Remember when the film ‘Back to the Future’ released in 1985 thought there would be flying cars and floating hoverboards in the year 2015? Yeah, well… it’s 2022 and we’re stuck with ‘touchless doors’ that don’t even seem to be doing the job. How’s that for a deal?

Woolworths worker left confused over the feature Credit: emmatee650​

A Woolworths employee shared her hilarious experience on a TikTok video about the new feature installed at the store’s toilets and it may (or may not) astonish you a little.

Emma, under the Tiktok username @emmatee650, pans her camera to show the new door feature from what seems to be inside a toilet cubicle. A sign can be seen posted on the door as a means to instruct people on how to properly use the foot pedal to unlock the latch.

Glitch in the ‘touchless’ door feature as seen on the TikTok video. Credit: emmatee650​

The sign reads “Step back and pull back with foot” along with an image of a person showing the required action to open the door.

Following the rise of covid cases, the ability to use your foot to open doors may be considered an innovative idea that minimizes contact with frequently touched surfaces — that may be lined with dangerous bacteria.

Woolworths introduced the ‘touchless’ doors feature to many of its stores across Australia as an added health measure in an effort to protect their customers and staff.

However, as fantastic as all that may sound, Emma found herself in a one-of-a-kind situation where the door appears to be glitching and refusing to bust open.

“Touchless door they said,” she wrote in the TikTok caption, alongside the hashtags #woolies, #notouch, #lockedin and #whataretheythinking

One user poked fun at the irony of the situation with the comment: “You're supposed to unlock it with your mouth.”

Watch the full Tiktok video below:

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[Tricia56]

Mmm. wonder which gender came up with that idea. Gave someone a job to install the foot control. Pity it doesn't work.

A building I worked in in the 80's, you had to flush the toilet using your foot but still need to use your hands to open the door.

 

[KatKop]

This does seem like a recipe for a disaster! All of us know that cubicle doors rarely open smoothly - one often has to wriggle the latch or apply other manoeuvres to get the door open!

 

[JayKay]

In the early 1960's, my Form 2 Maths teacher had been on a cruise with her husband during the January holidays.
She was disgusted by the toilets on the cruise ship....she was appalled by the huge number of people flushing the toilets, and was concerned about cross-contamination.
She said public bathroom/toilet facilities should have foot-operated doors and toilet flushers.
How progressive was she!

 

[Wendy]

Last year when I went to have my regular skin check the door at the clinic had one of these, it was easy to do, but as always there were some folk that didn't bother and used the handle in spite of a large notice about the foot opener.

 

[SGH]

The first time I was introduced to the automatic flushing toilet was in Asia and the problem was I was still using it at the time. I moved slightly to get some paper and the toilet flushed "literally scaring the crap" out of me. But I think they had a spanner in the works because every time a toilet flushed all the toilets flushed in succession.
And as for the automatic doors, what a pain are they, my elderly Godmother and I ended up stuck in a disabled toilet when she could not close it, I stepped in, got it to close, but then it would not let us back out again. If we every do a chat on toilets outside Australia, have I got some stories to tell you.