She's on the floor, looking at the countertop, and I say "yeah, you're welcome to jump up but there's nothing interesting...." Sometimes I put junk mail, like newspaper flyers, on the countertops which Ritz loves to smell and sometimes tear apart.
She is also afraid of most plastic bags. About a year ago, she got her paw caught in a plastic bag with a carton of (18) eggs in it. I found the eggs on walls all over the apartment, and the bag still caught on her paw. And a claw she lost on the floor. So if I put a plastic bag with groceries in it on the countertop, she shys away.
Course when I'm preparing her food for the week (raw), then it's whole different story. But the countertop is so crowded that there is no place for her to land. And she can tell by the one of my voice that she can't jump up.
Morale of the story: don't put anything on the countertop you don't want your cat to investigate.