An incident at the supermarket: trivial or not????

My friends think this is borderline trivial, and that it happens all the time. What do you think?

Yesterday I was in the produce section of a large supermarket. A middle aged woman with two children came through; her son, about nine or ten, was loudly nagging her for a "treat". On and on he went, treeeeat, treeeat, treeeat!!! She tried to ignore him at first but finally she parked her cart in front of the bulk carrots, and allowed the boy and the girl to pick large ones, and they ate them right there, unpeeled and unwashed! Since they are weighed out in bulk at the checkout, she had no way of knowing how much to pay, if she had any intention of doing so. The produce manager was right there, saw it, and turned away, saying nothing. I was appalled.

Now, I know that about a dollar's worth of unpaid merchandise will not break the company. But was that not stealing?? If she had put the carrots in her purse, and the kids ate them outside, it would be shoplifting! What sort of lesson was that for the brat?? 'Yeah, just throw a tantrum, and you can steal anything you want?' And it wasn't about money, these people were not 'poor', it was obvious.

I toyed with the idea of letting the store manager know about it, but decided that it would make me look like a busybody, and I hate that. And it could harm the produce manager's standing, as well. What would you have done??

How many 10 year olds do you know that would've been satisfied with a carrot for a treat?

1. to steal
2. to eat unwashed fruits/veggies

Yeah, let's make her mom of the year!

Next time I'll post a smiley for you.

;)

at least it was carrots and not candy bars.

i think it's trivial as far as the store is concerned, but not trivial as far as teaching children to pay for stuff they take. My brother does this all the time and it bugs the shit out of me- he grabs a handful of grapes and just eats them right in the store.

that had the kids developed a GI infection from the unwashed carrots, she'd probably be trying to sue the store.

We all pay for shoplifters. I say report her ass and then offer to pay for the carrots on her behalf and with her standing there. That would get the message across, which she sorely needs, IMO.

None of your business. I know it sounds rude, but the only way to cope with that level of public aggravation is to ignore it like the produce manager did. That's the best this to do. The carrots? Not your business. The kids' lousy upbringing? Not your business.

Learning to recognize what's not your business is crucial in navigating today's every day aggravations.

One does have to pick their battles, after all.

But, at some point, we end up being part of the problem by doing so.

while someone is committing a crime?? Oh, wait. That's what we've been doing ANYWAY since December 2000. :freak:

Note: What the mother did wasn't trivial. It was stealing. We all pay for it. What we should do about it I don't know. But it was not trivial.

People like her are running our federal government right now.

They have produce at Harrod's! This could get embarrassing.

What should the manager have done?
Stopping the woman? that would have upset her - the store would have almost certainly lost her as a customer. Probably along with her friends and family.
One might even argue that the kids were less likely to hinder the shopping.

Anyway: I think it was very bad style on the side of the woman, but very good style on the manager's side.

and even wash it for you.. At least, thats how they are in my hood.

Then trust me... as a former grocery asst manager who was on the floor *all the freaking time* with customers, it was money "well spent".

On a lighter side, this is what is known as "good customer service".

How much does mama spend a week in that store?
How much would mama continue to spend if Produce Manager made a big stink about *two* carrots?

If it were *my* store, I'd have given them the whole bunch of carrots to snack on.

Mojo

Hey, I was an only child, but I only tried a tantrum one time: I was ignored for about a minute, then was told that, "If you keep this up, you will have to stay in the car from now on!" Throwing a tantrum was the ONE way to guarantee I would NOT get what I wanted, and I thank my parents for that now.

it is insignificant.

Of course, if everyone did it... well, that would be a problem. But to let a screaming kid have a carrot... that's good business.

Why not one homeless man/woman?
It isn't the one act, it is the exponential that makes theft so bad.
(Not to mention the biblical: Thou shall not steal)
The mother can take ONE extra carrot to the register and have the clerk weigh it and pay for what the child ate, otherwise, it is theft.
edit: spelling

The women and her family are customers.

If a homeless person were to go into a store to snack on produce for free, they arent customers.

Retailers wont mind going out of thier way to accomodate thier customers.

and I took him to the store. The little devil went up to the salad bar, grapped a broccoli floret, and started chowing down.

With my best horrified expression, I scolded him for stealing and made him tell the clerk at the counter what he'd done. The clerk started to say it was ok, but he shouldn't do it again. I insisted that we needed to pay something; because I wasn't going to leave there with theft on my conscience. So we paid him a dime.

I know, it sounds anal; but for all his faults, he's never stolen since.

mine ate the strawberries or grapes. I made a big deal about paying for it. I think it's stealing and wrong.
Allowing a 10 year old to steal food is appalling.

While I cant definatively say its the case for all supermarkets but its pretty common here.

Well not common like everyone goes to the fruit/vegetable section of the supermarket to pig out for free, but that it happens every so often and people dont care.

I remember when I was a kid and my family would go shopping they would let me get a grape or something.

Considering the overabundance of food that we have here in America, its low cost, and the fact that a good portion of it will go to waste, its not like its going to break anyones pocketbook.

I dunno, I'm trying to be optimistic here.

At least the kiddies were eating carrots - REAL food, and not the campy prepackaged garbage (like "Lunchables" for one of many examples) in the kiddie aisles.

