Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

or have I just had the most disastrously Mumsnetty trip to the supermarket ever?

253 replies

FannyPriceless · 07/05/2011 16:38

DD ate all the grapes before purchase. The checkout assistant actually held up the remains before scanning and said 'What is this?' in a very disapproving voice. All that was left was a plastic bag, a stalk, and few squashed half grapes.Blush

But even worse than that, I LOST my shopping list half way around. We went back to search but it was nowhere to be found. I have to admit in all honesty that it had 'nice ham' written on it!Blush

I am mortified.

OP posts:
bossyboop · 07/05/2011 18:48

love it love it love it Grin

Butterpiecrimearea · 07/05/2011 19:11

I have it drummed into my kids from a very young age not to eat/open things before they are paid for...it's really not that hard, and if you really can't manage that, which to me is a basic part of shopping, you just shop online, surely?

I'm sure most kids can manage half an hour without eating, and there is plenty to look at and chat about in a supermarket.

Just do a big monthly shop online and top up from local tiny shops. Solved. Next problem!

Butterpiecrimearea · 07/05/2011 19:18

Also, YABU for just writing "nice ham" - you should specify origin, preferred glaze and thickness of slices.

I bet you let your kids run about, and then yell obscenities and smack them, don't you OP? DON'T YOU?!?!?

Speaking of which, we should totally have a citizenship test for MN. Spelling test (exceptions made for posters who have made it a trademark), nice ham identification, recall of details of women's aid and NSPCC, and a presentation on a Friday Night topic of your choice.

florencedougal · 07/05/2011 19:22

I bet you let your kids run about, and then yell obscenities and smack them, don't you OP?

no i think she is more a Jocasta, dont do that darling type, as the darling runs riot through the shop

Butterpiecrimearea · 07/05/2011 19:26

Ooh, yes "please, darling, that makes mummy feel upset, oh, do you think that is the best thing to do sweetheart?"

Btw OP, I don't know anything about you, I mean no harm, I'm building this up from you mentioning grapes :)

Northernlurker · 07/05/2011 19:34

I think it's a bit feeble if you can't get a child around a supermarket without feeding them on the way. I just threaten mine - works beautifully Grin

GoingLoopyLou · 07/05/2011 19:35

Yabu letting your dd eat grapes that haven't been paid for, particularly because they are weighed but even if it was a barcoded item, both my dc know they can't have anything in supermarket until we have gone through checkout. It's not difficult for them to go without food for an hour max!

As for the comment about it being ok as supermarkets make enough profit, you do realise that we all pay the inflated prices because of the stealing, which is what this is?

zukiecat · 07/05/2011 19:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DilysPrice · 07/05/2011 20:03

I totally sympathise with the OP, which is why I do my supermarket shopping online.
On the rare occasions when I do venture into supermarkets I usually drink a bottle of juice or something from the shelves on my way round (and get the empty bottle scanned at the end). Fainting at the checkout is much more expensive and inconvenient for the supermarket.
In the days when DS could fit into a supermarket trolley he once worked his way through most of a living basil plant which I'd unwisely left within his reach.
Now I can't strap them into a trolley I have been known to solve the running off problem by dumping them in a corner by the till with a book each, which renders them immobile. Feel free to judge away.

As I recall from my 70s childhood it was entirely normal for kids to eat packets of crisps/ the occasional grape on the way around, so I think the posters who have decided that this is a modern symptom of the decline on Western Civilisation were living somewhere posher else.

ohnelly · 07/05/2011 20:05

Haha I once left my car keys in the grapes, realised I didn't have them and re-traced my steps (panicking) with shop security helping and there they were, in the grapes phew Blush

housemum · 07/05/2011 20:26

If you were using a Nectar card, presuming it's Sainsburys's - why didn't you weigh the grapes and put a sticker on?

Mine don't eat round the supermarket, though I was Shock when a friend I thought posher than me let her DD do just that!

My youngest two have just been biohazards in the Sainsburys. DD2 was wandering around in her Tinkerbell outfit (so delightfully conspicuous anyway) when she wet herself and left a big puddle (cleaner to the delicatessen, please). DD3 quite unexpectedly did an exorcist style vomit, luckily in the nappy rather than the produce aisle. She just stood there and said, "Mummy" then exploded. A kind customer walking past offered me a baby wipe - lovely of her, but a little ineffective as I stood with vomit running down my legs and into my boots...

