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AIBU?

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

946 replies

maddiemookins16mum · 24/09/2016 23:02

....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).

OP posts:
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malificent7 · 25/09/2016 09:21

Aaagggrrrr.. typos! ... phone sorry

Meadows76 · 25/09/2016 09:22

I'm still trying to work out how people even know what others are doing in the supermarket. I just go in, grab my own shit and then leave. I wouldn't notice if there was a 2 headed alien doing their weekly shop, let alone if they had opened a pork pie on the way round!

MrsDeVere · 25/09/2016 09:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

scarednoob · 25/09/2016 09:24

Does the supermarket have a sign at the door saying, "please don't nibble until you've paid"? If not, if they don't care, why should you ?

MrsDeVere · 25/09/2016 09:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Laquila · 25/09/2016 09:30

This reminds me of the thread years ago about a woman complaining that a cafe wouldn't serve her child some toast "to chomp on" because it was past their toast-serving cut-off of 12pm. If she'd said "to eat", or even just "toast" (the eating being implicit, really), I'd probably have had more sympathy.

froubylou · 25/09/2016 09:31

Our tesco is like a buffet when I take ds.

He has a piece of fruit from the 'eat it on your way around basket', usually a couple of pieces of bread from the 'try this yummy bread' board and something off the 'this is on special offer, have some' bit of the deli counter.

And if there is nothing else on offer he has a yoghurt squeezy thing and maybe a brioche or cookie.

It keeps him quiet. I pay for it at the end. And if they didn't want people munching they wouldn't put samples or free fruit out.

WhatamessIgotinto · 25/09/2016 09:33

Oh I care! Grin It doesn't affect me in any way but when I see people do it I want to grab the baguette/gingerbread man/bounty bar out of their hands and whack them squarely round the face with it. Grin I have no idea why it annoys me so much, it just does. I just can't see why anyone can't wait an extra 30 mins or so to eat something (there are exceptions of course). I have done it once when my Type 1 diabetic daughter had a hypo and I'd left her treatments in the car and I felt like a master criminal. Except I was waving the wrapper around and in my loudest voice announcing that 'we must pay for this asap!'. I made myself look deeply suspicious.

*disclaimer - I have never and would never - whack anyone round the face, least of all little Jimmy Precious who couldn't possibly wait for a treat. Halo

MissHooliesCardigan · 25/09/2016 09:34

What I love about these threads is the posters who try to claim that whatever the OP is frothing about illustrates 'what's wrong with society'.
So stop worrying about the refugee crisis, IS, the savage cuts to social care, globalisation, stagnating wages, an ever increasing gulf between the rich and the poor and concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny number of the Super Rich, women's inequality, the demonisation of the working class, our crap education system and the ticking time bomb of an ageing population.
All the ills of society could be fixed

if people stopped eating in supermarkets.
There are some genuinely intelligent and thought provoking threads on MN. This is not one of them.

GlitterGlassEye · 25/09/2016 09:35

I'd rather you gave your child a snack than listen to him moan while you shop for the sake of some principles. I wouldn't even notice. If that's your biggest gripe in life you're doing well 👏🏻.

Also don't know anyone who gets their shopping done within "minutes". Takes me about an hour, looking for good deals and meal planning. Also passes time between nursery pick up and the school run.

Why also, would you stop at a shop for a snack on the way to the supermarket? I bet everyone on here doesn't actually have a snack every single time they shop, it's pretty unplanned when the kids kick off!

CurlyhairedAssassin · 25/09/2016 09:37

"And if they didn't want people munching they wouldn't put samples or free fruit out."

Surely the samples are there to encourage you to buy a big pack of whatever it is to take home, and the free fruit is there to appease the parents who claim their child gets hungry so they need a packet of pepperami. The free fruit is probably what they can't sell because of it having too many nobbles [cynical]

TroysMammy · 25/09/2016 09:39

My exbf used to do this, once he ate something then tossed the empty packaging in a freezer he was passing, he had no intention of paying. I should have LTB there and then. I was mortified.

For every person who eats something whilst shopping and paying for the empty package on the way out there is some bastard who does what exbf did.

Noodlesoup1976 · 25/09/2016 09:39

I work on the fresh food counter in a supermarket and see this all the time. Doesn't bother me tbh. Now what does bother me is when they shove the food in their mouth just before asking for what they want and spray me with crumbs - now that's disgusting!

LikeDylanInTheMovies · 25/09/2016 09:43

For every person who eats something whilst shopping and paying for the empty package on the way out there is some bastard who does what exbf did

That's just straightforward theft, it is no different to sticking it in your coat and walking out. I have a problem with taking stuff they haven't paid for regardless of where they consume it.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 25/09/2016 09:44

"There are some genuinely intelligent and thought provoking threads on MN. This is not one of them."