Of course, all the carrots I've bought in the last 2 months, when washed, taste pretty bad anyway. Even the dip doesn't improve the taste.

The woman is apprehended and put in handcuffs and locked into a back of the police car and taken to prison.

The carrots are snatched from the children and they are taken off to be warehoused or just left to fend for themselves on the street.

The mother will no longer be able to teach the children bad habits.

They will now have much better teachers who will teach them to be more discrete and steal higher ticket items for resale.

Is that better?

My point is, she gave in to a tantrum, and allowed them to, in effect, steal. What kind of message did that send?? It's not about the money. She is creating a monster.

I only hope that kid never enrolls for one of my classes; I can just hear it now: "I WANT AN "A"!!!! Change my grade NOW!!!"

People do it to see if the strawberries are sweet, the cherries are tart, etc.

Only in a low income area would a manager do anything but say, "that's a good bunch of carrots we got in this week."

Now the tantrum thing is a whole nother issue, and it is defnintely annoying to be in a store where kids pitch tantrums.

Probably the best solution is to go to the supermarket late at night when there are fewer children, and fewer displays of parenting skills or lack thereof :)

whether he wants to be upset or not.

He's the one who's got to make the bottom line add up for the store manager. I imagine he's got some small amount of discretion to exercise, and possibly hoped it would quite the children.

close to the tomatoes, he would reach out, grab one, and bite into it before I could stop him. He LOVED tomatoes.

I'd always look to find a tomatoe about the same size as the one he was joyously eating and pay for both at the check out.

The folks at the grocery store were amused.

Would you believe that he has refused to even taste fresh tomatoes for the last four or five years? :eyes:

Then she should have taken them out and let the kids eat them and then she could have paid for them at the register.

She is teaching them to shop lift.

If the manager didn't care...why didn't you nab some free candy?

Or, hell, let's just take big spoons, open quarts of ice cream, and pig out!!!

Take a shopping cart and load it in to your car

these kids will probably figure (in a few years when they're old enough and if it's still around) it's ok to download music for free.

Back in about 1957. Babs indulges him, saying "Now Georgie, if there is ANYTHING EVER you want, you just ASK for it!!!"

And look where that has gotten us.

told us kids a story about a black crow (in her day, it meant a black licorice drop) which once upon a long long time ago she popped into her mouth while shopping, and broke a tooth, and had to have a cap put on. Her way of saying that bad behavior can lead to bad consequences. She sure knew how to help a little kid's developing conscience.

on the order of one small candy. I think one carrot would qualify.

The stores rack it up as part of the cost of doing business.

the manager would have stepped in if it was being abused.

it's probably accounted for in the price already -- the cost of people eating inside the store.

walk up to where the produce manager is standing and chow down on a peach or something. he can't really say anything, can he?

unless the store specifically states that sampling is permitted, this is theft. sure, it's not much, but there are say, 1,000 customers a day in that store, right? what it everyone takes a carrot?

... I wish this was on my radar screen of societal problems. It just isn't.

First off, did you follow them to the checkout and make sure they didn't pay? We have a son who used to just have to have a snack in the store, we'd just save the wrapper for the checkout. No big deal.

Secondly, I'm sure many will say "theft is theft", but really, how much do 2 carrots cost? A pound goes for less than a dollar here, and there would be at least 10 carrots in a pound. Let's say they "stole" 20 cents worth. Theft is theft no doubt, but nobody really cares about 20 cents, do they?

Many here complain about people who see everything in black and white terms, and this is a perfect example. Was it right? Perhaps not if she in fact did not pay. Does it rise to the level of "crime"? I don't think so.

And for those of you who are wondering, no I don't sample produce or anything else in a store. :)

and whether the amount matters. I guarantee there are people on this board who could lose a thousand dollars and not really miss it. And there are people here who could lose ten bucks and really feel it.

Someone stole ten bucks from me the other day, in fact. The money really doesn't mean much to me, it's the cost of a beer and a latte. so what the hell, it's not really theft, right? since I don't miss the money much?

now if she'd fed them brussels sprouts, that would have been awful.

Would not have been tolerated when I was a child. My Mother or Grandmother would have told us to knock it off or not only would we not get what we wanted,we would get our ass busted. Mom would usually wait until we got home.Grandma would oftentimes swat our butts right on the spot. I remember getting some little red cheeks for throwing a fit in the toy aisle of a dept. store when I was 6 or 7.

I guess that would get Mom and Grandma thrown in jail these days.......and the kids sent to a foster home or something.

Anyway, I saw a similar thing happen once in a store except it was candy that the whole family was eating.
I looked at the Dad and he told me to "Mind my own God damn business"

Before I tell you what I did, keep in mind that this happened 15 years ago...and I was young (22)

I kept an eye on them while they were shopping and when they had a full cart, I made my move....

As they were in the ice cream aisle, arguing about what flavor to buy,
I took their cart and hauled ass across the store and put it in one of the cool storage rooms (where they keep the produce)

I know it was silly and it might be a character flaw in myself but
somehow I still get off thinking about it!

Ps: No...I didn't work at the store, I just thought the rude bastard
can spend another hour shopping.

People like that can probably justify all sorts of things, like cheating on taxes (everyone does it!), or taking a sick day off from work to go to the beach, or download "free" music.