eating unpurchased food.

[Bella_Vixen]

My only opinion is, if "customers" get to do it, so should employees be allowed to.

[Epic FRAIL]

ASSAULT! ...and pepper.

How much variation in flavor is there? It's butter! All I care about is if it's salted or unsalted......!!!

Obviously this woman prefers her butter assaulted.

[Pagan]

How much variation in flavor is there? It's butter! All I care about is if it's salted or unsalted......!!!

Oh, there can be variation in taste. Kerrygold definitely tastes different from Sam's Club!

Just curious with all these people "not diabetic but..." are you guys sure, usually getting dizzy or faint when not eating is a good sign it might be, I only ask because I've gone up to two days without eating and not felt faint or anything figured that was the norm.

Could be hypoglycemia. Or a problem with stomach acid. I used to be able to go a long time without eating (sometimes I would forget), but I can't anymore. Just before Christmas, the proton pumps in my stomach started going haywire and I can't go without eating for long. But, since I threw some omeprazole at it, it's getting straightened out again.

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.)

I think Albertson's does this, but usually only with fruit, like melons or citrus. They'll cut it in half so you can taste it. If you don't buy it, they wrap up the other half and price it for sale.

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.

Oh, how I hate this stuff. I'm not quite sure where it is, but with air patterns the way they are in the store, it will invariably come into the pharmacy. One day it was so bad, I could taste it....and then I started coughing.

Obviously this woman prefers her butter assaulted.

So funny I forgot to laugh!

[Epic FRAIL]

So funny I forgot to laugh!

I wept as I wrote it. That's how funny it isn't.

[jedimaster91]

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 saw a couple of ladies doing this at WalMart. Not only would I not want to be the customer that buys a half-empty bottle, but it can (and IMO, should) be considered a health hazard. I have a slight sensitivity to certain scents. Floral scents don't usually bother me, nor do most body sprays. But perfume and vanillia type scents set off a rampaging sinus headache. And of course, what did our dear ladies spray? French Vanillia. I hope my coughing as I walked past gave them a hint, but I doubt it. I just hope no one with REALLY bad asthma unwittingly walked through the area for a couple hours.

[Becks]

I am sincerely grateful to any and all customers who pay for items that they snacked on/drank while shopping.

Lady (and son) was back the next day with a very pissed off guy with her. Turned out she complained to her husband who now made sure he came with her while shopping so she wouldn't do something so stupid again. He appologized to myself and manager for her actions.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaay husband!!!

[Rapscallion]

Oh, there can be variation in taste. Kerrygold definitely tastes different from Sam's Club!

Almost certainly it's contracted out to different dairies. What most big names do these days is sell their name, not the products. Our chilled buyer was interested in a creamery making some butter for us under our own brand, and she watched as one brand we wholesale was produced until the end of the run, and then different wrappers were put into the machine. Yup - same butter, different wrappers, same production facilities.

Rapscallion

[Pagan]

Yup - same butter, different wrappers, same production facilities.

Rapscallion

Yeah, that happens with canned pineapple. Today the factory's canning Dole, tomorrow it's DelMonte.

There's a cream that I buy that's produced by a local dairy and with that one, you can actually tell what the cows have been eating. Got a hold of one pint once that was so grassy tasting, it wasn't even funny.

[Jay 2K Winger]

We sometimes find boxes opened with evidence of grazing, but there's not a lot we can do at the wholesale club about it.

I don't graze, myself, but if I get hungry or something while I'm at Wal-Mart or wherever, and eat something off the shelf, I'll bring the bag/box up with me.

Most often, though, Sundays when I work the 5am back-door shift, I'll grab a bottle of Boathouse Farms mocha drink for the caffeine. Since there's no way to pay for it yet, I'll hold onto the bottle, and refill it with water. That way, when I head up front for the front-door part of my shift, I can pop through the self-checkouts to pay for it, dump out the water, and toss the bottle. (Usually at that time, none of the cashiers are ready to ring me out, and if the bottle is empty, the self-checkouts will reject it.)

