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).

petitpois I totally get that you can take an interest in trivia as well as 'important' issues. My point was directed at those posters who think that eating something before you pay for it illustrates everything that's wrong with society?

I just can't get past "utter revulsion" in op.
Not sure how anyone can get such extreme emotion over something so trivial imo.

I agree with OP. It's tacky and bad manners. I think you should be sitting down when you eat.

I hate it when customers decide to eat grapes or bananas whilst they are shopping. Clearly, it would be difficult to establish how much they owe , once they arrive at the checkout so to my mind they have stolen goods. Yes ,people will argue it was only one banana or just three grapes but in the end it all adds up .

Waitrose here has a little cafe. I get a free coffee, the kids get a babycchino, we share a teacake. Kids in a good mood and not hungry! and they loooove going shopping!

Bitchyrestingface - I'm allowed to have an opinion on the actual op saying she feels utterly revulsed at something a lot of busy, harassed mums do to make their day slightly easier . Obviously we've all been unaware we're boiling someone else's piss.

I agree with the OP. It is totally unnecessary.

I don't mind it myself but I can understand others disliking it the uptight so and so's. Not to the point of utter revulsion though. Lol!

I agree actually . You often see discarded packaging in a shop. Presumably someone has eaten something and had no intention of paying! Theft.

In the likes of Tesco, they have free fruit for kids to help themselves to. World implodes.

I used to do it all the time, but self serve checkouts work on weight as well as the barcode.

I saw a man eating a banana in the queue in front of me once and wondered how the cashier would deal with it. She weighed the bunch, then took one off and weighed it on it's own without batting an eyelid, I guess it hapoens all the time.

As long as the food is paid for, I don't see the problem.

I used to let small DS eat something - usually a carrot or a pepper or a breadstick, preferably a pay-per-item rather than a pay-by-weight. I never allowed "treats" till they were paid for though.

He was foul when hungry & supermarket shopping with a small child is horrendous enough without making things worse!

So if you know your child is going to be foul when hungry, why not make sure they've eaten before you go into the supermarket?

Lady The number of little darlings, who cannot possibly wait till they get home is amusing. The poor things will dissolve if they can't nibble on a breadstick until they get home

How's it any different to eating at a cafe before paying, which is what's done 99% of the time here?

I don't do it, but wouldn't think anything of other people doing it.

I don't generally do this but my mum does (low blood sugar) so if she's walking round sainsbos she will get a Mars bar at cigarette etc counter (where they're normally near) or get a 3-4 pack, open it, eat 1 and pay for packaging at checkout till.

Would you rather she fainted in the shop?!

I don't like it either. My mum would never have let me as a child, telling me it wasn't mine till i'd paid for it and it's stuck with me. She's dead now but if i did it i'd hear her voice in my head telling me off! The only time I've done it was water on a boiling day. That was once-i'm 50.

I wouldn't find it repulsive, it's just not something that fits in with my own moral code.

Lady when DS was 2 he would go from fine & not hungry even if asked to ravenous & foul within about 2 minutes. Often I could tell & jump in, but if busy & distracted, not so much.

Mostly I had snacks in my handbag at all times, but sometimes not, or they wouldn't be what he wanted.

Once he got a bit older he was able to wait.

superflyhigh...I understand your mum's problem....but why not pay for the mars bar at the cigarette counter? or have a supply of Mars bars/glucose tabs in her bag? What would happen if she had a hypo on a motorway or something where she's not got access to a shop?

With small children, food is often the difference between getting the shopping done in peace and half an hour of full-throttle screaming.
When my PFB was little, he would demand an apple as soon as we went into the shop. If we gave him what he wanted, he would munch contentedly all the way round. If not, there would be a huge scene. I would send MrZ ahead of us to buy an apple and then give it to PFB when we had got the trolley and settled him in it. We didn't buy the apple first because we think it's disgusting not to, it was just because I was scared of being accused of stealing.

Shop online. Then you don't have to worry about seeing or doing anything uncouth. In fact you can munch on whatever you like while doing your shopping.

You don't have to worry about dirty feet in trolleys either.

I've never been to waitrose. am I missing anything? They don't have any where I live.

I haven't read the whole thread, just the first few pages but as someone who does online shopping rather than going to big supermarkets I'm surprised this is so common and even more surprised that people have children who will tolerate an hour's supermarket shop - my toddler starts complaining and demanding things after less than 5 minutes when I go into a little supermarket.

Agree OP. It's slobbish behaviour. And it's no wonder there are so many fat kids these days if they need snacks just to get round the supermarket. Shopping with small, fractious children is a pain in the arse but I used to distract mine by talking to him and getting round as quickly as I could.