Original poster
FannyPriceless · 07/05/2011 20:31

I'm afraid florence is right. I am a completely ineffective disciplinarian. Though I was aware she was eating the grapes, I just didn't know she had eaten all of them!

dilys "On the rare occasions when I do venture into supermarkets I usually drink a bottle of juice or something from the shelves on my way round..."
We know exactly what you mean!WineWink

OP posts:
DilysPrice · 07/05/2011 20:38

Iced tea was what I meant actually, but I am Grin at the idea of knocking back one of those little plastic wine glasses that you get in M&S on the way around - they could put a little holder for it on the side of the trolley for when it's been one of those days.

Himalaya · 07/05/2011 20:45

I just thought it was a funny story about weighing the stalk. Surprised at the level of moral outrage on here. supermarkets chuck out tonnes of fresh produce anyway.

Wonder if there are any supermarket researchers on here, trawling mumsnet for consumer insight. Wouldn't be surprised to see packets of 'nice ham', 'nice mince' etc turn up on the shelves.

theinet · 07/05/2011 20:56

you shouldnt be taking children who will eat food before it's paid for - its stealing. goodness knows why people bother taking their children around the supermarket - are they so disorganised?

icooksocks · 07/05/2011 20:59

I accidentaly stole some marmite once Shock. It rolled under ds2 carseat (had carseat in normal trolley-there were no special ones left) When i got to checkout I lifted it slightly to check there was nthing under there but I must have missed the marmite jar. I have to admit that when I got to my car and realised I weighed up the options and decided not to bother going back into the store and just stuffed it in a bag. It was only one of the tiny £1.49 jars though

befuzzled · 07/05/2011 21:04

The other day I gave my son an ellas kitchen fruit pot out of my bag as he was driving me insane whinging about being hungry. I made a big deal about taking it out of my bag. The security guard glared at me at every turn and the check out person looked reall dubious when she askede narkily if I needed to pay for it and I said no I bought it in with me. You can't win!

Liking the broccoli stalk thing, good idea!

VivaLeBeaver · 07/05/2011 21:13

I reckon i must have had the worst child snd grapes in a supermarket thing. When dd was 6 she chased a boy from her class into the village greengrocers (we weren't even going there ). Rugby tackled him, they both went flying into the grape stand. I had to run in and pull her off him (she was trying to kiss him), there were lots of squished grapes.

FessaEst · 07/05/2011 21:41

Love that story babydubs! Grin

Befuzzled - that's precisely why I give my DD stuff from my trolley (prepriced) as we go round, I am paranoid about bringing in stuff and then being accused of stealing. I prefer to open a new pack, keep it one side and make a big thing of handing it over at the start of scanning.

I am really Shock at the number of people on here who think it is a sign of bad parenting that you let children eat something (that you can and fully intend to pay for) on the way round. I have no desire go through the pain that would be entailed to "teach" DD that she can't have anything until the end of the shop - and I would imagine that all the staff & customers in the shop would rather I give her something to chew on, she stays in the trolley, doesn't scream and we get out of there quicker! As soon as she is developmentally able to understand the rationale, I'll do it differently.

(DD was desperate for a 'nana on the way round yesterday, so I deliberately chose a bunch in a sealed, barcoded pack, but did feel a bit anxious on presenting it to the checkout lady!)

Original poster
FannyPriceless · 07/05/2011 21:48

A £1.49 jar of marmite!Shock Now that's real theft!Wink

Assuming 15 grapes would only have cost about 20p anyway?

OP posts:
snortie · 07/05/2011 22:06

6p for a tiny 15 grape stalk! :O

honeymom · 07/05/2011 22:17

Lmao, my nan was actually banned from her local morrisons for eating grapes on the way round

TheFlyingOnion · 07/05/2011 22:33

honeymum I am Shock!

My mum once complained to the manager in Asda during a heatwave as there were people in the meat aisle who were not appropriately dressed. She couldn't concentrate on the mince Grin

madmomma · 07/05/2011 22:43

Oh fanny, I've pissed myself reading this. you and your thieving kids definitely deserve Sainsbury's taste the difference ham in my book ;)

thisisyesterday · 07/05/2011 22:54

love how it's changed from " All that was left was a plastic bag, a stalk, and few squashed half grapes."
to " It was a tiny, tiny bunch of grapes that I broke off from a larger bunch "

in a bag? with a stalk? and a few half grapes?

Sorry, but if you plan a shopping trip over lunch time then surely you would take something for your child to snack on?
It IS stealing and it IS wrong, doesn't matter how much any of you argue that it isn't.