[Gerrinson]

The old grocery store was vehemently opposed to grazing (for obvious reasons), but was totally fine with people eating/drinking things that aren't sold by weight, so long as they paid for it before leaving. And no one ever got away with the 'these are stale chips' argument at my register.

I had the one idiot that told me to 'just weigh my kid' when she wanted to pay for the apple he ate while they were shopping. She thought it was hilarious right up until the SM threatened to charge her with shoplifting. Despite her 'I'm so insulted, I'm never coming here again!' spiel, she came back. And got caught feeding herself and her kid out of a bag of grapes by the LP guy. Can you say charged and trespassed?

Given my experience from the cashier side, I have no qualms about eating something while in the store. A few times, I've wanted a piece of fruit or other weighted item so I go through the express line, pay (and keep the receipt) and have it while doing the rest of my shopping. So far, I've never had anyone mention it as a problem.

[CaroPhoenix]

At Safeway, I always ask for a cookie if I have Child Rum with me. Sometimes, I'm offered a cookie too.

i've been known to ask to try deli meats (i.e., Dietz & Watson Barbecue Chicken - Delicious! Primo Taglio Roast Beef - too seasoned for my taste, etc).

However, I normally make sure either Child Rum has been fed, will be fed right after shopping or I have a snack for her from home to chow down on. Why don't parents ever think of doing that?

[Balgram]

I take stuff and eat it in store all the time. I'll buy chicken or sandwiches from the deli, eat in store, then pay for the wrapper.

I use self-checkout, too, so no human was involved in my devouring and payment process.

I never see a problem with this. I will pay for what I take, so shrug.

That cookie monster that started this whole thread confuses me. I think it's really really funny, but it's still rude.

[Dasota]

I remember when Safeway first started giving out cookies to kids. I moved away to an area that has Tops/Wegmans instead of Safeway, and I went back when I was 12 and really wanted to get a cookie, but thought I was past the cut-off point. I really wanted that cookie too.

I myself have never eaten anything while in the store, and then paid for it later. I do remember going shopping with the neighbor and her kids after church one day and she had drank something and paid for it at the register. I thought that was really strange at the time.

My dad is guilty of being a slight grazer though. When grapes or cherries go on sale he'll sample one or two out of maybe 3 bags so he can tell which one he wants and then buy the bag. And now that I think of it, I was a really strange kid. I used to eat one of those white mushrooms about every other time we went shopping, and I have no idea why.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I had shucked some cobs of corn to cook that night.

It is better to shuck the corn just before you cook it. As soon as you shuck it, the exposure to the air causes the sugar in the corn to start turning to starch. The corn that is cooked immediately after it is shucked is the best tasting.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I did this just monday night, I have chronic hypoglycemia. I had a ROUGH day and had been sloppy with my eating habits last couple days.

I damn near ended up on the floor in front of dairy. Man. It comes on you so fast sometimes, which is what happened to me.

I went and bought a pack of gummi lifesavers (what the hell happened to hard candy???? Can't find lifesavers anywhere!) and a couple packs of peanuts. I wasn't done shopping, but I jumped in an empty line and bought the candy and the nuts, then went back to my cart, thinking of you guys the whole time. Took a break, just noshing on my stuff and leaning on my cart. The cashier looked at me like I was nuts, leaving my car behind to pay for a handful of snacks. I mumbled out something like "need a quick snack" or something. I dont know, I tried to expain myself but it's exceedingly hard to articulate a coherent thought in that kind of state.

If there had been no empty line, I would have had to "graze." I wouldn't have been able to wait in line that long. I went from "feeling okay" to "seeing black looming on the edge of my vision" in 15 seconds or less.

I am not a supermarket grazer, and my child understands that we don't eat stuff that's not paid for yet. However, people used to do it at Kinkos with our office supplies all the time and it never bothered me. They would just stick all their price tags on a sheet and settle up when they were done working. That's just the nature of Kinkos, you go in and work on your projects. Its easier for everyone to just settle up after. Most even asked if I minded they do it that way first. I never minded.