AIBU to think I was being unreasonable in the supermarket?

[whyme2]

On our way home today we called into Tesco to buy something for tea and a box of eggs. Picture the scene, I was the only adult with four primary age children (all mine). I was holding a hand basket containing three large pizza in one hand and was keeping a hold of my wandering four year old with the other hand.

We walk down the egg/bread aisle and I ask my 7 year old DD to pick up a box of eggs from the shelf. So she carefully bends down picks up a large box, straightens up as she stands and then for some unfathomable reason drops the entire box of eggs on the floor upside down. For this act there is an audience of course of a man and a lady also shopping.
I put my basket down and pick up the egg box. Nearly every egg is broken I stand there while the lady shopper giggles helplessly and I make an effort not to cry (long day - don't ask).
Then DD says "Put it back mummy and I'll get another". I reply "I can't do that because we broke them so we should pay for them." The lady shopper whispers to me "Put them back love, Tesco can cover it."

So I did. I put the broken box back and picked up a new one myself, paid and left asap.

So WIBU? Now I think so, at the time I didn't.
I feel guilty.

What you should have done is get a fresh box and take both boxes to the til, hand the box with the broken ones to the cashier and apologise. I have done this with bread and fruit that i have accidentally squashed in my basket and i can 99% guarantee the cashier would not charge you and you would not feel guilty. I have done this more than a few times

They wouldn't have made you pay, even if they did they cannot charge the retail price anyway.

YABU not to have told anyone so it could be cleaned up.

jamie four children in a supermarket at teatime! Happens to me all the time

Appreciate I should have mentioned it to a staff member for cleaning purposed. I just all of a sudden felt guilty and harassed and wanted to escape. I didn't realise they had a policy to replace stuff although DD was n't messing around just having a clumsy moment.

In my confusion I had a vision that I had to buy and then take home all the broken eggs and my shopper would be a right mess and what would I do with them all. Funny how your mind goes off on one isn't it? Or is it just mine . . ?

My then one year reached out if the trolley seat whilst I was perusing goods in Tesco once, and smashed two £18 bottles if vodka on the floor. They wouldn't let me pay.

Yanbu but bu for not yelling a staff member.

Aw please don't worry. They would never have let you pay for them anyhow and people leave broken and half eaten things lying about in the supermarket all the time (I used to work in one) and I bet that hardly any of them even feel slightly guilty.

I smashed a bottle of wine in the car park and, when I went in to ask if I could borrow a broom to sweep up the glass, the lady at customer services said that she would send a member of staff out to clear it up AND they replaced the wine! Never expected that as I had already paid for it and taken it out of the shop and it was entirely my own clumsy fault that I dropped it.

I just love the HolyPants brigade that these threads seem to bring out! You do know, don't you, all you saying she should have paid, apologised, given herself a good whipping and knelt at the foot of the manager begging mercy - you do know you wouldn't have done any of that right? Why do some people pretend to be so damned prissy on these threads? @ the lot of yas!

Well said, Madge

- well honestly!

I once dropped a bottle of wine I had already paid for on the way out of Asda and they not only rushed to cleanit up, they actually gave me another bottle of wine.

Above and beyond.

But no you wnbu. You would be if you too the eggs out and deliberately threw them on the floor.

Btw top tip courtesy of my 12 year old dd who can be so smart sometimes - if you have a box of eggs in teh supermarket and one is broken when you check it, replace it with a whole one from another box.

36 and it never occurred to me. She will go far.

I would have told a member of staff

I have only ever broken something once and they didn't ask me to pay.

so YABU for worrying so much - it's unlikely they are scouring the CCTV for the phantom egg breaker!!

MadgeHarvey and sukiesox. Errr. Did you both read a different thread to the rest of us? Only one poster suggested the OP offer to pay. No one else did.

hmm, are you listening - manager of the co-op in gomersal 28 years ago (not that i hold a grudge or anything)
very badly stacked shelf, one bottle of wine literally comitted hari kari in front of me and they insisted i pay

The lovely young ladies in my local Costa gave me another large latte after my 2 yr old pulled the table over. Really nice.

Yabu btw.

Yes , similar to rhondajean , I dropped a jar of strawberry jam after I paid for it and the cashier just put the light on by the till , I had a new jar of jam , and the cleaners mopped up the mess , and I was amazed and pleased and embarrassed

In fact, twice now DH has lifted four packs of corona in our local tesco Express only for thr pack to fall and some of the bottles to smash, both times the staff have been more worried if he had cut himself on flying glass than anything and no suggestion of paying.

YANBU! Accidents happen and places like Tesco expect them to happen.

One of my DC's (going through terrible 2's) pulled a bottle of wine of the shelf and it smashed. I was mortified and thoroughly ashamed and did actually burst into tears. The staff were brilliant and were more concerned about us, telling me not to worry and checking my DC hadn't cut themselves.

They definitely wouldn't have charged you. You were a bit crap for putting a box of broken eggs back on the shelf, though. Your kids didn't get a great lesson there.

My daughter pushed a shopping trolley into stack of glass vases at Ikea last week, breaking about 6 of them, I was mortified but the lovely assistants told me not to worry and shooed us away from the breakages. Don't worry about it, eggs are eggs, they break YANBU Tesco would have been lovely about it too. Don't let it spil your weekend xx

I am a manager in a supermarket and was called to the till the other day, a man had put wine into his bag and it had gone right through the bottom. Only it was a bag for life from Asda another supermarket. I replaced it anyway, cos i'm nice and because his continued and happy custom is worth more than a 4.99 cava, he took the piss asking to replace the bag for life though!

They are actually very nice in these cases and they just clean up I have seen something similar happening and they do not charge you if you dropped something do not worry it is a very very minor sin

I did a small shop in Tesco one Sat with DS2 in the buggy. Stuck mist of the stuff in shopping bag hanging on the buggy as I was walking around. Got some bulky things incl 2 bottles of wine which I stuck under the buggy. Of course I completely forgot to put these through the self scanner. I didn't realise until I was home and unpacking.
I went back the following week and explained. They were lovely, thanked me for my honesty and would not let me pay. Must have been about ?30 worth of stuff. No way would they be bothered about the eggs

Why didnt my dd (2) break a jar of honey in tesco rather than a snooty shop in wales? The staff were all over me until she broke it then they looked at me like s**t on their shoe.
I paid (full price) for it and they didnt even ask how my dd's finger was after she cut it on the glass.
Customer service does still exist in some places!

Erm, DixieD I think that's theft, a whole different ball game

YANBU!

You've got enough to do with 4 children - even the evil empire of Tesco would help you out!

And to the nice lady shopper who choose to be nice, kind and helpful, which makes a lovely change

for you and a calm, relaxing evening