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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

WIBU to swap the trousers

126 replies

spongebob13 · 01/09/2013 10:26

in light on another thread I was wondering if this was considered stealing ....

ds needed tracksuit bottoms and I found them in Tesco (F&F range). there were two together for something like 9 quid. One navy one and a gaudy green one. So I took two navy ones and put them on the hanger and left the gaudy green one.

I went through a normal check out not the self service one and it wasn't copped. Was that stealing?

OP posts:
BruthasTortoise · 01/09/2013 12:11

My DH is a manager in a big supermarket, he's yearly pay rise which we rely on to you know feed our children is determined by a number of performance factors including unknown waste through shop lifting or shit like some of people on this thread such as the OP have no qualms in doing. So thanks a lot for that Hmm

MurderOfGoths · 01/09/2013 12:12

Sales do seem to drive people nuts. Should say, same woman as above once she realised she couldn't trick us spotted another customer holding exactly the same item as she'd originally picked up (but 3 sizes bigger) which still had a BOGOF tag on, she then followed this poor woman around the store for the next hour looking at this jumper like she was Gollum and it was the ring. It was equal parts hysterically funny and terrifying, we weren't sure if she was going to attack the other customer!

loopyluna · 01/09/2013 14:30

I bought DD a pack of days of the week knickers! She was most disgruntled to find the Wednesday pair missing. Grrr.

Re the OP, not sure it should be classed as stealing but I wouldn't do it as it is dishonest and unfair on other shoppers. As is the baby grow thing another poster mentioned -can't see how that is any better. Why on earth, not return the pack containing only 2, and ask for a replacement, rather than messing up another pack (and effectively stealing one from that pack)? Did I totally misunderstand?!

kali110 · 01/09/2013 19:49

It is stealing. The price is for the set the shop has packaged, not mix and match. If someone took an expensive top out of the packet and put it in the cheap packet wouldn't that be stealing? There is no difference.
Bet if everyone who does it are caught i wonder if the police would say it didn't matter.

ClaraOswald · 01/09/2013 19:56

When people do this it really totally fucks up the stock file. Which results in bad results at audit/stocktake and brings a visit from head office down on us. Which will waste a whole day when you know, we could be doing stuff like customer service? Thanks for that.
It means we have to price the odds at less than half price to shift them, so we lose money when people are dishonest and swap things over.
Companies cannot take the hit- margins are growing ever smaller on items such as clothing, and price hikes will happen to cover these costs to make them profitable again. So you are screwing yourself over by doing what you do.

LadybirdsAreFab · 01/09/2013 19:57

Tiggytape - I had this recently in M&S, was overjoyed to find the £4 plimsolls in the right size for DD only to discover one was a 28 and the other a 29! Shop assistant spent ages looking for the wrongly matched shoes but couldn't find it. He said it does happen quite frequently.

BellaTheGooseIsDead · 01/09/2013 20:00

Grin at Gollum and the ring!

GhostsInSnow · 01/09/2013 20:02

"but thought feck that by the time I get ds back out and up to pay for them and then my time to leave the car park would have expired it wouldn't be worth the five quid. so I didn't go back."

My Mum is 77. I took her to Morrisons in the next town and on arriving home she realised a £2 block of Lurpack hadn't gone through the till.
The following day she spent 4 hours and 2 buses returning to the store to pay for the butter she'd 'stolen'.

Personally, I'd have gone back and paid for the slippers. As for the tracksuit, my cousin is a security guard in Tesco. Had he seen you do it then yes, you'd have been pulled over at the door and told to swap them back.

starkadder · 01/09/2013 20:03

DH does this in tesco with cream. Only the large size pots come with a plastic lid - the small ones only have a foil lid. So he always nicks a plastic lid from a large one and puts it on the small one. I disapprove (mildly).

Original poster
spongebob13 · 01/09/2013 20:12

starkadder why? does it even fit it?

I split up the petit filous and take the strawberry ones. BUT they are priced individually so I presume that's ok.

