People eating food they haven't paid for....

[maddiemookins16mum]

....It just really bugs me. To the point of utter revulsion.
In a supermarket, grown adults opening a pack of 4 pork pies and happily munching their way around the shop, only to toss the empty pack to be scanned as their shopping goes through. Why do people do that, have you ever, and why??? (DD had to wait until the car for her gingerbreadman biscuit from Waitrose).

I'm with you OP, another example of the sense of entitlement that some adults have and are now passing on to their children.

If I'm having a low blood sugar episode (headache, droopy, tearful, cranky) and need to get round a supermarket, I'll eat a bag of dried fruit or a bit of bread and pay for it at the check out. I often open a bottle of water / juice and pay at the check out.

Fresta. My brain doesn't work properly, it's called brain fog. So not remembering stuff is part if the disease. I make my bag as light as possible so that I'm actually able to carry it. I hardly need more weight. The most important thing for me to carry is actually salt. Yes, I do often carry a lightweight snack and a few gulps of water but being chronically ill does mean I cannot be as organised as well people. It also means I do go out with no salt sometimes.

Me too. And people have such strong physical reactions too- always heaving and retching and "boaking" (see what I did there?)

Yes, aren't we lucky not to do spontaneously evacuate the contents of our stomachs at the mere sight of a toilet brush, unlike the poor delicate creatures who populate AIBU.

And I don't fucking go out much - away from shops. Yes, that's me clubbing every weekend.

I was told to do this by an Asda employee once. My son was crying because he was hungry and at the till the cashier asked what was wrong. When I explained she said they really don't mind if you open something on the way round, especially if the child is hungry. I still haven't done it though!

Unless it's a medical emergency, then it's unacceptable, and even then I would speak to a member of staff first. Just wait until you've paid FFS. You wouldn't pop in JL and get a dress off the rack, get changed and then pay would you?!

Bertrand despite the fact that I may have fed my children in the supermarket on the odd occasion, they insist on eating pizza with a knife and fork. Weirdos. Where did I go wrong?

If people don't make a mess and pay for it when they get to the till, who cares?

Online shopping , saves all the little annoyances that in person supermarket shopping throws at us.

Try it OP.

It's not something that I'd do for various reasons, all of which have been mentioned. The main one is that people, even children, can wait 20 mins till they get through the till, so why wouldn't you? I didn't bring my children up relieving their boredom by giving them food as it's not a good message to teach.

Re: the argument that people may just be starving hungry. Well, a) an adult can simply wait (unless a medical issue) and b) with kids, I tried to avoid supermarket shopping around mealtimes when my kids were younger but if it was near lunch I gave them a snack in the car on the way to the supermarket or if we walked they had one in their pram on the way. Surely no-one takes a small child on a big supermarket shop at a time when they'll be majorly hungry?

Other reasons are that it leaves a mess for others to clean up which is bad mannered and the obvious One is eating food that needs to be weighed, that's just plain stealing in my book.

You wouldn't, say, start putting makeup on going round Boots then put the opened packs on the till.

I do think it's just that people don't want to wait these days. And too many people use food to relieve boredom, or as a habit (expecting food in the cinema, just because "it's the cinema and it's my treat and I can if I want to", despite it being straight after lunchtime and they can't possibly be hungry yet- it's just a great marketing ploy by the cinema chains to get it ingrained in people's heads that you buy their food when you go there.). experts constantly tell us these things are bad for us, and they are. People can disagree if they want and live their life how they want to, but I'm with the nutritionists on this one.

No I wouldn't eat something and not pay for it, but I occasionally let my boys pick a juice to drink whilst we are shopping, and the empty bottle/carton gets put in the trolley.

OP I don't know why you class it as disgusting, they paid for the eaten item.

It's just coded snobbery really.

It's remarkable how much time and energy women spend judging other mothers for poor parenting. Not only are these bad mothers teaching their children that you don't have to pay for things before consuming them, they're not teaching them delayed gratification, their children are fat and the mothers are disorganised and chaotic. No wonder the world is going to hell in a handcart!

