Knowingly stealing - food shop delivery

I agree re profiteering but that is no excuse for acting just as immorally by effectively shoplifting. If you want to take the moral high ground on profits then you don't steal the goods. It's not whether the shop can bear the loss but the immorality of your own action.

I wish the term 'shoplifting' would go out of use - it's too soft an expression. It's theft, stealing, whether from someone's house or a shop. It's not 'well the shop can afford it'. The rest of us pay over the odds because of people who are thieves stealing from shops. Shame on people who condone it - or even worse - do it.

No. I would have retracted the refund request or refused the goods. That's stealing. What's more, you know it is dishonest. You've shoplifted.

I think these companies with their record profits can afford to write it off

They managed to make record profits whilst blaming the war for their price rises, I'm sure they can pay for that

She doesn't give a fuck, or she wouldn't have come here to talk about it.

Maybe I should stop giving a shit. This has been a nightmare week, and I could really use some wine. Seems it's OK not to pay for it, so...

I once ordered a case of wine just before Christmas, to be delivered to my school address, it hadn't arrived by when we broke up so I contacted the company who said it had been delivered but apparently to the wrong but similar address. They apologised and sent another case to my home address by express delivery before Christmas, when I returned to work in January there was a second case waiting and I rang them again. At first they misunderstood, thinking I'd not received one at all and offered to send yet another! Once we were on the same page they said to keep the second case as it would cause more trouble than it was worth to collect it!
Being honest can sometimes pay off!

From my time working at a food bank, albeit close to a decade ago, you could only visit a foodbank ama few times in a period - maybe twice a month and you had to be referred by a children's centre. You don't get loads of food but it is a godsend I'm sure

That said, there are still things you'd need from a supermarket and I think it's OK for someone struggling to steal for their family

The value of retail theft in the UK in 2023 was thought to be £7.9 billion.
You really don't care that the rest of us law abiding citizens are having to pay for that? Really?

If it's too late to cancel it on the app you either accept the delivery and pay or reject what you don't want.
We've had mis-communications between ourselves and left things on the delivery by accident. We just reject them and we get a refund for those items, we don't steal the whole order!

Was this Waitrose by any chance?

Once, in between the order cutoff date and the delivery date, my phone was stolen. I cancelled my bank cards in case the details were compromised. On the day of delivery, Waitrose had my shopping out for delivery but called me to make payment as my cancelled card had declined. I just remembered thinking why did they even have my shopping out for delivery if they couldn’t complete the transaction to begin with. I paid and everything was fine but I was surprised at how unbothered the staff were.

Food banks are available to people who are struggling, there is never an excuse to steal.
I was once in a position where I couldn't afford food for my family and food banks didn't exist. I still didn't steal

A similar thing happened to us but we didn’t realise at the time. I took some items off at the last minute that my husband had put on but we didn’t actually need, I wasn’t home when the delivery arrived so it was only a few hours later that i was questing my husband as to why all this stuff I’d removed had arrived (and accusing him of putting it back on 🙈😂) then we realised what had happened and that we hadn’t actually paid for the things I’d removed. Not a lot we could do at that point other than take it all back to the shop 🤷‍♀️

Of course it's stealing! You're just as bad! I think it's more astonishing how many dishonest people there are!!

If there's an item in my shopping that I didn't order, I will always tell the driver. I'm usually told to keep it. I wouldn't keep it otherwise.

I guess you're the kind of person who, if you were given too much money in your change, you'd keep that too because well, they made a mistake! Don't you possess a conscience?

Yes it is massive - but OP is taking the entire shop, not just one item done in error etc.

I don't understand how you could cancel on the day of delivery as it's too late.

I don't understand why you are on her posting about your theft that you planned and are pleased with either.

No I wouldn't but I can imagine being tempted and at times in the past when I was quite poor, I probably would have given in. We'll never know. However I do not judge you. I am pretty sure you won't do it again.

Please move on from this, don't dwell on it. We all make mistakes, we're human beings and nobody has died.

Do something nice for someone, anonymously if possibly and certainly discreetly, then write it all off.

Good luck.

But the OP wasn’t struggling. She was planning a dinner party with meat and drink and that’s what she kept, even though the dinner didn’t take place, which is why the order was cancelled.

Most people would agree that the major supermarkets, at least, make considerable profit. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be in business. I don’t think that justifies stealing from them though.

It’s odd that you can cancel on the day without charge. I use Ocado and if I miss the deadline I’d be charged for fresh food as it’s wasted.

Obviously it’s stealing if you do it on purpose.

I'd like to think they would get a good dose of the shits.

No. I accidentally left the self-service checkout without paying (I swiped my card but it didn’t authorise and asked for my PIN instead). I left in a rush as it was really busy and I was on my lunch break wanting to get back home to rest a bit. I realised when I got home and had a notification about my card payment being declined. I went back in the next evening and owned up, asking to pay what I owed. The woman on the desk was very surprised

Nope. If I was going to accept the order if it turned up after cancelling, I'd let the driver know and then get straight onto the customer services to check the payment had gone through ok.
I also wouldn't like to think that somewhere down the line an employee was getting in trouble for making a mistake.
My DH rolls his eyes when I email companies to let them know we had an extra item delivered we didn't pay for. But I feel more comfortable doing so.
On the rare occasions when this has happened, they have said 'don't worry about it', but I'm talking stuff like an orange juice or a small bag of prawns, not a large value item/shop!

Yes

No- never.
Because I am not a thief.
And you are...