And does it matter? MN consists of the full range of life experiences from the trivial to the traumatic.

Maybe choose to ignore the trivia if you are offended by the meaninglessness behind these and similar threads.

I LIKE seeing opposing opinions on trivia. Makes me realise that we're all different in our habits. Which is what makes the world interesting.

VeryBitchyRestingFace · 25/09/2016 09:47

I'd rather you gave your child a snack than listen to him moan while you shop for the sake of some principles. I wouldn't even notice. If that's your biggest gripe in life you're doing well 👏🏻.

Where are all these saintly AIBU posters who only start threads about their "biggest gripe in life"?

Hmm
AnotherUsernameBitesTheDust · 25/09/2016 09:49

I don't like my and think it encourages children to think that they can have things Now and not have to wait. I'm not disgusted or anything, just wouldn't do it with my own kids.

However, I did once start my shop and felt my period start so did a mad dash to grab some towels, then to the toilets to take one out to use.

I was in tesco and using the scan as you shop so didn't have to face a cashier with my opened packet luckily.

petitpois55 · 25/09/2016 09:50

Misshooliescardigan You'll never guess what. I can think about all those things, and I in fact frequently do, and still find people who walk around supermarkets eating food they haven't paid for pretty disgusting.
Who'd have thought itGrin

Soubriquet · 25/09/2016 09:52

I honestly can't get worked up about this

Do what you want.

Fwiw my ds CANT go around a food shop without food. He spends the entire time shrieking and screaming. At 18 months he doesn't quite understand waiting. Now I tend to go and get something, nip to self scan and pocket the receipt whilst Dh carries on shopping, but if the queue is that long, I will pay when I finish.

I'm sure people don't want to hear a baby scream and screech for an hour

DeloresJaneUmbridge · 25/09/2016 09:53

DS adores Tesco since they brought in the "help yourself to a piece of fruit" thing.

And he NEVER used to eat on the way round. I've always had a "nothing eaten until it's paid for " rule (although I don't judge anyone who differs). Tesco have ruined him Grin

Birdsgottafly · 25/09/2016 09:56

I'm a very bad Grandmother, my nearly two year GD would not be quietly pushed around Aldi, knowing that there are blueberry muffins, sitting in the bakery aisle. Until she's two and a half, she won't have to be.

I'm jealous of all of you that had supermarkets 30 years ago, we had a small Kwik save and Pioneer, then 29 years ago, we got our first Asda. I remember it because my DD was still BF and I had an assistant knocking on the door of the toilet wondering what I was doing, there was no-one waiting). We didn't have the goods that we have now and children were given Gobstoppers, penny sweets, or a smack on the legs and often spoken to in a way that would be shocking by today's standards. I didn't live in an area were fruit was easily afforded, but the green grocer was next door, so you would have already bought it.

I don't have a car and I'm either pushing someone, either in a pram or wheelchair, so I experience enough to get worked up about, in the car park and trying to cross on the provided Zebra crossing (which is largely ignored), to be bothered about someone daring to eat in a shop.

I eat in the street (discreetly), though. I can't afford to eat in a Cafe and I wonder how you avoid this, if your out all day, travelling on public transport.

This sort of outrage is about wanting to feel better than someone else, or you'd be outraged at real stuff, dangerous parking/driving. The need for a food bank collection. Homeless people as you walk about the City Centre. Shops closing down and the subsequent redundancies etc.

buckingfrolicks · 25/09/2016 09:58

I'm with OP

squiggleirl · 25/09/2016 09:59

Everyone who does it is what's wrong with Britain today -- self entitled.

Interesting. As a non-British person, the opinion of the OP was yet another example to me of what is wrong with Britain, and why I made a conscious decision to not live and work there - the continual watching and general attitude that that which is non-standard should be suppressed is indicative of the nanny-state that exists. Sometimes people should just mind their own business.

Mozfan1 · 25/09/2016 10:02

If it's not affecting you why do you care? Judge in your head all you like but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't alter your shopping experience. And of course I agree if people are littering then that is out of order. Or leaving a trail of crumbs. But that would be the same if it was food they picked up in the shop or food from home.

This is why I pay for my shopping to be delivered darling Grin

petitpois55 · 25/09/2016 10:03

If i was Boss for the day, I'd ban eating in the cinema,- well eating hot smelly food anyway.Smile It's gross, DD and I had to move recently away om a couple who were eating something that smelled so vile i was heaving.

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