I don't think I've ever seen anyone cracking open a multipack of pork pies though - I think the OP made that up.

basicbrown, yeah never. The meltdowns I mentioned dealing with were my husband's.

I have two children. Both have had meltdowns as babies and toddlers and my eldest as a preschooler. Didn't need food. I held them, sang to them, breastfed baby while walking around (because a fed in demand baby isn't old enough to learn to wait and shouldn't be expected to and it's not the same as taking unpaid food) made sure they were fed food before we went shopping so I knew meltdowns weren't food related, and just left to make it clear that their behaviour wasn't ok and wasn't going to get them what they wanted.

Stealth mini rolls are ok-they're teetering on the edge of cake bar but they just miss the cut. I'm so pleased I've found someone else who finds them disgusting! Most people don't get it.

We tried the free fruit for children in Tesco. It did not go well. The first time I picked a banana for DS (he's 2). He wanted to hold the banana but not eat it so by the time we got home it was not in the best shape.

The second time I got him a satsuma. Not sure what you're supposed to do with the peel so I ended up with it in my pocket. He tried the first segment and told me he didn't like it. So that was another nice clean up job when we got home. Both times he was in his pushchair. I'm not sure we'd do it if he was in a trolley or walking because he'd probably make a mess. In fact it's probably more hassle than it's worth.

LikeDylan couldn't agree more. Nobody in AIBU is ever annoyed or angry, they are always 'raging' or 'livid'. And it isn't acceptable to be upset, sad or worried, you have to be 'devastated' or 'literally shaking with fear'.
On a separate note, I wonder why there is no 'couth' or 'feckful' in our language to balance out 'uncouth' and 'feckless?'

I'm guilty of this, my two toddlers hate shopping, sometimes I give them something to pacif shut them up them.

I always pay for it at the end and apologise, they usually say they'd rather have a quiet kid than one whinging/crying, makes me feel a bit better. And tbf I usually remember grab something for them from home anyway.

I've never done it though.

As long as people are paying for it I can't get to worked up about it.

You sound overly invested in this OP.

Oh god.

Did you go to morrisons yesterday too? You would have seen my toddler gnawing at the bottom of a raw brocolli. He wasn't hungry just quite likes broccoli stalks.

Stessfree trip for me. Quiet supermarket for others. Easy life and all that. I however was able to save my broccoli stalks until home without s tantrum.

Don't worry- posters on here are too socially insecure to be seen dead in Morrisons.......

As a shopper, a Waitrose shopper too , I'd rather that parents of fussy toddlers, just go ahead and let the kids munch on a breadstick than have them screaming through the supermarket.

It's their choice of course, toddlers have tantrums, and families have to food-shop at some point. However parents want to handle the situation is fine with me. But, I certainly don't look down my nose at them for pacifying their children effectively for the sake of all our comforts!

What I really find disgusting, revolting, nauseating [insert incongruous hyperbolic term of choice] is posters on anonymous fora who seize on a habit that they feel could be 'common' and then cling to this judgemental point of view through thick and thin. They ignore perfectly valid queries/calls for common sense, and are bolstered by all the other posters along theway who are similarly keen prove how prone they are to gagging at the sight of a sausage roll. On they go with their 'boak' and 'uncouth, clinging on to their argument desperately with their jamberry nails... because they are sure that, if they just keep shuddering and referring to other parents as 'entitled' just a few more times, this will prove that they are... oh, what's the word... ummm.... better than someone, somewhere. Get. A. Life.

Last week ds had half a cookie while in supermarket and when we got to till I discovered I didn't have my purse.......

Ds has worn shoes out of shop whilst I paid using the tag from the shoe.

And (this one will be the slam dunk) ds has eaten a mini pork pie in a supermarket before paying for it.

I am scum, so much so that Channel 5 want to make a documentary about me to make people feel better about their own lives.

They haven't tried the salt and pepper tiger bloomer then obviously

How I don't start eating that before the checkout I don't know.

I've never done it because nothing would keep ds quiet in a supermarket and food would just get thrown but if it works for others I don't see the problem with it.