Produce Eaters

[starsinthesky]

I never did and my mom never let us either. I just don't understand people who open a package and munch on it in the store.

[Food Lady]

I have no problem with someone eating it in the store and paying for it, provided it's not sold by weight. I've done it. But I'll pay for it first, more often than not.

[XCashier]

Me neither. What the hell is my problem?

Same thing I've got: that pesky thing called a Moral Code. That little voice that reminds us that sampling without permission is stealing, and stealing is wrong. That very same thing that is conspicuously absent in far too many SCs.

[MelindaJoy77]

I've never dreamed of opening anything in the store and eating it as I go, much less sampling produce. It happens a lot in my store. Someone once came to me with the mostly gone bag of grapes too. If I'd thought about it, I might have gone to grab another bag to weigh, but more likely I'd get in trouble and the customer would get free grapes

[sms001]

There is arguably nothing more shameless than a grown man or woman with an entitlement complex and a firm belief that no one's watching.

Sadly, while the first part is way too true, the second seems to have fallen by the wayside. They no longer care is someone is watching.

... is grab a bottle of water (if only parched) or juice to drink as I go through the store ... and pay for it when I go through the checkouts.

I've done this on occasion. On Thursday it was 90F (32C) or so, and shopping was in the middle of a long day. I would have had no problem paying on my way out, but the express lane was empty as I rounded the aisle closest to it, so I paid then and there and just put the receipt under the cap when I finished.

BTW, if anyone enjoys provoking CBF when immune from repercussions, go ahead and call people out on their grazing. I find "Hey - thanks for jacking up my grocery prices by stealing [item name here]!" works well, especially loudly from a distance.

Probably does no good, but makes me feel better.

Oh. And unwashed produce? I'm not a germaphobe by any means, but .

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

I'm curious; what do you wash the produce with?

[Aethian]

I'm curious; what do you wash the produce with?

I use a solution of bleach and water on rind goods and on ones I eat the outer coating I use a whiter conifer (conifer? The hell iPhone) VINEGAR wash.

[Kanalah]

My grandmother (the one who's owned a store for 30-odd years) likes to grab a handful of grapes as she walks into the store and munch on them while she's shopping.

4 times she's gotten sick from this! But does that stop her?

She says it's the store's fault for selling "dirty produce"

[Kheldarson]

Am I abnormal? I would never think of eating produce in the store. oR for that matter the candy bar before checking out or whatever...sheesh.

I wouldn't eat anything weighed by the pound, but if it's a packaged thing, sure. Particularly if I'm hungry and don't want to up my shopping by more than the couple of bucks a candy bar will cost

[shopgirl15]

OK, we've all snitched a grape or 2 from a bag we're buying.

Um, no, that's gross.

[Eevie]

The thing I can't stand are the people who open soda boxes and drink right out of the can. When they're done, they leave the can right next to the box, both left on the shelf.

Now I can understand sampling a grape or two (I've bought sour grapes from the store. Let me tell you, they're not very good.) but eating the entire stem is just... I can't understand.

[JustShootMe]

Found ANOTHER trail of cherry stems & pits today. The Produce Mgr says he loses a lot of money on "Grazers." He told me he finds all manner of things including chicken bones & candy wrappers. The funniest thing I ever found was the underwire from someone's bra.

[Seshat]

Am I abnormal? I would never think of eating produce in the store. oR for that matter the candy bar before checking out or whatever...sheesh.

I'll eat something wrapped and sold by unit (eg, a few jellybeans or a bit of chocolate); but only if I'm in need and my emergency stash of jellybeans in my handbag is missing.

And yes, the wrapper or partly-eaten chocolate/jellybean packet is produced for the cashier to scan the bar code so I can pay for it.

(I'm not diabetic, but if my blood sugar gets too funky, I'm light headed, dizzy and can't think straight. And my last fasting glucose test was right on the verge of diabetic. bleargh.)

Anyway.. my point is that diabetics and people with certain other metabolic disorders can need a small amount of food NOW, or Bad Things Happen. But if they manage it properly, it can be done fairly to both the person and the shop.


I do wish certain produce was typically sold with a few cleaned 'taster' pieces available. I like sweet 'white' grapes, but not tart ones: and without tasting them, there's no way to know which is being sold. Same with some other fruits and vegetables: young peas are delicious raw, older peas are better as soup or stew ingredients.

[wolfie]

The thing I can't stand are the people who open soda boxes and drink right out of the can. When they're done, they leave the can right next to the box, both left on the shelf.

So not only are they stealing, but they're also drinking WARM soda? I'm sure you've seen 2 or more open boxes of the same variety, each with 1 can taken out of them (because SCs don't want to take a can from a box that SOMEONE ELSE ALREADY OPENED).

I've seen multiple boxes of the same variety of ice cream treat opened (and presumably one treat stolen from the box) - what this means is the store has to write off X boxes, when if the subsequent thieves stole from the same box the store would only need to write off ONE box.

[Eddie The 'Ead]

OK, we've all snitched a grape or 2 from a bag we're buying. Even feeding a cranky kid a banana to shut them up, I can understand, as long as you fess up & let us weigh another in it's place. But eating cherries and leaving a trail of stems & pits all over the store?!?! What part of YOU ARE STEALING do you not comprehend? What if some lawsuit-happy "victim" slips on a pit? I don't have time to follow your trail of trash down each aisle. GAH!!

That's been happening at my store too! I'll be doing a sweep of the store and I'll come across a trail of cherry pits. It gets on my nerves!