Supermarket Pens

Now that UK supermarches are moving over to Chip n pin at last (and I do feel too overlooked at this moment as I key in ****), I will start to miss the pleasure of being handed a pen to sign a slip.

Did you know that Papermate make a pen with built in Microban(™) or something to cut down on disease transmission? Had you ever thought before now how unhygienic it is to handle a pen that has been handled by so many others? Hmmm? By men who piss on their hands and then don't wash? Or by people who have picked their noses all the way to the supermarket? Or scratched their threadworm-infected bums?

At least pens were prone to be lost or run out of ink. The chip and pin pad will last much longer, and more germs will lurk than ever before. Add surgical gloves to your next shopping list. Let's all go Howard Hughes! Next time I'm in I'm going to ask loudly how often the pin pad is cleaned.

Anyway, what I started out to say, at times I've been handed pens that write beautifully. Does this ever happen to you? Papermate Flexgrips are good - I use one at work - but I've been handed something similar in Sainsbury's, and it was just fantastic. Wanted to nick it.

Not lick it, obviously.