Was this stealing?

Can somebody give the memo to all the pearl clutchers, gasping at a bit of fennel in Waitrose. See other thread.

ETA: not theft OP, as you did not dishonestly appropriate the goods, unlike fennel in question, elsewhere. However, fact you were told to just take them, negates the social warriors complaining about hiking prices passed to other shoppers.

I’m just grateful this wasn’t a thread about taking samples from boots… 😂

I often get given free flowers or plants from my local Aldi, Tesco and Lidl.

Tesco staff once asked if anyone wanted any flowers before they were binned, I was so happy about the situation that the other customers told me to take them, since then I often get offered any that would be binned as I go in regularly.

I saw some plants in a bin at Aldi that just needed a bit of watering, I was upset about them just being tossed aside and told the staff, I now occasionally get plants and flowers they can’t sell.

Lidl sell flowers in the shop entrance that constantly die in the hot weather, I asked if I could take any bunches of half dead flowers and was told yes, I took home all the bunches and made up arrangements with the live flowers. I often get given them from there as well now.

Last week I got 4 bouquets from Tesco and 9 from Lidl, my house was like a florists. The flowers make me happy and smile but it’s a good job I have a lot of vases and don’t have hayfever!

I also have rescue plants on almost every windowsill at home. I used to regularly buy at least one bouquet a week to cheer the house up, visitors often compliment me on how beautiful it is now when I’ve got flowers everywhere.

I work in a supermarket and we absolutely do have discretion to do things like this. We can also override price queries without getting them checked if it is under a certain amount. And I have also given nappies and formula when a payment has failed to go through the till but the customers bank has already deducted the money from their account. The money was actually marked as pending and it would automatically go back into their account but it left them with not enough money to pay again whilst waiting for it to bounce back in.

I thought that M&S now sold bananas not by weight but individually as in you put in the number of bananas on the screen same as for pastries.

Banana is the cheapest fruit. They wouldn’t have lost out. Staff usually have discretion.

It wasn’t theft, they do have some leeway for loss and some bananas will not bankrupt M&S so you don’t have to beat yourself up, you didn’t do anything wrong.

I worked in a supermarket "for the duration" of Covid and it isnt always a sackable offence although sometimes does need a managers "ok" depending on the staff members level. I think that the further up the price point the supermarket is, the more leeway is given. Aldi for example are not going to be that bothered losing one customer over not being able to buy bananas. But M&S, Waitrose and their ilk are very keen to keep people happy as they are chasing a much smaller pool of customers.

Last Xmas I was in a huge checkout queue at Morrisons and one of my items wouldn't scan. She had the light flashing for someone to come whilst she scanned my other items but no one came. The cashier looked at the queue switched off the light and said I'm not charging you for this item. It was a low value item less than £1 but I can't remember what it was. She told me the total and I paid and she just put this item with my other stuff. I checked are you sure I don't have to pay. She said no I can't make everyone wait longer for one little item. It's not stealing. Stealing is taking something serupticiously without paying not being told by a member of staff to just take it.

So that guilt doesn't gnaw at your conscience, or regret infect your soul with an evergrowing sense of unease and existential angst, leave the price of a bunch of bananas to M&S in your will, along with a written confession, and a plea for the shame to be buried along with you, and not passed on to your descendants 😀

For it to be stealing you would have had to ‘dishonestly appropriate’ the items. You were told by a representative of the store to take them. The appropriation was not dishonest = no theft.

I don’t know if she has discretion but I have had similar in both my local M&S and Sainsbury’s. I have worked in retail myself and we wouldn’t have been allowed to do this but maybe some companies have different policies? Certainly not something I’d worry about.

So many bananas get put in waste, I'm pretty sure her manager would agree with the decision to improve customer experience and reduce queues with such a small priced item which is perishable and has a high volume of waste anyway.

The staff shouldn’t have given them away and could get in trouble but you weren’t technically stealing. CCTV will show this- there is a camera built into each self serve checkout.

I’ve been given items in Waitrose by staff members multiple times.

Not stealing, I think the staff have the authority to do this if necessary. I gained a cucumber the same way last year from Sainsbury's. As an aside I am VERY careful with the self scanners as I'd be mortified if there was ever any suggestion I'd deliberately not scanned something.

Fairygoblin

It’s excellent customer service to my mind! She recognised that the situation with the scales / available staff to help was out of your control. You asked for assistance, they freely gave you a resolution. I’m sure staff or a certain level of staff are entrusted to make decisions to ensure good customer relations.
I’m pretty sure they’re not and she’d have been fired if overheard. Very different a high up manager saying this to a normal employee. Our supermarket wouldn’t even give you a warning on this- they have signs up in the stock room reminding you that even one grape not being paid for is stealing

I know! I honestly wasn't expecting anything - I was mostly feeling guilty someone would have to re shelve my shopping in amongst all the chaos.

I figured I had a tiny baby and probably looked completely frazzled, the power had been off for about 30 minutes with no sign of it coming back on, they'd already found a chair for me to feed her, and they were probably trying to forestall a social media post along the lines of 'omg Tesco were awful, I can't feed or change my baby and it's all their fauuuulllllt!' (not that I'd have done that!)

I used to put any produce I couldn’t find the code for through as onions as it was the cheapest. I wasn’t great at checkouts

If anyone was stealing, it was the assistant but they will likely have discretion

I've done it at work, given away a freebie if it will maintain customer satisfaction

Also had staff at shops where items haven't scanned who just scanned another item of around the same price (but usually cheaper, never more) twice. At one point the local Asda was putting stuff through as Chewing gum because they could grab that from the till...

Yeah, that's a bit too much. She was probably leaving the job soon.

Our local Waitrose often has loads of unsold bananas reduced to pennies.

And yes, the staff have discretion. I've been allowed to take (low value) stuff without paying when they've had scanning issues.

Stealing isn't just "not paying" or all freebies would be stolen goods...

I used to work at a supermarket - she absolutely will have had authority to do that OP.

I was in Tesco once when DD was tiny, and there was a power cut, no tills. In the end I went to a member of staff and said I was really sorry, but I had a Dr's appt, so I'd have to leave my trolley. She asked if there was anything I was desperate for - I said the nappies. She said take them, then she saw formula and told me to take that too, and then saw a sandwich and said to take that too if it was my lunch! I was really surprised, but really grateful.