eating unpurchased food.

[Shpepper]

At our Safeway, it is the rule that clerks must allow customers to taste anything they want to buy. If they want to taste anything, even a can of something, you're supposed to open it up, get a spoon, supposedly, and let them taste it.

I don't know what my husband (he works there) is supposed to do if they want to taste the leg of lamb. I imagine corporate would come up with some lame policy, like "then get the mint jelly, slave!"

The Safeway policy is for things that are ready to eat. You can't sample things that need cooking, are in cans for the most part or any alcohol. Other than that, yes they have to give a sample and if you don't offer and are on a stupid er secret shop, you WILL get points off for it. The thing they taught us right be fore i left slaveway was "If they ask, they eat".

[mattm04]

We had one elderly SC do that to strawberries. They would open 15-20 containers, lick each berry and the ones they liked put in one container. They out the rest back in container and closed it. We finally got video to prove it. In the end we were out approx $500-700 dollars of berries. She was trespassed.

But if someone want's to munch on some chips or a beverage (as long as it is not weighed) and pays when they leave we don't care. That policy is store to store based on the LP and GM decision.

[bainsidhe]

As with most people here, I don't really care as long as you pay for it. Don't graze and don't sample from multiple packages with no intent to buy.

A real pet peave of mine is when a customer comes through my line, bag of chips in hand, and tells me they don't want it after all because it's "stale". If they had purchased it, we would refund their money because we support our products. But since they haven't bought it, what they're doing is stealing. Not like I can call it that way to their face and keep my job, so I just shut up and claim out the opened package. Had another woman come through my line, she and her child were muching on an big tub of raisins. She wanted me to send someone to grab a brand new package because the lid on the opened tub wouldn't close properly and was therefore "defective". My looking at her confusedly and calmly explaining it wasn't defective if she's already been eating it didn't work. Management went and got her a replacement.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The Safeway policy is for things that are ready to eat. You can't sample things that need cooking, are in cans for the most part or any alcohol.

Aww crap, I knew there was a catch.

Other than that, yes they have to give a sample and if you don't offer and are on a stupid er secret shop, you WILL get points off for it. The thing they taught us right be fore i left slaveway was "If they ask, they eat".

That's stupid. Guess Safeway doesn't give a rat's ass about shrinkage (if the person decides they don't like the product, does it have to be thrown out?) as long as the customer is satisfied.

This sounds like something the Grocery Store of Awesome might do, but I would never ask for it. It's never occurred to me to crawl into the clerks for free samples of stuff.

[Kogarashi]

As a cashier, I was quite thrilled when customers would pay for half- or nearly empty packages of food they'd been snacking on, because that was one less opened package left tucked somewhere on a shelf. The only time I've ever been annoyed was with the woman who handed me an apple core and expected to pay for it (apples are a by-weight item). So I just found another item of hers (more fruit) comparable in weight and weighed that in the apple's place.

As a customer, I've only ever eaten food before I paid for it once. When I'm pregnant, I tend to get hypoglycemic, especially in the first trimester. When not pregnant, I can go a whole day or more without eating and feel mostly fine, but when pregnant, going just two hours without something to nibble makes me feel like I'm going to pass out. I literally feel fine one moment, and like the world is going to end the next.

Hubby and I were doing a major grocery run back when I was pregnant with my first child, and the "Baby Hungry," as I called it, struck without warning in the middle of the trip. I went to the deli for barbecue chicken chunks, which are weighed right there and given a barcode to scan, and snacked on those while we shopped. I made sure to pay for the empty package at the end.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

As with most people here, I don't really care as long as you pay for it. Don't graze and don't sample from multiple packages with no intent to buy.

A real pet peave of mine is when a customer comes through my line, bag of chips in hand, and tells me they don't want it after all because it's "stale". If they had purchased it, we would refund their money because we support our products. But since they haven't bought it, what they're doing is stealing. Not like I can call it that way to their face and keep my job, so I just shut up and claim out the opened package. Had another woman come through my line, she and her child were muching on an big tub of raisins. She wanted me to send someone to grab a brand new package because the lid on the opened tub wouldn't close properly and was therefore "defective". My looking at her confusedly and calmly explaining it wasn't defective if she's already been eating it didn't work. Management went and got her a replacement.

Ok you have a customer, with an open product, has obviously used said product WITHOUT paying for it and yet you CAN'T call him a thief? Ummm, am I missing something because I would not be afraid call that guy out if he was HOLDING THE EVIDENCE.

[BookstoreEscapee]

It has never occurred to me to ask for a sample of food in the grocery store. (Though I have seen people ask for a slice of meat at the deli counter.)

