to give dd food before paying for it?

[cantsleep]

Went to shops today with dcs. Dd was a bit tired and hungry and I wanted to get in and out quickly and home.

She was very hungry and has health issues and needed to eat that minute so I picked something up and let her have it. I have not done this before but couldn't have gone and paid then given it to her and continued shopping as she needed to eat straight away. Usually I have a snack in my bag for her but she had already had that one and I was going to buy more snack bits for her from the shops to replenish the ones I carry for her.

I noticed that a shop assistant was watching us intently and kept seeing her as we went round the shop.

When we got to the till I took the packet off dd for the man to scan and gave it back to her. As we were leaving the member of staff who had been watching approached us with a security guard and asked had we paid for what dd had eaten round the shop. I replied yes we had but she asked to check the receipt which obviously was fine.

She then told me that in future we HAD to pay for food before consuming it. I explained to her that it was a one off as I had run out of snacks I usually carry and dd needed to eat immediately but the security guard said food has to be paid for first.

It wasn't like I do this all the time and tbh as long as the food is paid for does it really matter?

WIBU to have let dd eat her snack before we had paid for it?

Oy!
Hang on a minute!

Now the rudeness and peculiar doggedness I can let wash over me. It's all in fun and I don't expect for everyone to agree. I am totally ok with ppl disagreeing with me.
But "freeloader" "gluttony" and the insinuation of poor parenting are too far.
Nobody here is advocating not paying for the small amount of food their DCs might eat during a shopping trip.
Do feel free to leave the thread and take your "smug perfect aren't" badge with you.

arent
Bloody hell
parent obviously! Doh!

Happy grazing poppingin1

I don't think this is remotely complicated.

The contract you agree to when you enter a supermarket is gather, pay, then eat. If you deviate from that script then they're within their rights to object.

They might be more pragmatic - and it sounds like lots of individual managers are more tolerant or sympathetic - but they really don't have to be, so you can't exactly complain if they tell you off or make you feel small.

If you somehow got locked into the supermarket overnight you would be reasonable to eat quite a bit without handing over any cash!

"Of course the stock is a priority"

Priority means the thing you put first which in my book should be the customer .... reminds me of the old saying "The customer is always right" by which many a good shop has been run successfully I'm sure.

I think shops should do more to look after their customers. Maybe this is an area they could explore more creatively.

right, a Grazing Thief should be a cocktail that's a bit like milkshake but with chunky fruit to graze on.
I imagine a mix of coconut rum and almond liquor as base. topped with a cherry and garnished with mint.

oh and the Baby Grazer is alcohol free of course!

Cheers!

Maybe you can't complain, but if a supermarket employee was petty and stupid enough to try and make me feel bad, they wouldn't be seeing my money again.

Supermarkets aren't doing us a favour you know, we are the customers! We buy the products, generate the profit, pay the wages. We're not an inconvenience. Shopping with a child can be quite shit, and if I give mine something to eat to make the experience more bearable, then supermarkets should actually supporting that rather then cutting their noses off to spite their faces and telling me off. Actually if a manager did tell me off I wouldnt feel bad in the slightest, I'd think they were a bit thick and hadn't really managed to grasp the basics of customer based businesses.

I can't help but think 'chav' when I see someone eating something they haven't yet paid for.

If someone has diabetes or is feeling faint that's a different matter but very often it's the former.

Cheers.
(I'll have to have the baby grazer - feeding dd. sorry)

24 pages before 'chav' was used!

Doing well MN. I expected it alot sooner.

Chavvy, lazy, entitled freeloaders!

Piss poor parents

Always....how do you know they haven't been to self-serve and bought said item first?

AKA customers !

SP don't forget scoffing.

I wonder what a chav 2 year old looks like.

although it's true. all kids are freeloaders!

Lazy, entitled, face stuffing, freeloading chavs

Fair point zing my 2yo never puts his hand in his pocket
(apart from to check his pebble collection)

If I ever eat something in the supermarket it I gently nibble it in a delicate manner.

Inneedof. I guess it may be your shops policy, but it isn't EVERY shops policy. We have never been stopped once, and have actually spoken to the manager whilst one of our little ones was eating some raisins we had yet to pay for.

We ALWAYS pay for anything we have, so calling us a freeloader is just rude. I guess you have some fantastic customer service skills if that is the contempt you have for your customers.

How the fuck is this debate still going on.

I'm going to do this every time I go to the supermarket from now on. I let the kids do it and sometimes if I'm very hungover thirsty I open a bottle of water. From now on, just to enrage people, I'm going to make bolder, and bolder choices until I'm unwrapping dinner ware and knives and forks to eat with.

Thinking about it, at Tesco Extra, I could probably sit down at one of the display garden furniture sets and have a full on picnic with cutlery and a bottle of Sauvingon Blanc. Then just take all the wrappings to the check out and pay for it all.

Let the frothy seethers have something to talk about.

tweasels I don't know what this thread is now, but i don't think it's a debate anymore....

I just want to think up new cocktails now. like Frozen Bra or Tiger Pants or Red Mist.

question: should a stolen sandwich be renamed as a FreeWidge or a StealWidge?

Tweasels. Please let me know where and when. I think I might join you lol.

"Tabulahrasa. It is about intent. You do not intend to permanently deprive the shop owner. Just like when you go to a restaurant. Or just like when you fill up with petrol and find your wallet or purse is on the table at home"

They're not the same at all, it's expected that you pay after eating in a restaurant. Most petrol stations have security systems - they already have your licence plate to phone the police if you don't return, others make you phone somebody, or leave your car until it is paid for and phone the police if you leave with it.

Supermarkets may turn a blind eye to it, because they've potentially lost one small food item (if it ended up not being paid for) but sold a whole trolley full - but that's because they choose to, they could decide to treat it as theft, because it is.

tweasels I would love to see that. Really made me smile.

"scroungewiche"

tweas count me in.

Ems widge. it's always widge.
kk