Swapping eggs in supermarket

[thimblewomgee247]

Just had my online shop delivered. As usual I open the eggs to make sure they aren't broken (they are normally fine). I had ordered 6 large eggs. On opening the box I could see they where tiny. The delivery guy apologised and refunded and said it happens all the time. People swap the eggs on the shelf.

Now as shoplifting goes this just seems a lot of effect for very little gain. Surely it's a right faff and the risk of getting caught must be so high

Stealing!

I don’t get why people don’t eat the broccoli stem. It’s just as nice as the florets.

I've worked in supermarkets and have never opened a box of eggs to check the size nor has it ever been mentioned to me in training or anything. In fact I currently work in a small supermarket, back work next week after maternity leave sob, and just realised I never even check the eggs at all. I just scan them and hand them to the customer/pack them. I should be more vigilant 😂

Not sure that the risk is particularly high? If you go through self checkout there wouldn't be anyone to check. They might witness you on cctv but most shops know there is no capacity for the police to come or for cps to prosecute for the sake of a pack of eggs so the worst that will happen is that the security guard will ask you to put them back - which to some people might be worth the risk.

A similar thing happened to me with face cream - the operator opened the packets to check because apparently people put expensive pots in cheap packaging!

I mean for me the prospect of getting caught would be too shameful but you could always blag it that you just picked them off the shelf and someone else must have swapped it!

I never knew this was a thing.

Decades ago I was disgusted when a friend of a friend at a party talked gleefully about how she and her partner would go round the supermarket replacing the price labels on their chosen items with labels from cheaper stuff so they could save money. Long before the days of barcodes, obviously. That particular scam is now closed off. If she's still alive she'll be over 70 now and perhaps busy swapping eggs from one box to another.

Why would they though?

That's up to the buyer!

I think that is theft. If you want large eggs then pay for large egss!

I work in a supermarket, this happens all the time.

That's my point. It is theft.

When I said swapping I mean if I pick up a box of eggs and one is broken, then pick up another box and one Is broken then to swap the eggs round is ok. You are paying for what you get.
Wouldn't be right to swap for a larger size or different brand

Wouldn't clear packaging be plastic - we don't want any more of that do we!

Apparently someone swiped 2 of the large eggs and swapped them with small ones 😂 Must be more common than we thought.

How do people sleep at night doing these crazy things, cheating, lying. I don’t get it!

I'm another one who buys the mixed eggs mainly because they're so much cheaper.

£1 for 6 or £2.50 for 15 and in Waitrose at least, all the eggs were massive (maybe someone had done the reverse of what's happened to the OP and deliberately picked out the smaller ones?).

M&S have exactly the same range/quality of eggs (standard free range) and if you buy the mixed ones they're priced as above, but if you buy size graded eggs, they're £2-3 for 6, so I don't understand why people would pay twice as much just to have better size consistency (I just weigh them at home and adjust accordingly if baking, but it doesn't matter half as much as people claim, even when baking).

I buy medium eggs or mixed size ones. I check every single egg in the box for cracks and if I find one, I swap it for another one from the same size box.

I would always choose a larger replacement than a smaller one. Would anyone piously go for the smallest ones? I suppose some people would.

It never occurred to me that some people might think I was stealing them or go so far as to challenge me about it. What do people want? A deputy's tin star?

No one has ever done that or inspected my eggs at the checkout. I don't know what I'd say if they did. It wouldn't be very nice though.

Supermarket home deliveries usually come from hubs not from shops.

More likely that eggs were packed into the wrong box.

I've seen egg swapping also. In Asda though. But it was free range for caged.

I can't get worked up about eggs.

I’m an egg virgin. Have never swapped eggs when I find a broken one. I just keep opening (and closing) cartons until I find one that seems to have 12 unbroken eggs. Yes, someone’s it takes a while and now I wonder how I must look to other shoppers. I didn’t even know it was a thing to swap out eggs from other cartons. I didn’t even consider it a possibility as I’d be taking an item (although I’d be ‘swapping’ it which still seems underhanded) from a product that I wasn’t going to buy, which I guess subconsciously I feel is an ethical crime. So all that is to say that what I may be is not an egg virgin but just a regular idiot 😂

sometimes not someone’s!

I thought the same as you ! Well I never !

Agree, until this thread I had never heard of anyone swapping out smaller eggs for larger ones. Learn something new everyday I suppose.

I'm another one who has never heard of this happening before, I've also always assumed when the checkout staff check the egg carton they have been checking the eggs aren't smashed rather than checking to see if any have been swapped!

Although I'd say most of the time they don't check, so maybe that's how people get away with it because surely it wouldn't be worth doing as they'd get caught every time!

Not always. I've seen the Pickers in my local Sainsbury's.

I never knew this!

This, we shouldn't be buying large eggs at all.

God, that's what I thought they opened my egg boxes for as well!
Now I know otherwise. They aren't being nice, they must just think I'm shifty 😂