OP posts:
LunaticFringe · 01/09/2013 20:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kali110 · 01/09/2013 20:46

I dont know why im shocked at the things people do anymore

StuntGirl · 01/09/2013 20:48

Do you mean the multipack of yoghurts OP, like the ones that are say 6 joined together?

Original poster
spongebob13 · 01/09/2013 20:56

I have never seen a 4 pack of BIG (not kid size petit filous) of just strawberry. usually in 4 with 2 strawberry and 2 raspberry. some are still joined others are separate. I think they come in 4s only. they don't have a wrapper around them. I buy them for my elderly fil and ds who both only like strawberry.

OP posts:
Original poster
spongebob13 · 01/09/2013 20:56

again they are not the kid size 6 pack ones.

handled goods??? its in a feckin pot!

OP posts:
ClaraOswald · 01/09/2013 21:05

If a pack of yoghurts has been split there's the risk it could have been otherwise tampered with.

If supermarkets wanted to run a pick and mix dairy section, it would exist.

Therefore don't pick and mix the fecking yoghurts

SoupDragon · 01/09/2013 21:18

Yeah, right. I wonder what dodgy shopping practice you are going to "confess" to next Hmm

GhostsInSnow · 01/09/2013 21:22

I think OP you might come unstuck one day. As I say, I have a family member who is a guard at Tesco and the scenarios you describe are exactly what they look out for.
Yes, the main part of the job is catching people who intentionally steal, but a large part of his work is people who do the things you describe. Whilst I'm not saying for a minute you are going to be carted off in cuffs they will stop you and make you rectify the error. Get caught again and you'll be banned from store.

acrabadabra · 01/09/2013 21:31

I despair at how people justify their dishonesty and disregard for things that don't belong to them.
I have worked in retail for 20 years. Customers have changed in that time.

I regularly see people knock things on the floor, glance at it then walk away. Let their kids wipe their snotty noses on things.
When things like pants, socks, pj's etc are sold in packs they have a common barcode number and will be labelled as a 5 part set for eg. If you swap a blue for green or a size 10 for a 12 the barcodes no longer match. I have spent more hours than I care to think of in a cold and dark stockroom with boxes of loose part sets of said items, methodically and mindnumbingly, trying to match them up.

In a large store this could amount to loses of thousands of pounds come stocktake. In a large company like the one I work for it probably adds up to tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of £'s.

It is not the company directors or shareholders who pay. It's you and me in higher prices and me in getting less in my wages.

Thanks for thinking it's ok to take food from the mouths of my kids just so you can feed yours.

Anyone who thinks any of these things are ok are selfish fucking thieves and are no better than the professional shoplifters who steal to order or the junkies who nick booze and steaks to sell in the pub to feed their habits.

They should be ashamed of themselves. Cunts. The lot of them.

starkadder · 01/09/2013 21:42

Yeah, it does fit; the big pot is bigger because it's taller. Circumference is the same. But don't go getting any ideas!!

starkadder · 01/09/2013 21:45

Don't they say anything at the till if you split up the petit filous? I'd expect you to get charged twice tbh as two separate items = two separate barcodes to be scanned.

Roshbegosh · 01/09/2013 22:38

I think she swaps strawb and raspberry and there are 4 in a cardboard wrapper so the next person ends up with 4 raspberry rather than mixed which they had wanted. Trivial maybe but I agree with abracadabra about this OP.

StuntGirl · 01/09/2013 22:55

Seriously OP? Jeez, what happened to "I don't do this normally" Confused Some people.

kali110 · 02/09/2013 10:51

I actually hope these people gets caught, they deserve too

AnnaRack · 02/09/2013 11:48

That's sad abracadabra. I've been a victim of this sort of tampering - got home to find the thing isn't the size it says on the hanger, there's a part missing. Very annoying when you've had to pay for parking or bus fares, then more parking/bus fares to return the sodding things, snd hoping the shop staff will believe you when you try to exchange the goods, and hoping they've got one in the right size/colour ..... Grrrrr! So now I check everything. Shouldn't have to do this Iknow, but I've been caught out too many times and you can't expect the staff to notice (they do always check the sizes in M & S though). Rant over - glad you're seeing sense OP :)