First 'sucky' customer...

[Horsetuna]

who wasn't even really one. She was in with her friend. Late teens i'll guess, the usual 'Britney clone' type.

Anyways at the drug store I now work at, I'm having fun, its nearly time to go home, yay!

So her friend is buying stuff and near the counter we have a display of Mango hand cream/moisturizer. I hear the familiar POP of a lid coming off one (You know the sound.)

I look up and her friend squirs some into her hand, puts the bottle back (lid closed) and starts applying it.

I speak up at this point "Uhm... did you just take some hand cream and put the bottle back?"

She stares at me in a slightly 'how dare you' look and go "Uh, yeah."

Not sure what to do yet (Second day on the job) I say "Well, just so you know if you want to use the hand cream, in the future you have to buy the bottle."

A bit of an awkward silence. I make a few good jokes with her friend and stuff about OT things and they depart. I tell the Supervisor about what happened in case they complained. I do hope they dont try that again though.

[chainedbarista]

beware; they will, and so will others. you'll see their 'sampling' of various goods storewide. i feel for you.

[Retail Associate]

That kind of thing happens all the time. We have a bulk foods section in the grocery dept. People will bag up snacks and eat them as they shop. Who knows how much is left, if any, once they reach the checkouts where they are supposed to pay by weight.

We find pistachio (sp) shells all over the shoe dept which is carpeted. You can't vacume them up so we end up picking up the damn, spit covered things by hand.

People are disgusting. I really, truly hate them.

[friendofjimmyk]

They should have testers for lotions and stuff. I am guilty of opening the bottle to take a sniff of the fragrance - but unless there is a tester bottle, I don't use it.

[Zombi]

I think it's okay to smell the fragrance as long as the bottle isn't sealed with plastic or something - if you take the plastic off and sample, then you probably should buy it, since the store can't re-sell it.

I love the people who bring me an apple core and say "I ate this while I was shopping, can you charge me for it?" And how am I supposed to do that, genius? There's no more apple to weigh!

[Becks]

They should have testers for lotions and stuff. I am guilty of opening the bottle to take a sniff of the fragrance - but unless there is a tester bottle, I don't use it.

Same here. Exactly.

I love the people who bring me an apple core and say "I ate this while I was shopping, can you charge me for it?" And how am I supposed to do that, genius? There's no more apple to weigh!

1. Find out the most expensive apples in the store.
2. Make a guesstimate as to how many could be in a pound (or whatever unit of weight you go by).
3. Divide both numbers.
4. Enter in resulting answer.

Might not be feasible, but it's an idea...

[amphrite]

Or you could put you elbow on the scale and lean on it, and charge that price!

[AFpheonix]

charge her apple price per watermelon pound....

[rvdammit]

I think it's okay to smell the fragrance as long as the bottle isn't sealed with plastic or something - if you take the plastic off and sample, then you probably should buy it, since the store can't re-sell it.

I love the people who bring me an apple core and say "I ate this while I was shopping, can you charge me for it?" And how am I supposed to do that, genius? There's no more apple to weigh!

Sure can, one free apple plus £10 idiot surcharge.

[SongsOfDragons]

I think it's ok to eat round a store if you DON'T eat stuff sold by weight. Chocolate wrappers can be scanned cause they have a barcode, and sometimes diabetics need to do that. When I was a chiddler me mam used to give me the knob-end of a stick of French Bread to eat instead of sweets, and she used to pay for the end-less stick at the checkout.

[South Texan]

I look up and her friend squirs some into her hand, puts the bottle back (lid closed) and starts applying it.

I speak up at this point "Uhm... did you just take some hand cream and put the bottle back?"

She stares at me in a slightly 'how dare you' look and go "Uh, yeah."

Not sure what to do yet (Second day on the job) I say "Well, just so you know if you want to use the hand cream, in the future you have to buy the bottle."

We once had a case in our municipal court of a sunburned woman who walked into a store, broke the seal on a box of sunburn pain relief stuff, sprayed the entirety of both her legs and arms with the stuff, put the bottle back into the box, put the box back on the shelf, and began to walk back out the door where her husband was waiting for her in the still running car in the parking lot. She was stopped by LP but claimed she was only "sampling" the product.

She tried to get a jury to buy her story. She was found guilty of theft and fined $200.

[Barefootgirl]

Actually, I don't think its ever OK to eat in the store until you've paid for the items. I think almost everytime this gets discussed, someone raises the issue of diabetics having to eat something to regulate their blood sugar. Sorry, but I really don't think the vast majority of people I see gobbling stuff in the supermarket are diabetics - there simply aren't that many diabetic people in the whole world ! My father was diagnosed as diabetic thirty years ago, and in all that time I have NEVER, EVER seen him eat food he hadn't paid for off a supermarket shelf. If someone knows they are diabetic and prone to sugar crashes, they should be carrying their own snacks on hand - what would happen if they started crashing and weren't in a place surrounded by foodstuffs

As for giving kids food in the supermarket to shut them up, I think it sets a really bad example of instant gratification - you never have to wait for anything, because you can always have it NOW. My kid doesn't get to eat anything while going round the supermarket, mainly because I always made sure she and I were fed before we went ! Now she's older, she knows that we don't eat anything until after we've paid for it. I don't think its a difficult concept to teach kids.

[Jester]

I think as long as you pay for it (non-weight specific foods) it is vaguely acceptable. Myself, I often crack open a cold orange soda, Sprite or Gatorade (if they have such things cold at the store I am at) and slurp it down while I am shopping. When I check out, I hand the empty bottle to the cashier, who scans it, tosses it at my request, and I pay for it. Not once has anyone become upset about this. Sure, I should probably pay for it first, I know that, but I don't steal (anymore...in junior high, that was another story!), and I always pay for the one thing I slurp while shopping. And there are times here in Florida and especially back home in Zona where a cold beverage when you have just come inside is absolutely necessary.