where commercialism and money run pretty much everything. Squashing small businesses and the people hard on money. Every new generation of ours, we've younger and younger monsters who go out and murder people or worse. As far as I know, we haven;t become any more civilized than before. We're just a little more of an intellectual type of beast. Scientifically..we're less likely to die from barefeet than we are to die from what we put in our mouths. Those people who're uncivilized? The last remaining tribes without technology? I know a few whose members still live to be a hundred. Talk to a few pigmies in the jungle, who have never even SEEN a shoe. And they live in a place with diseases FAR worse than many of our civilizations see in a lifetime. I appreciate your opinion, but this is just why it doesn't make sense to me. 'sides, in other cultures perhaps it is inproper. But as far as I know in my own culture it wasn't..which is why it puzzled me. If I was in someplace where it was improper, like..visiting a person there? I'd cover up, sure. But I don't like people here, telling me I gotta wear shoes..when I don't consider my own feet (which no one has told me they're weird looking or anything..) to be indecent. Especially with the lack of good reasons to, so far. That's all, really.

I know that mainly it's the stupid "We don't want to be sued" paranoia, which IS well founded..but there's a way around dictating people wear a certain minor article on their person. Because not all people would sue them, plus I don't see why the rest of the decent folks should be hassled a little for what a minority would do. "We're not responsible for any injury attained while barefoot in our restauraunt. Our employees try our best, but no single human being's perfect" and if they state this right on their door, then there's no legal problems..at all. Because they warned people before hand, and its IN writing. I mean it isn't a big big deal, it's just kinda unecessary unfairness lol.

Here in the U.S. (and the U.K. too it seems), alot of companies and public places seem to freak out alot if you don't wear shoes inside the buildings..and sometimes on the property outside the buildings. Elsewhere I'm sure there's looser rules..I really wish I lived elsewhere sometimes, heh. But where I live and a few other places..*shrugs* I'd be happy if it were only in places it made sense, like bars, wear glass can break fairly often.

Uh...my question was about barefeet and the societal requirement of shoes..you're aware I was not asking anyone about fashion, yes?

Probably the other way around, actually. Since I've been able to explain why the rule is illogical, unfair, and how there's a smarter thing they could do instead of saying "NO bear feet".