For the record, when I get shaky/dizzy from not eating it's usually because I didn't eat breakfast, sometimes no lunch, which means I haven't eaten since the night before...12 hours or more. If I'm running around top of that.... Plus my blood pressure tends toward the low end of normal, and I've been known to faint for no apparent reason (which happened once at the doctor's office while I was waiting for some paperwork at the desk so I got checked out right away...other than a big bruise from landing square on my hip I was fine)...so that doesn't help.

[Evil Queen]

I will admit I (sometimes) graze while shopping. But, not matter what, I purchase what I sample.

Yesterday, I think it was, I went shopping with a friend. I got hungry and so did friend so I picked up a box of donut holes that was marked down and we snacked while shopping. It's now in my freezer, waiting to be eaten some more.

[Despina83]

Oh God not this debate again. Yes, I think it is infuriating that some people eat out of a package and then put in back on the shelf (or better yet, eat the whole thing and leave the wrapper sitting on the shelf). However, I drink bottles of pop/soda while shopping before I purchase them. And I have taken a snack out of a container that I was already planning on buying. I always pay for everything before leaving, and I don't open it unless I am positive I am purchasing it and that I have suffiicent money with me.

[Nephy]

So I know this thread is about food, but I've gotta share my most infuriating one anyway..

Right before Christmas we had a crapton of Hotwheels in stock. Some kid (or asshole adult), decided to open all of the mystery packages (the plastic covering the car was black, so that you don't know which one you're getting). They then left the packages and cars strewn around the aisle and floor. All in all, it was at least 50 Hotwheels that were ruined because of some kid's curiousity for mystery Hotwheels.

[bainsidhe]

All in all, it was at least 50 Hotwheels that were ruined because of some kid's curiousity for mystery Hotwheels.

Oh yeah, we get that with Pokemon cards. Mind you, the intent is to steal, so they'll take the cards they like. Little jerks.

And no, I can't call people thieves to their face. If I'm working self checkout and someone is stealing us blind, I have to blame the lack of scanned merchandise on a faulty scanner and ask if I can help them with their purchase. Cashiers were recently handed a whole list of dos and don'ts when dealing with shoplifters. Mostly the list is for our own protection, since you never know who's going to retaliate. But frankly, the list boiled down to things we shouldn't do so we don't hurt the perps feelings. Yeah, pisses me off as well. But I also suspect it's so we don't get sued. Shoplifters make me angry.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Oh yeah, we get that with Pokemon cards. Mind you, the intent is to steal, so they'll take the cards they like. Little jerks.

And no, I can't call people thieves to their face. If I'm working self checkout and someone is stealing us blind, I have to blame the lack of scanned merchandise on a faulty scanner and ask if I can help them with their purchase. Cashiers were recently handed a whole list of dos and don'ts when dealing with shoplifters. Mostly the list is for our own protection, since you never know who's going to retaliate. But frankly, the list boiled down to things we shouldn't do so we don't hurt the perps feelings. Yeah, pisses me off as well. But I also suspect it's so we don't get sued. Shoplifters make me angry.

Couldn't you at least make up a code word so you could call a manager during the transaction and say it to let the manager know "we have a thief here, police/security should be notified?"

[StanFlouride]

My first reaction to this was that someone would then go and dig them out of the store dumpster.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

It also used to bug me when I'd see someone come into my aisle, and spray a little bit from one of the cans of air freshener to see what the smell like. Granted, this isn't the unsanitary issue that arises from doing this with food products, but I think that as a customer I'd be pretty pissed if I unknowingly bought one of the cans that people had been sampling, and had it run out in a day.

I've had the exact same problem from time to time with those blasted Axe bodysprays. And it's always guys who are guilty of spraying that mess around and wonder why I ask them to stop.

No, I wouldn't want to buy a can that was half-empty because everybody and their brother has been "testing" it out.

No, I don't have signs up over the deodorant section saying not to spray the cans. First, I don't need a sign up and second, if I did, NOBODY would read it or they would read it and still spray that mess anyways.

Finally, I can't stand the smell of any of that crap. It all stinks IMO and it's funky enough to choke a herd of horses.

Thank Dog I'm only down to 1 variety on the Axe brand, 3 Right Guard varieties and 2 (and decreasing) on the Tag sprays.

They're also prime targets for shoplifters too and Corporate has noticed this fact. They've discontinued several of those items so far.

And those that weren't discontinued . . . ummm, no Goober I don't know what happened to that shelf tag . . . it just disappeared.

[DeltaSierra]

Reminds me when I was out shopping last summer summer with my niece. She was just over a year old, and sitting in the "lower" part of the cart( the carts at this supermarket have two "levels" one is short and you can put your purse, and a few things then a lower one that's longer.) I had shucked some cobs of corn to cook that night, and when I got to the checkout I realized that my niece had opened the bag and eaten an entire cob of raw corn! I showed the cashier the eaten cob, and asked her to re-weigh a single cob and add it to the bill - she just laughed and had no problem with that.